Selecting a Marketing Agency:
3 Questions to Ask
There are many skilled individuals that perform a “marketing” function from Web Design and Logo Graphics to Social Media Outreach and Search Engine Optimization. And. there’s no shortage of agencies to choose from – many of which have won some sort of award or have a long list of case studies to share. So, there are many factors involved in finding the right agency, including overall competencies, experience in your industry, their location and team chemistry, just to name a few.
With over 25 years of Marketing, Sales and Business Development experience, we know that when it comes to small to medium sized businesses selecting a marketing agency, you will need to find a partner who is capable of, not only of engaging with customers and prospect in your market, but also driving bottom-line sales results.
We’ve found that there are three main questions that can help separate the agencies who truly understand how to drive sales from those who don’t. The questions are in three areas.
Is your Marketing Agency…?
1. Enabling sales initiatives to capture demand and convert leads?
2. Performing market research for customer insights in our industry?
3. Integrating all marketing and sales steps to ensure profitable results?
Let’s look at each of these three questions, one at a time. Is your marketing agency …
1. Enabling sales initiatives to capture demand and convert leads?
This first question reveals a great deal about the agency’s approach to marketing. Many agencies today know how to create some marketing activity well. But, is that what you want? If they have extensive experience in sales enablement initiatives, then they are likely to be thinking about the -timely- marketing plan and the current realities of closing sales, short-term and long-term.
Sales enablement is playing an increasingly important role in many organizations. The goal of sales enablement is to ensure that every person in the sales process has the required knowledge, skills, processes and behaviors to optimally advance every interaction with buying customers. That is far more than the development of sales collateral materials! Sales enablement is a much more complex function that sits at the core of a productive marketing and sales engine. You will want to ask if they’ve helped enabled sales leaders and teams to address buying objections and be effective in making sales in front of customers.
Many agencies focus primarily on driving potential leads into the top of the sales funnel. This is just -one- part of the B2B or B2C marketing equation. Unfortunately, many of those leads will not convert to sales in the short term – and some never. In fact, most leads are usually not really “qualified” but are simply “inquiries.”
The agency you choose needs to know what happens in the lower stages of the sales funnel and have a robust process for qualifying and nurturing leads.
Even if you don’t plan to use your agency to directly support your sales enablement efforts, understanding their experience in this area will help you draw some important conclusions about their approach and ability to drive sales results.
2. Performing market research for customer insights in our industry?
How long will it take for the Agency get to know your customers, prospects and target market? Every agency will tell you that their process starts with getting to know your target audience. However, agencies that have experience with strategies and tactics that directly impact making sales will understand the needs of decision makers at a particularly meaningful level. Their work empowering sales people will demonstrate that they leverage comprehensive insights into the motivations of buyers. Your agency shouldn’t just know what makes your products appealing, they must be able to grasp the organization, decision criteria, inhibitors and purchasing processes that stands between your team and the sale.
3. Integrating all marketing and sales steps to ensure profitable results?
If an agency has done significant work in the area of sales enablement, it is also likely that they understand the importance of sales and marketing alignment and will work closely with both of those leaders or teams as they define the funnel and generate strategies, tactics and processes for your end-to-end marketing programs. Many marketing initiatives are developed without talking to the sales leader who is in touch with actual customers and prospects every day – and that’s not a recipe for success.
You want to hire an agency that has experience with integrating the sales perspective into the lead management processes, and beyond strategy and messaging. In today’s digital world, they also need to have the capability to cost-effectively integrate branding efforts, website design, outbound marketing, social media outreach, key search optimization and use today’s development environments to keep the marketing machine efficient. Without this end-to-end integration, your campaigns will deliver unqualified leads to the sales team, resulting in a disconnected sales force, fewer sales, higher costs – and sometimes a damaged brand.
Other Key Questions
You will have your own questions about team fit and regarding your current sales opportunities or challenges. However, you’ll want to ensure you ask detailed questions about specific industries and companies served, the size of companies where they have experience and ask them specifics about their team so you can understand if they can complement yours and span an end-to-end sales and marketing effort.
Lastly, you’ll be spending a lot of time with your agency (or you should), so make sure the team is located in the same end of town. Ask the agency leader for a face-to-face meeting at your office.
Summary
The bottom line is this — most agencies have designed sales collateral or have focused on one areas of the digital marketing spectrum. They are all very interested in knowing if their contribution ultimately results in sales. But, if they’ve been involved in planning and executing sales enablement tactics, have a clear methodology of market research in your industry and have integrated all the necessary marketing and sales, then it’s a good sign that they actually think about the realities of the entire sales pipeline when they help develop your marketing plans.
You ultimately want profitable sales that are acquired cost-effectively by the combined sales and marketing effort. So, if an agency offers superficial answers and describes disparate marketing activates when you ask them the above 3 questions, then you should ask yourself: How capable is this agency of helping me generate profitable sales growth
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