Success has many levels. The truly successful marine sales people understand this. Those with lacking sales figures seem to not have a clue and even worse don’t want a clue. Many times while talking to marine sales professionals, the first question I ask is, how’s business”? The answer is usually the same. ”Great”. The fact is, that compared to other sales professionals that person’s sales may stink. This is also true when it comes to your sales strategy or part of that strategy. I recently talked a boat dealer that told me that traditional advertising such as print and radio was used to promote a recent dealership event. He told me that because the turnout was good he considered his choice of media a success. In fact they were a success, but at what level? His newspaper ad will only attract a 55+ age group and then only about 15% (boat owners) of them. His radio purchase was only on 1 station. This station competes with 23 other local stations, 124 satellite stations, countless internet stations. While success may have been achieved, the level of success is certainly questionably. This dealer opted to use the more costly and less effective traditional marketing strategy. This strategy consist of paying the media a lot of money to “SCREAM” your message to qualified and unqualified prospects with the hopes that some small percentage will respond. If the strategy fails, the media sales rep will tell you didn’t purchase commercials or ads to attract your targeted customer. Spend more and it will work next time.

Success is only a success when a realistic goal is established, pursued and reached. The hit and hope means of marketing of the past is a dangerous way to reach your sales goals. Most truly successful sales organizations that are fixated and committed to sales goals will never use the old traditional forms for marketing such as print, radio, TV, direct mail and billboards.  Amazon, Zappo’s Shoes and Apple Computers are never seen with ads in the newspaper, on billboards or radio. These billion dollar retailers sell more and spend less by refusing to not go traditional when it comes to marketing. The antiquated forms make it impossible to set goals since their results are not only declining, but also impossible to project. This requires us to be satisfied with a forever moving level of success unlike the newer means of marketing that allows us to target our specific customer base and then track it. We email marketing you count “opens” which is the actual number of persons that opened the email and who they are.  With websites you count “clicks” which is the actual number of persons that click on and around your website and tells you what they are looking at on the site.

The “throw money at the marketing” approach from yesteryear will forever prove to have a negative impact on our sales. This approach will never give us the level of success that the new and far more effective means of marketing that many marine industry sales professionals now use. The new concepts include building a database of prospective customers with their contact information. It also includes constantly communicating with those prospects as an individual and continuing to be build a trusting, positive relationship. It’s about building a tribe of friends and followers that encourage others to do business with us. The new concept also includes the removal of “shouting” about great deals and low prices with the hopes a potential customer will react and stumble in our door. It’s about the constant interaction with the customer and prospective customer. It takes more time and far less money but it’s not immediate like traditional marketing. However it is brand building. It requires planning and execution rather than the patchwork approach of buying an advertising package because it’s a great deal. Most of all, today’s ore effective marketing method requires the sales professional’s involvement beyond placing an ad purchase. This means getting detailed contact information on prospects and past customers. It means managing those contacts by knowing the needs and desires of each prospect and reflecting that information at the appropriate time. It also means personally reaching out those contacts with useful information that gain their trust and ultimately the sale.

Claiming success when you’ve made a few sales this month or had a few customers show up at an event is in fact a level of success. But the real success comes when you set and meet specific goals due to being well planned and trained. Simply selling something is not really a success. Success is selling up to your potential. That’s the level you should plan and strive for.