Sales or Marketing: Where Does the Smart Money Go First?

Sales or Marketing: Where Does the Smart Money Go First?

We're tackling a question every growth-focused business wrestles with. Should you invest in sales or marketing first? It's a decision that can shape your path to success or stall your momentum. So I'm going to explore when it makes sense to prioritize sales, when marketing should lead the way, and how to align these efforts for maximum impact. Let's uncover where the smart money should be invested first.

I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in today.

Man, I'm excited to talk about this because it comes up all the time, but I don't see a lot of people talking about it. And investing in sales before marketing can be a really nuanced topic. I talk to businesses every week that are struggling with this, and unfortunately, many of them make the wrong decision, and it stalls growth. So let's dig into this.

The Customer Journey

The first place I want to start on this topic is by talking about the customer journey, because it's really important to understand the customer journey to determine where you're at and where it's going to make the most sense. So I'm going to share my screen for those of you that are watching. For those of you that are listening, I'll still talk you through it. I love the concept of looking at the customer journey as the marketing hourglass. This was popularized by John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing. It is super simple. We're all familiar with an hourglass where the sand starts at the top and works its way down. And there are seven phases of the customer journey within the hourglass. So at the top of the hour glass, you're starting at the top and you work your way down and you have the first step is know, like, trust. Then try, buy, repeat, and refer. We all know that we do business with people we know, like, and trust. So the marketing phase, the real heavy marketing phase of this hour glass is that know, like, and trust. Then we move to try and buy. Try, How can they try what it's like to work with you before they buy? And then buy. Try and buy are sales phases of the customer journey. And then those last phases, once they start to buy, then it's how are we going to continue to do repeat business with them? And how are we going to generate referrals from that relationship? The repeat and refer side are much more heavily focused on customer service, account management. There are three distinct phases with it... There are three distinct departments that are relevant in the customer journey. You have marketing first, then you have sales, then you have account management and customer service. Really, really important to keep this in mind as you look at, Man, do I need to focus on marketing or sales? So I hope that that helps.

Why Investing in Sales First Makes Sense

So let's dig into this. When investing in sales first makes sense? When does it make sense to invest in sales first. There are a few things to keep in mind here when you look at this.

One, what's existing demand look like? If you have a business that's in a market with incredibly high demand where leads are just naturally flowing in, which, by the way, is not most, and the challenge for you actually lies in converting these leads effectively, then it makes perfect sense to invest in sales first. You don't have a lead generation problem. You have plenty of leads already coming in with what you're doing. If that's the case, it makes perfect sense. To invest in sales first. I would say very few businesses are in this position, very few. But if you've got a product or service where word of mouth is just absolutely crazy or there's some proprietary edge, it's trending and so the demand is just incredibly high, well, then absolutely, you should invest in sales first. Okay.

Next one is early stage businesses. There are times where startups with very limited budgets may prioritize sales to generate immediate revenue to sustain operations. Marketing at this stage might consist of scrappy low cost tactics. The thing you need to be... This is a double-edged sword here because the biggest challenge I see when people invest in sales first and they're not They don't have leads already coming in, their marketing is not already working for them, is there are critical aspects of marketing that they haven't spent time on that impact their ability to sell.

Two things to keep in mind here. If you're in this space, early stage, and you've got a limited budget and you feel like you need to go with sales first, you have got to have your ideal clients really nailed down, you need to understand who they are very clearly, and you need to have a strong message that's already been proven to work. If you have those two things, then jump nothing to sales directly would make sense for you. But if you do not have those two things nailed down, I think investing in sales first is a really big mistake.

Next place where it might make sense to invest in sales first is a transactional sales model, right? When the sales cycle is very short, right? And you're relying more on volume than actually nurturing relationships. That's a case where it could make sense.

Last case where it could make sense or one of the most, I'm covering the most common cases here, okay? The last most common case is you already have proven marketing strategy is already have proven marketing strategy is already in place. Okay, what you're doing from a marketing standpoint is already working. You've already built sufficient awareness and lead generation, but the sales process struggles to close those deals. If you're struggling to close the deals and you're bringing in enough potential deals, well, then that's a case where it makes perfect sense to invest in sales, to make sure that your sales efforts are closing at a higher rate. Again, you don't have a marketing problem. You don't have a lead generation problem. It makes perfect sense. Those are the most common cases where investing in sales first makes sense.

