When it comes to promoting or growing a business, there are certain words that people like to use interchangeably. But it’s just not right.

The confusion often begins when a person is hired for marketing services, but quickly learns that the expectation is really to make sales calls and bring in business:

“Maggie just isn’t working out. She does a great job on the newsletter, but we’re not getting any business.”

The opposite can also occur when a salesperson suddenly has marketing added to his or her job expectations. We hear:

“We need to place an ad. Tell Sam the sales guy to do that for us.”

There are certainly professionals who handle both roles in a firm — and handle it well — but it can’t be assumed that the skills and strengths for business development and marketing are interchangeable. Plus, the goals for marketing and business development can be different even if the end result is new clients. Let me try to clear this up for you.

Q: Is marketing the same as business development? 

A: No, each requires different skills and strengths.

Q: Is marketing the same as public relations? 

A: No, but they are close cousins.

Q: Should we focus on business development or sales? 

A: Both.

In an ideal world, your firm’s marketing, business development and media strategy are integrated — sharing the same messages that lead to…yes, SALES. But achieving that ideal world won’t happen if just one person is left holding all the hats. It requires effort from the entire firm. Just to get things rolling, you may even need an outside perspective.

Rather than fire or hire another marketing sales media business development web assistant director manager, let’s clear up the confusion further.

Marketing is… 

• your promise to the market, crystal clear

• your key differences, tested and validated

• your market position, solidly established

• your ideal clients, qualified and loyal

These four things come into being when marketing is done well. Marketing is not just about logos, ads, newsletters and holiday cards. If you think it’s about doing stuff, you’ll end up with a lot of scattered ideas and confused [or bored] prospects. If everyone in the firm is going off in their own directions with marketing tactics, you waste time and money for very little return.

Before we even discuss stuff, we need to find out why clients should be loyal, what sets your firm apart and what you can promise. It might seem easier to work on a new firm brochure, but then it won’t really be marketing. It will be stuff, and you won’t be certain that your stuff is much different from the other guy’s stuff.

According to strategic growth consultants L. Harris Partners (www.lharrispartners.com), professional service firms with a well-defined market position garner a higher premium fee per partner and manager than firms that compete mainly on price. These firms have clearly defined the value they deliver — and their ideal client base — and they share those marketing messages consistently in their marketing “stuff.”

Business Development is… 

• your consistent focus on generating leads

• qualifying leads as good potential clients

• your consistent focus on nurturing prospects

• converting prospects to clients

Once you know who you really are and what you stand for (through marketing strategy), then you go out and gather the people who want what you’ve got. You take your criteria for ideal clients and match it with the leads you encounter through business development tatics like trade shows, networking, social media and referrals.

You identify their pain. Then you share your market promise and key differences either in person or through your marketing stuff (brochures, newsletters, sell sheets, website content, seminars).

Because sales cycles are longer these days, you need to keep nurturing those qualified prospects with additional touches (see Rachel’s article on 14 touches, next page). Keep your marketing messages consistent, share stories of similar clients who have benefited from your service, develop relationships with others who will refer business. A lead nurturing software solution can assist in tracking the progress of your efforts and keep everyone informed on whether a prospect is just warm or is ready to buy.

Now that you see how marketing differs from business development, but is instead the foundation upon which you pursue stronger business development, let’s add another layer.

Public Relations is… 

• media strategy, planned well

• your firm’s visibility, magnified

• your thought leadership, shared

• your credibility and integrity, enhanced

Public relations is a close cousin to marketing because it requires a clear understanding of the value you bring to the market and your ideal clients. With those established, you can create messages and content to reach your ideal audience.

Ingenuity recently hosted a webinar about new media strategy and how it supports your market position (go to http://bit.ly/ INGwebinar_newmedia). By sharing the thought leadership

or knowledge from your firm in various media (e.g. pitched, paid and proactive media), you magnify your visibility, credibility and integrity in the market.

So public relations supports marketing and business development because it provides vehicles to share your message and expertise. It shares your unique story.

This is important because media vehicles and search engines are calibrated to the quality of information about companies and how it’s shared online (see article on Google Panda, page 4). Consumers are also more selective about the type of information they’ll accept or share. To reach them, your messages have to be focused, relevant and interesting.

And, say it isn’t so, but professionals can’t just be good at their jobs. They have to build an image and reputation of greatness — and deliver on that. That means a focus on clients as well as marketing, business development and media strategy.

And you thought I was only speaking to marketing and sales people. I’m talking to any professionals out there who sell what’s in their big brains. You are the marketing department. You are the sales force. You are the spokesperson.

Get ready to share the hats — and learn what you’re wearing. For any questions about how marketing ties to business development that ties to media strategy, contact us.

How many times do you have to connect with a prospective client before they’ll hire you? Marketing research and expert opinion puts that number at anywhere from five to 14 touches for 80 percent of prospective clients.

How do you manage that many touches for each prospect when you already have a full workload? Below is a timeline of 14 touches potentially occurring over six months to a year, leading to an engagement. Investment is minimal. Impact can be huge.

1. You meet your prospective client at an event and exchange cards.

2. You invite them as a connection on LinkedIn and write a short, personal note in the invitation that reminds them where you met or what you talked about.

3. They see a spectacular ad campaign for your firm in a journal they read often.

4. They read an article that your firm wrote for their association newsletter.

5. They get curious about your firm and visit your website where they read a few pages about the firm and look at your bio.

6. You look at their status updates on LinkedIn and “like” or comment on one; they see your name and your comment.

7. You post articles and news updates to your firm’s website and add a link to your LinkedIn status feed. The prospect clicks through one and visits your website for a second time.

8. This time on the website, they sign up to receive your firm’s email newsletter. Every time they receive an issue, it’s another touch. If they haven’t signed up for the newsletter at this point, you might email them a back issue with an article of interest to them and invite them to sign up.

9. They attend an event where you or someone in your firm is a featured speaker, or you invite them to an event hosted by your firm on a topic of interest to them.

10. You invite them to have a conversation with you about the event topic or questions they have after the event.

11. You have a short phone conversation about their questions.

12. You email them a resource or referral pertaining to that conversation.

13. They bring you in for a sales presentation.

14. You send a thank you email.

15. They engage your services and become a client.

If you have questions about how to consistently reach out and increase your visibility with prospects, contact Ingenuity for marketing and media strategies.