Selling: Over-The-Top Soil...

Only in America do people pay good money to buy dirt. I'm not talking about sleazy tabloids dishing out big bucks for juicy celebrity gossip -- I'm talking about plain old dirt.

And I'm humbled to say, I am now one of those Americans.

As I sit here staring out my window at a 4 foot-tall pile of screened black dirt, I'm a little embarrassed. First, because I 'm writing a tip about dirt. And second, because it's really not all I expected. Seriously. I expected MORE, both in quantity and quality.

Somehow, I thought 10 cubic yards was physically a lot more. In fact, Beth and I both initially wondered if we were cheated and got less than we paid for.

I also thought screened dirt would be SCREENED. I guess I expected the dirt to be, uh, cleaner. I didn't think there'd be any twigs or roots. Apparently, what I was expecting was what's known in the dirt business as "pulverized topsoil". But being unschooled in the fine art of dirt, I was a very uneducated customer.

I think part of the problem is that the salesperson was just an order-taker. She really didn't explain how tall or wide the pile would be or how much area it would cover. She didn't educate me on the different kinds of dirt or try to upsell me to topsoil. She didn't even try to cross-sell me on mulch or anything.

Perhaps on the phone I sound more dirt-savvy than I really am.

Maybe this company usually deals with landscapers who know exactly what they want. But, the moment I told her I wanted a truckload of dirt delivered to my house she should have began explaining my options and probing to determine my depth of knowledge.

Don't get me wrong, she was friendly and thorough. She just wasn't very well trained. This company could increase sales significantly by training the telephone representative to take an extra minute or two to explain the fine points of dirt when taking orders from homeowners. I guess you could say I was undersold because I was uneducated.

What am I going to do with all that dirt? I'm sure that will come up in a future tip…

- Phil Sasso

Marketing vs. Sales...

"Marketing spreads out the corn, by the lake, to attract the ducks. Then, Sales shoots the ducks."

-- Eli Goldratt (paraphrased)

When sales are down, marketing blames sales and sales blames marketing. There's a natural tension there.

But, all things being equal, it's both their fault.

If marketing isn't priming the pump for sales, there aren't enough leads or inquires to close. If sales isn't doing their job, the leads won't turn into sales.

But it's much more complicated than that. For instance, if marketing isn't using techniques to pre-sell and pre-qualify leads, it's wasting sales time and lowering the lead-to-close ratio. If sales isn't following up on leads fast enough, they're wasting marketing's efforts.

I think the duck hunter analogy is great. If they work together, they get the job done.

A problem I see often is sales expecting marketing to close sales for them so all they have to do is write-up the order. Good advertising can prime the pump by creating demand. A good marketing system can manage leads to qualify the best. But most sales-driven companies need a good salesperson to close the sale and manage the account.

Unfortunately both good duck hunters and people willing stand in the line of fire tossing out corn are hard to find. Getting them to work together is sometimes even harder.

- Phil Sasso