Why Investing in Marketing First Makes Sense

What about the opposite? When investing in sales first doesn't make sense. What are the most common cases there? Let's dig into it.

So first case is you have a lack of awareness or leads. Without marketing to drive that awareness and generate leads, sales teams may have no one to sell to. Or they're more proactively jumping, making outbound calls cold. But if you think What about the customer journey again? If you don't have marketing generating people that know, like, and trust you, the sales process is incredibly difficult. So the last thing we want to do is have your sales teams just wasting time prospecting instead of closing. So if you're not already bringing in enough leads, I think you're much better off focusing on marketing first then addressing sales.

Second case, if you've got complex buyer's journeys, in industries like B2B services or technology, the buyer's Journey requires nurturing, education, trust building, which marketing supports. So if you don't have marketing supporting that already, your sales efforts, I think, are going to be very, very challenging. And it's going to make what is often a very long sales cycle even longer.

Next case, competitive markets. Frankly, who's not in a competitive market? But if your competitors are leveraging strong marketing to educate and capture prospects earlier in the buyer's journey, skipping marketing may leave your business out of contention. So if you're in a very competitive market and a lot of your competitors are actively marketing, odds are very high that you're going to need marketing to take advantage of that and stay competitive in the market.

Last case is strategy misalignment. If your sales team is hired but lacks clarity or tools for messaging, for targeting, this goes back to what I just touched on earlier. If you don't know who you're targeting and you don't have a strong message, you're not differentiated, their efforts can be inefficient and costly. You have got to have strategy in place before you invest in sales first. I see strategy as a key marketing component. So don't even think about investing in sales first. If you do not know who your ideal clients are, what market are you targeting and who are the ideal clients within that market, and what are you going to say to them? If you do not have those two things in place and you are investing in sales first, which this is one of the most common scenarios I see. Big, big mistake. You're going to waste a lot of time and effort on sales that's just not going to be effective.

Strategic Considerations

So now I've broken these down. We've talked about when investing in sales first makes sense, when investing in sales first does not make sense. I want to touch on, to wrap things up, I want to touch on a few strategic considerations.

So with strategic considerations, right? First thing we want to think about is that synergy, right? That alignment between marketing and sales. To me, it's not about choosing one over the other, but ensuring that they are in alignment, that they are working together. When sales and marketing are working together, marketing is better and sales is better. You're better together. I don't think this is a question of marketing or sales. Long term, you need both to be effective. So marketing feeds leads to sales, while sales provides feedback to refine marketing efforts. They go together, they go hand and hand.

Next thing to think about from a strategic standpoint is building a sustainable pipeline. Marketing builds awareness and demand over the long term. Takes time. It is an investment. It's a lot of work, but it builds awareness and creates demand, which creates a steady flow of leads for sales teams to convert.

The last thing that I could think about from a strategic standpoint is cost efficiency. Sales efforts often cost more per lead compared to scalable marketing strategies that target specific audiences. I think, again, long term, you're better off having alignment between sales and marketing and having both. I understand that there may be times where you need to choose between one or the other. And if you do, based on what I've shared with you today, make sure you're making the right decision. And then when you're ready, then you can invest in the other and make sure that you've got synergy between the two. Because companies are much better in the long run when they have both sales and marketing working hand in hand.

Conclusion

So if you're struggling with where to invest first, use these suggestions that I've touched on today to really hone in on what makes the most sense for you based on where you are and where you want to get. Better yet, you want to jump on a quick call? Feel free to reach out, rialtomarketing.com. Book a free discovery call with me and be happy to chat with you. The other tool that we've also got for you is over at RevenueRoadblockScorecard.com. When we work with clients, we help them remove the nine common revenue roadblocks with marketing and creating a marketing engine that yields consistent repeatable results. If you want to know which of the nine are slowing down your growth, that's where you can do it. Takes less than five minutes, tons of value there, so take advantage of it. Other than that, thank you for taking the time to listen or watch. I hope you got a ton of value from this. And until next time, take care.