Why Sales Or Why Not Sales?

Well, most of the fledgling marketers want to start their marketing careers with lucrative pay packages and definitely with highly acclaimed work profiles like that of brand management, strategic planning, etc. Budding marketers are reluctant to do sales, even to start with.

Well, they may want high profile jobs, but then they cannot thrive in such jobs until they do justice to the work. I don't say that burgeoning marketers lack commitment to work, but then there are several steps to move up the ladder and sometimes, there aren't any shortcuts.

Sales is the function of marketing that is closest to the consumers. Once you understand consumers, you understand their buying preferences and patterns, their responsiveness to advertising, their desired value proposition, etc. Once you know all this, you can feel the pulse of consumers and give them exactly what they expect out of brands. So, to strategize and build brands, one needs to understand consumers and sales is one of the best arena where you learn that.

So, marketers shouldn't be scared of sales, rather this is the marketing domain that could lead them where they exactly want to land up.

What does a marketer do ???

What do you think the marketers do? Do they dream to achieve their targets or do they work to reach their goal? Before moving ahead in this context, let’s first learn the difference between dreams and goals. Well, dreams require effortless sleep and goals require sleepless effort.

I hope the answer to my former question is simple now.  Marketers can’t afford to dream about reaching their targets. They have to aim high and work towards their goals.

What is the reason for marketers’ existence? Well, the ultimate aim of any business is to make profit, which is directly related to sales as sales means oxygen for all organizations.  Now, how do we achieve sales? Well, a company can sell its products and services to the masses only by attracting them towards their offering, making them purchase and then retain them and compel them to repurchase.  In short, a company can achieve sales by converting customers to consumers. Now, the function of marketing is closest to consumers. As such, a marketer is the one who connect with the consumers, leading to sales.

In the current competitive scenario, consumers are very demanding, making a marketer’s job much tougher. As such, marketers must have fire in the belly, always on toes to identify and grab the upcoming opportunities, in order to reach their goal. Dreaming may catalyze the urge to reach goal, but ultimately it is the achievement of target or goal that counts for a marketer.  

Marketer or Consumer !!!

What do you think the “Marketers” are? Well, a part of answer lies in the question, that is, they are the ones who tend to serve the customers. Looking from a broader perspective, a marketer is the one who caters to consumer need and he can understand those needs only if thinks like a consumer. To find the gap in the market, a marketer has to place himself in customers’ shoes.
Well, you all must be familiar with Mattel’s BARBIE. It’s a fashion doll, manufactured by Mattel Inc. in 1959. Prior to Barbie’s birth, the dolls were the illustrations of infants. One day, Ruth Handler saw her daughter, Barbara giving adult roles to her paper dolls. Handler realized that most kids see adults as their role models and as such, there is a gap in market, wherein they can fit-in adult bodied dolls. She gave the idea to her husband, a co-founder of Mattel Inc. The doll was named after their daughter Barbara. The dolls and the idea were a great success, and till date, they rule the toy market.
The birth and success of Barbie is a lesson for all fledgling marketers like us. We have to remember the stoned fact, "Customer is the King" and we have to give them what they want. Now, the customers won’t ever come to us to tell us their needs, rather we have to identify their wants, but how do we do that? The answer to this complex problem is simple. Marketers have to think like consumers, recognize their problems and come up with solution to their problems in form of their products.