Ep. 147: Marketing vs. Sales Activities
If you consistently market but aren’t getting consistent sales it might be because you aren’t adding in enough sales activities.
When you’re a solo-entrepreneur or have a small team you’re often doing these in tandem and the lines can blur.
Plus, in our “content-centric” online spaces it can seem like the answer is to simply post and wait for people to flock to you.
Yes, your content can convert on it’s own, but if you’re a service-provider, consultant, or coach who works directly with clients it’s really important to add sales activities into the mix.
That’s why I’m breaking down the difference between sales and marketing activities this week and giving you several examples to choose from.
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This week's episode of the podcast was inspired by people on Instagram who had seen a. Uh, reel that I had posted recently talking about sales versus marketing and that it, you know, sometimes if you're, uh, if things feel imbalanced, if you feel like you're marketing all the time, but it's not actually leading to sales, it could be because you're not doing enough sales activities.
And I got a lot of great response and people said it was really helpful. And I was like, oh, you know, would you want me to do a podcast? Going more into detail to give some examples. And they were like, yes, yes, please. So here we are. So a lot of times, you know, the people who I work with are, they they're marketing a lot.
Right. Or at least they feel like they're marketing a lot. They feel like they're doing a lot of different things to try to get more clients, but then they're like, yeah, it's, it's still not like working right. Something is wrong here. And, uh, When I was thinking about it, I was like, oh, you know, like, like sort of thinking about, I don't know, something, something sparked me to make that real.
I don't even remember what it was. It was very like impromptu. It wasn't in the plan, but I was like, oh, you know, it's because, uh, like one of the issues is, is that when we work for ourselves, like, you know what, it's just us in our business. Or we have small teams. A lot of times sales and marketing is really fluid, right?
So if it's a big corporation, you have like the marketing team and then you have the sales team. Right. And they might collaborate on things, but they are separate, but usually it's just us, right. It's just us, uh, or with a little bit of help that are doing both marketing and sales. And so a lot of times marketing and sales happen.
Really in tandem or like one right after the other. Uh, and I, even though, you know, people know me as like Erica helps you sell, like helps you sell more of your stuff, helps you make more, um, money in regards to being able to, you know, sell more of your stuff or sell like a new type of offer or to a new type of client, things like that.
A lot of what I'm doing when I'm creating strategies or when I'm coaching. It has to do with, uh, the intersection of sales and marketing, because the reality is, is that you can have too much of one and not enough of the other. And it be really lopsided and still not. Serve you, right? So not lead to actual clients that you are getting right.
And revenue growth that you were seeing. So a perfect example of this is one of my clients. Uh, she is amazing. Love her to bits she's she does, um, marketing strategy and coaching, and she's fantastic at it. And, you know, has tons of. And one thing she said about working with me is that I make selling so easy and so natural that it doesn't feel like selling.
Right. And so in our work together, she was realizing like, she was like, I know my, I know marketing. Right. But like, what is going on here? And it was really that like, oh, she is marketing, but she's accidentally missing sales activities. And this is something that I just. It feels so natural to me because I've been doing it for so long that I often overlook it myself.
And I often, um, do not like separate them out because I'm like, oh, you know, they just, they just go hand in hand. Right. So I actually want to separate them out this time so that you can kind of see the difference and why they matter. So when thinking about marketing versus sales, I think of marketing as.
Um, marketing our marketing activities are the activities that allow people to know about you and what you do. Right? So marketing gets you in front of people and sales activities. Move them into a process of actually working with you of actually investing in. So one of the primary ways, you know, when we think about mark of marketing, we think about content marketing, right?
Like social media, uh, especially certain platforms are so heavily like content driven. Right? And so there is all of this sort of like pressure. I feel like this. Like wait on us to be these content creation machines, right. Creating content all the time, creating like really good content, all of this stuff.
And so we spend a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of time in thinking about content, right. And what we are overlooking when we are thinking about content is like, Okay, well from the content, like how do we then get more of the people who are seeing our content or engaging with our content into some sort of relationship with us that then can become potentially a paid relationship?
