A short story…
The last “real” job I had started in the marketing department of a company that published and sold IT training videos on the internet.
(This was my first and last “real” marketing job before going out on my own as a highly-celebrated marketing consultant.)
The previous marketing guy had moved up to president of the company, and I’d come in behind him as a marketing grunt.
I wasn’t there for more than a few months, and they realized I could do more than grunt work. I’d basically taken over all marketing functions — under the guidance and tutelage, of course, of “El Presidente.” (He remains a good friend and mentor to this day.)
Over the next couple years, we more than doubled the company. We landed them a spot on Inc. Magazine’s 500|5000 list of America’s fastest-growing small businesses.
My marketing was generating a solid six-figures every month in revenue — both direct revenue generated without a whisper from the sales team, and leads that came in through phone, email, and the occasional face-to-face contact at trade shows.
I was, in short, kicking butt — with trackable numbers to prove it.
But I had a bit of a problem there.
The owner (NOT the president) had a limited view of the value of marketing. Despite the fact that I had — from the beginning — come in as a results-oriented marketer… And despite the fact that I could show him — on his books — the enormous profit impact my marketing campaigns were having… I’d very quickly reached the ceiling of what I was going to be paid in the marketing department.
(This is a dumb mistake, by the way. If you own a company and you have a results-oriented marketer working under you who wants to be paid a “salesperson’s commission” for the results they generate… DO IT! Find a way to make it happen — and make them happy. They can provide far MORE value to you through automated marketing systems than they ever will in dealing with prospects one-to-one.)
Fine, I thought. Salespeople are paid on commission. And so, after ensuring a smooth transition to a new marketing crew, I moved to sales.
I had a good half-decade of nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes, and ear-to-phone sales experience before that. And I’d recently added another few years’ marketing experience — in this company — focused on getting sales results. This new sales role should be easy.
The first month, I focused on getting to know the ropes on the other side of the room, in the sales department. I took inbound calls from prospects, calls still being generated by marketing programs I’d helped set up. I followed up with those prospects.
And I did well.
The second month, I used some of what I’d learned in marketing. But instead of generating leads for a sales team, I was generating them for myself.
I did even better!
And the third month, I kept reaching out to prospects, plus I found other automated ways to attract the highest-value potential customers… Using much of what you learn from my articles…
And from that point forward I was among the best-performing members of the sales team (often bringing in the biggest deals) month after month after month.
The interesting thing was that I was NOT working harder than anyone else. I was NOT any more organized. I was NOT working more hours, either.
If anything — and it pains me to admit it — I was among the laziest members of the sales team!
I just knew how to do what worked (which you’ll find here). And I automated as much of it as possible, so the system was doing most of the work for me.
And the results were tremendous. By the time that third month was up, I’d managed a huge raise due to commissions being generated, and I never looked back.
If I hadn’t decided to go out on my own as a marketing consultant, that system would still be building, and generating even bigger results to this day. This approach can and does snowball.
That’s what happens when you build a proactive versus a reactive business. Your business continues to work for you, generating better and better results. That’s the power of understanding what I cover here in Breakthrough Marketing Secrets.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
