A question that I’m often asked is: Is it fair to link marketing to sales?

My answer is always, “Yes!”

Why?  Because otherwise what is the purpose of marketing?  Marketing’s primary role is to generate sales. However, in most cases it is not direct. The traditional role of marketing is said to be like leading a horse to water and then sales is there to make the horse drink. But, in my opinion, it’s totally valid to hold marketing accountable to the success of sales. I’ll give you an example:

Let’s say that you want to sell your product to females between the ages of 18-25, that’s your target market.  After launching your marketing program, you’re happy to see that you’ve generated a lot of leads, but unfortunately most of the leads are males in the 35-55 – that can be a problem.

You could focus on the positive and say, “Hey…the marketing is generating lots of leads!” but if you’re not making sales, or the right kind of sales, your marketing is obviously not very effective.

There could be one of two problems:

1. Either sales is not making the right sale;
2. or marketing is not targeting the right audience.

For scenario #2, if your marketing is not bringing the right customers to the watering hole, it is much harder for your salesperson to close the sale.

However, in scenario #1, if marketing is doing a good job in attracting the right audience, but sales still can’t convert the leads, then something is wrong with the sales process – or perhaps with the product itself.

Many branding and marketing books will try to tell you that there’s some secret formula to making your market feel confident in your company’s ability to deliver, but it’s really rather straight-forward.

To win confidence, you simply have to consistently deliver on what ever promise your company or brand makes. Whatever that promise is, you have to consistently be there.

A lot of companies make a lot of plans around a promise – whether it’s Domino’s promise to deliver your pizza 30 minutes or else it is free or J. Crew’s absolutely no-hassle return policy – if you don’t deliver on that promise, it’s going to cost you.

And even with customer service, as a society we have become more demanding in the quality that we expect and the minimum levels of customer service we’re willing to accept. And, as the world gets smaller with Internet communications, companies need to make pure craftsmanship of customer service.

But, it all starts with being consistent.

There’s a guy named Scott Ginsberg and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him, but he has his website called HelloMyNameIsScott.com and for the past 2,900+ days, he’s worn a nametag. Which means, he’s been wearing a nametag everyday for the past 8 years. Scott wears his nametag every single day no matter where he is going. If he’s doing laundry, he’s wearing the nametag that says, “Hello, my name is Scott”.

His story is very interesting and at some point he even got a tattoo where his nametag would be – presumably to take care of days at the beach. That’s Scott’s “thing”. There is no question that Scott is at the very center of his brand.

And, being at the center of your brand gives you a level of differentiation that’s hard for your market to ignore.

Scott happens to help companies make their brands more approachable to their markets – so it makes sense that his “calling card” would be a nametag. It works perfectly for him. He’s done a good job with that.

But, what about you? What if you’re the center of your brand and you don’t want that dynamic anymore? You’ve found yourself being the Scott Ginsberg, the Dr. Phil, the Madonna of your brand you’re sorry you developed your brand in that way.

You want to be able to take a break.  You want to sell the company.  You are’re interested anymore.  You have had a nervous breakdown. Whatever the case, you want out. What do you do?

Well, you think, “that’s tough”.  You think it’d be hard to do for the obvious reason – YOU are the brand.

Let’s look at Martha Stewart. Let’s say, for example, that she wants to sell her company. I believe she might make out BETTER than if the brand was NOT centered around her as THE brand’s personality. Look at it from a marketing standpoint: there wouldn’t be a Martha Stewart satellite radio station, cooking show, magazine, retail lines – without Martha Stewart being at the forefront.

She has also created a meaning behind the brand – well, her marketing people have. When you know something is made by Martha Stewart’s company, that means certain things – quality, fair price, equality – and those things aren’t really about her personally. It’s become what the brand means to consumers.

So, if YOU are the brand, there might not be so much to worry about. Just make sure the brand MEANS something aside from you so that when you exit, you don’t take the brand with you.