GET A PULSE ON THE DISTRIBUTION & MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY WITH THE RESULTS OF THE BP PULSE SURVEY

To participate in this year's survey, go to: www.surveymonkey.com/r/MfgDistSurvey 

Brand integrity is a measure of how buyers perceive a brand across all its touchpoints. It is the sum of an organization’s parts as calculated by the public, and it has a direct correlation with overall brand value.

This brand value translates to revenue numbers, valuations, and almost every other measuring stick that both public and private companies use to demonstrate worth to investors and shareholders.

Savvy business executives understand that sales aren’t just about selling – it is about positioning and planning to ensure long-term success. An effective sales model has always laid the framework for a go-to-market strategy across all areas of the business. However, sales models today vary substantially from their historical counterparts.

Modern businesses face more rapid change and more complex logistics than ever before, which means their sales models have to follow in stride. Traditional sales models are failing to keep pace with the number of potential buyer touchpoints that B2C and B2B businesses manage.

Today’s sales model must be strategic in nature – integrating sales, marketing, distribution, and promotional considerations.

This checklist will help you align business functions with the end goal of a strategic sales model in mind:

While sales and business development are often used interchangeably, it would be an error for these two very different jobs to be characterized in exactly the same manner. Business Development may also be used as a mask when a sales person does not want to be viewed as a sales person. Some companies will make the sales people feel more important by giving them a special title for their new business cards.

Those who focus primarily on sales and those who work in business development have unique objectives and pathways for accomplishing those objectives. Both business development consultants and salespeople are integral to the growth of a business, but the two roles should complement one another rather than being considered as interchangeable.

Here is a list of my top recommended books every leader who is responsible for growing revenue should have in their library. This list includes books focused on sales, marketing, leadership and personal development.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read. - Abraham Lincoln

What is my criteria for adding a book as a “favorite”? Such a book keeps me interested and offers a return on investment for the time. The return on the time invested to read the book might be a new idea or something that improves the business in a significant way. These books have influenced not only my business decisions, they have also offered new opportunities for personal development. 

Customers have a unique perspective in the classic sales versus marketing battle because they are what both teams are fighting over. However, instead of feeling honored that both teams want to win their favor, the battle has a high probability of turning them off and driving them away. 

Paradoxically, pulling on a customer from each side only serves to push them away from both.

CEOs are all too familiar with the struggle for dominance between sales and marketing. Yet despite being on top of the organizational chart, they are not immune from its deleterious effects. The in-fighting grates on CEOs and derails companies in much the same way that children quarreling upsets parents and sabotages harmony in a home.

Marketing teams are all too familiar with the daily sales versus marketing battle. The fight does not have to be perpetuated for it to continue raging because the stakes are highly personal for marketers. Winning means being rewarded with increased responsibility, autonomy, and recognition. These prizes not only advance marketers’ careers, they also allow them to remain passionate about their roles. An us versus them mentality permeates the culture across every variety of marketing from branding to digital. But in a marketer’s mind, the fight is hardly fair.