Heaptalk, Jakarta – Sales and marketing are two different business functions, yet, often people lump both terms together. Line’s Chief Commercial Officer Anchali Kardia stated once a firm embarks its journey, marketing is performed first, but this action does not imply that this category is more important than sales. In contrast, sales are a fundamental strategy designed by the founder, even prior to the entity’s establishment. The goal to carried out this action is tangible, namely, to address the investor’s question about when the firm can return the capital. For these reasons, both of these two terms are inseparable and equally crucial.
As the startup just hit the road, marketing is utilized to soar the traffic rate or user numbers, while sales should be conducted immediately after the rate is sufficient. Marketing that ignores sales will make the golden moment the entity should seize evaporates in the air. Even though the trend will be devoured by time along with the increasing number of public saturation. The condition will affect the entity’s performance as well as its future due to its growth rate being determined by earnings. Thus, Anchali voiced the optimization of marketing strategy, and sales should be done side by side based on their role to bring profit to the company.
Considering to the importance of marketing role, Anchali shared several strategies that she has applied to boost brand awareness and maintains a company’s reputation tailored to the target customers. According to her experiences, cross-promote undertaken by building partnership is one of the effective zero cost methods. As an example, during her time in Zomato, a platform for searching and discover restaurants, she built cooperation with thousand outlets by putting the Zomato banner or sticker in its partners’ places to enhance the startup’s brand awareness. In exchange, its partner obtained a pipeline to promote the restaurant to gain more consumers.
Another keyword of zero-cost marketing is optimizing content. Creating exceptional content and channeling it to social media, blogs, and e-mail can assist the firm in attracting more people. In this digital era, many startups also initiate podcasts or videos to escalate their popularity while delivering valuable information. These actions are considered impactful as they provide a new experience that is more acceptable to society. A referral program or affiliate program is also worth a try as the implementation is organically, automatically, costless, and effortless. A company does not need to pay any cost unless the affiliation generates a sale to the entity’s pocket.
Additionally, if the startup has an extra budget, it can harness paid ads as part of its marketing tactics. Several platforms offer paid ads, but the most promising channel, further, solely can be determined after experimenting.
“No one knows the most powerful marketing methods unless we experienced all of them one by one. We used to call it as trials and errors,” Anchali said in a statement.
Furthermore, in the context of sales, the startup should obviously define its business model and set the target market. In kicking start the sales, Anchali delivered some maneuvers that can be followed by startup.
First, the firms should begin with a niche market to build a case study where these activities will make them more focused on the target. A niche target enables a startup to be easier in acquiring one portfolio. Once the company gained one client, the possibility to get other clients is wide open as the client’s habit in tailing the first case study. Employing problem, agitation, and solve (PAS) strategy is another step to do to comprehend the customer’s problem, deliver agitation, and solve the issues.
Moreover, Anchali affirmed that in enhancing sales, the activity that should be performed is selling, not telling. The statement implied that a salesperson should ask and comprehend the customer’s issues and provide the solution through the firms’ product. Instead of telling a story about the firm’s product, this step is more apt to entice the client. Lastly, an ex-manager digital marketing operation Telkomsel, also emphasized the follow-up process, post sales service, remarketing, and collecting data. (WLN)