Right? So content is a big part of marketing and this can be like long form content, like podcasts, blogs, blogs, et cetera, or short form content, like what you would see on social. Marketing can also be doing things like collaborations or, um, self hosted trainings. Right. So you might do a self hosted training, a webinar, a workshop, you know, something along those lines.
Um, or you might collaborate with somebody else, right. So you might do. A joint workshop or a training, they might host you as part of, you know, maybe they run a membership and they have you come in and they host you to teach about the thing that you do, right. That you can speak on. So that would be a type of collaboration.
You might do, like an IgG live together, something like that. Right? All, all different types of collaborations. I think that, and under that umbrella, there could also be like speaking gigs and, um, guesting on other people's podcasts or blogs, you know, writing guest, blog posts, things like that. Um, then there would also be networking, right?
So this is either like more formal networking. Like you're actually going to a networking event. You're doing like a virtual. Like business owner, like speed networking, kind of a thing, or, um, you know, within your niche, like maybe it's like networking inside of your industry, stuff like that. So all different kinds of more formal networking, and there's the informal networking that you might be doing in a free Facebook group, a paid Facebook group, a paid Facebook community, you know, a mastermind, a group coaching program.
Things, things like that, where you are forming relationships with people or you're connecting with people in those spaces. Um, and then also like, let's say you have a Facebook group, right? So you might be putting out your content in like a private, or like a closed Facebook group that people can join.
And in there you are doing marketing, right? So they, they are, they're, they're sort of like a captive audience to what you're putting out and you are marketing various things to them. So sales is again, we're inviting them into a deeper connection with you, right? So in your content, uh, there's obviously, you know, I know you're familiar with CTS calls to action, right?
So depending on what you're doing, your calls to action can be different and they don't always have to be. Related, right. So a call to action could be that you are talking about a free. Downloadable piece of content that you have to be a PDF, could be a free training, something, or like a free training, like a prerecorded free training, anything like that, um, that people can just sort of access on demand.
Right? Sort of like your opt in your freebie, uh, any, anything that you already have. And then, so your call to action can be, Hey, go check this out, go download this thing. And then on the backend through your nurture sequence, your automated email sequence, it can move people into a sale with you, right? So you can, you can talk about different things in what they're gonna, you know, what they're learning about in that PDF, in that download in that training, whatever it is.
And then eventually you can, uh, tell them like, Hey, you know, if you, if you love this and you want to learn more, you can, you know, purchase this. Mini course, or you can hop on a sales call with me, whatever the thing is that makes sense for your business. Or you can have a content piece where you're like, Hey, if you want to learn more book a call with me here.
Right? You could do that in a blog. You can do that on your social media. I always have things at the top of every podcast episode. That are like, Hey, if you know, if you want to learn more about this thing, here's how you can go check that out. Here's the call to action. Um, and even though my Facebook group doesn't exist anymore, I have, you know, and I still need to redo my outro, but my outro talks about the, gives the URL to the Facebook group.
I used to have, which if you go to that page, it just tells you other ways to stay connected with me. Right. So it's moving you into another type of relationship with me there. Also on social media is a sales activity is engaging deeply with your, the people who are commenting, um, and also going out to find new people.
Right? So what I mean by engaging deeply with people who are commenting is that for the people who are seeing yourself, like you can just say like, thanks, or, you know, I'm glad you liked it, or whatever on the thing, like under their comment, but you can also go. Who look at their profile, who are they? What do they do?
All of that? Like, do they have stories up, go look at their stories, go interact with their stories. Like, if it makes sense, right. Go look at their posts, go engage with their posts. Right. They have taken the time to check you out. So why don't you go back and check them out? Of course, there's always going to be bots.
Of course. There's always gonna be people who are like, you know, probably not ideal clients and stuff, but. Yeah. Like don't just leave people hanging. Right. If they're engaging with you, go engage with them and then also go out and find your people. Right. So get, get in front of them. Don't, don't wait around for them to find you and engage with your content.
