In the first article of the series, Four Steps To Better Sales And Marketing Results – Step One, I wrote about the power of having a plan; a reliable, accurate road map to help you and your team succeed in achieving clear goals and better sales and marketing results.
The second crucial discipline or step when embarking on a new sales and marketing campaign is all about your identifying your Pathfinder. In short, a Pathfinder is the person who leads your sales and marketing team. This could be you or someone already on the team who is encouraging you all to stay aligned, focused and performing well together. If not, perhaps it’s time to hire someone who has a track record of leading successful sales and marketing organizations.
Larger organizations can afford to hire directly the sales and marketing talent they need to get the job done. There is simply too much responsibility, people, systems and detail for a single person to be the Pathfinder for a large organization. Also, the median salary for a VP of Sales and a VP of Marketing is approximately $140,000 USD according to reports I viewed at Salary.com a while ago.
Small businesses can’t afford to hire serious Pathfinders. They can engage consultants, advisers and independent contractors at a fraction of the cost. As with the team at Conversion Marketing Experts, our consultants and advisers have sufficient background, experience and talent to drive sales and marketing in a holistic, integrated, systematic way. Our focus has been companies between $1 million and $30 million in sales or revenue. Many in this sweet spot choose not to pay the big money for direct hire sales and marketing Pathfinders until they can justify the direct investment and costs.
Whether large or an emerging company, every successful organization is lead by inspired people. People who lead are Pathfinders. These are people we can almost describe as “enlightened.” There is something magnetic about them. They stand out in almost any crowd. We follow them because they know the way. True Pathfinders keep their group together, aligned and safe all the way to the destination.
Pathfinders appear to help us fulfill our purpose; the mission. We all have a unique path to walk. In the context of building a sales and marketing plan of action to include everyone on your team, it is important to align with someone you trust, an experienced leader and walk the same path together. Each person on the team is essential for the success of the journey. Therefore, they must know their own path, as well. This is the art of alignment.
Pathfinders find the way for us. This may seem obvious. Sometimes we may not know we are lost on our journey. We continue nonetheless. In the context of growing any business or organization, not having a Pathfinder when we are lost proves to be a costly mistake when it comes to sales and marketing investments. Have you ever been upset you lost money on a marketing campaign or sales hire that didn’t work out? We all know the feeling.
The only useful Pathfinder is someone who has found their own path. This is how they know the way and are capable of leading us. They walk the walk. All Pathfinders have maps that they reference regularly even though the know the way in most cases. Without these tools any expedition or team is almost certain to fail.
Your organization may have one or more Pathfinders leading the sales and marketing team already. If not, perhaps it is time to find this person. Consider with caution the path of finding, recruiting, assessing, interviewing, hiring, training and coaching any direct hire. Same with a consultant or adviser. Seek to attract the best talent your money can buy to help drive your sales and marketing action planning and results to a whole new level.
Take action now …
Identify and designate a Pathfinder to lead your team through the process of building and leading a high-performance sales and marketing team.
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To your success and happiness.