Sales & PR: Who's "In The Know"?

It's always the other guy's fault.

I was playing marketing P.I. -- sales had slumped and my new client wasn't sure of the culprit. Distributors said they felt no support from the manufacturer. The manufacturer claimed they were almost overdoing marketing: ads, PR, direct mail and more -- so, the distributors must be slacking. Something or someone was suspect.

Then I realized they both were right. My client did lots of marketing. But most of it wasn't on target. And the distributors weren't "in the know". They'd never been sent copies of ads, PR or direct mailers. So the distributors felt neglected and -- consciously or not -- weren't pushing my client's products.

I developed new, on-target marketing campaigns. We sent monthly marketing update packets to distributors. The new marketing excited them. Many sales reps even took magazine ads and news releases within them on sales calls. And, best of all, sales increased. Mystery solved. Case Closed.

- Phil Sasso