Think about right. Like if, you know, if you have, um, somebody who you. Follow that is like, maybe like one of your, um, uh, like a client you've worked with or something. And you see other people that are engaging with them on their content, those people, depending on what you do, and depending on what they do.
Uh, those people might also be great ideal clients for you or connections or collaborators or anything like that. Right. So in thinking about, oh, who are the people who I really love to be connected with, who I've loved to collaborate with, who, um, who have been amazing clients, like, see if you could, if you can go out and find those people and just start organically connecting with them.
So this doesn't mean. Find them friend request them and immediately start pitching them. That's not it at all. I mean, actually go and like be an authentic human and, and, you know, strike up a conversation or just like engage, engage with them, learn more about them. And, uh, I mean, this is how I've met some of my best online friends.
Through organically connecting with them. Uh, if you have people who are, you know, on those trainings, those things that you are doing, those collaborations like with other people or your own trainings reaching out after to the people who attended or were engaged, right. Somebody is watching your IGF. You know, jot down who is there and then go think them after for being there and watching, because there's a million things that people could be doing other than watching your IgE lives.
So go and thank them, right. If you are doing, uh, you know, a presentation and somebody was really resonating with it, like absolutely go. Reach out after and be like, Hey, you know, thank you. Uh, if you have any other questions, are there any other resources that I could get you? Like, cause maybe you have blog posts or podcasts episodes or whatever, where you are breaking something down for somebody.
And they say like, oh yeah, I would, you know, I would love to like, learn more about this and you're like, oh cool. I have a resource on that. Hang on. Let me go grab the link for you. That's a way to be helpful without being salesy, but you're also like furthering the relationship with the person. Um, if you are networking, you can then invite people to a coffee chat, right?
So if you, uh, this is actually on my to-do list for today. There are multiple people who I've been vibing with on Instagram. Or in communities that I'm in, where I'm like, oh, you know what? Like I have some more room in my schedule now and we already have a connection, uh, digitally. So I would love to send them my link to book into my calendar for a coffee chat.
To me, that would be really fun. Now this doesn't mean I'm going to use the coffee chat as a sneaky way to sell them on something. But what happens when you are deepening? The connection is that you never know when that person, like, if you have the coffee chat with that person, I, that I'll actually use an example, had a coffee chat with, um, an amazing human several months ago.
This was like back in the fall. And it was so fun. We stayed on like twice as long as we were scheduled for. It was so awesome. And I loved it. Um, and then. Maybe a month or so after our coffee chat, I got a sales call booked in from a woman who knows her and who was looking for somebody who does what I do.
So now this other woman is my client. But she was able to become my client because the woman, I had the coffee chat with referred her to me and the woman that I had, the coffee chat with has never like, she hasn't been my client. Right. So this is how it all, w like all those roads, all these things, I'm talking about, how they can lead back to sales.
It's not about just getting somebody on your calendar. To do like a bait and switch. It's about like, how do you deepen the connection? How do you learn how to be mutually beneficial to each other and go from there? Um, and then let's say you have the Facebook group, right? So, uh, when new people join, reaching out personally to them, like, yes, you can have those entrance questions and you can collect really good.
Information that will help you with your marketing and whatnot and your sales process, but actually reaching out to new people and saying like, Hey, I'm glad you're here. Thanks for being here. You can do this too. Like on, um, other, you know, like on Instagram or wherever that you're marketing, like when people start to follow you, you can reach out and just be like, Hey, thanks for following me.
Right. Uh, there are all sorts of ways to actually connect human. To human. So I hope that this gives you a better sense of the difference between sales activities versus marketing activities. And if you're feeling like, oh my God, I am marketing nonstop. I feel like I'm everywhere. I feel like I'm constantly thinking about content rather than stressing about that for now.
Think about, okay, how can I move from content wherever I'm showing up and delivering that content. How can I move more into connection? Right? How can I bring people? How can I invite people into a deeper relationship with me? And I am telling you this will change the game for you.
