How to Get More From Your Colouring-in Department (aka Marketing)

How to Get More From Your Colouring-in Department (aka Marketing) I recently had dinner with a recruitment leader (anonymous) and we were talking about her goals for 2016. Profit, Effectiveness, ROI, CRM Upgrade, Marketing… Or rather she said: “I want to get more ROI from my colouring in department!” Translation â€" ROI from her Marketing department. Marketing and Sales are Disconnected I do often come across Marketing departments who are disconnected from Sales â€" disconnected enough to warrant a (healthy) scepticism.   This is often demonstrated by graphs showing community sizes rather than fees generated from marketing activities. Why? I often find that this is due to a complete lack of understanding (by Sales) of what Marketing is there for. Marketing are often not expected to generate leads, and if they do, Sales sometimes don’t stop cold calling long enough to convert them, or feedback to Marketing on improving the lead criteria. Who cares about your community? I want money! We all know Greg Savage. We even had a webinar dedicated to (our invented) Greg Savage day.   He has numerous sound bites, one of which is so pertinent to this: “Those of you getting your staff to compete over cold calls are competing over who can piss off the most prospects…  Cold calls? Warm calls are better.” Now warm calls are not generated by radiators or working in hot climates â€" they are generated by marketing (delivered by Sales and Marketing). Marketing is all about being in the peripheral vision of your talent and clients â€" content, events, great job adverts… Marketing should rule lead generation â€" not simply colour it in! If you agree with Greg (as my clients do) that 2016 is about recruiters being more focused marketers, and you agree with me… “If you’re a marketer it’s about recruiters… if you’re a recruiter it’s about marketing.” Then you need to either radically change your perception of your colouring in department, or hire a new more sales-focussed one. It’s all about ROI! 5 things you can do to get your Marketing Department to put their Crayons down: Tell them who your target clients are â€" seriously, they’ll love knowing and they’ll get super giddy when they see these clients surfing your website and engaging with their content. Give them a budget to generate leads. Even as an IT Director in my younger days, my Commercial Director said “I’ll give you £1 as long as you make me £2!” Put down the cold call and demand a list of warm calls. Stop jumping out of your cave with your club looking for the Woolly Mammoth and start looking to be stroked. Are you so busy chasing that you can’t see who’s looking at you? Get a lead from your marketing department and it’s not worth your time? Feedback and demand better (nicely). ROI is about Perception and Expectation Recruitment marketers need to “get” Sales, generate leads, demonstrate value and get into the thick of growing a business. Recruiters need to “get” that Marketing (with a big and small m) is intrinsically part of the sales process, not simply a pretty logo, website, LinkedIn Recruiter Licence sign off, etc… And when Marketing generates super leads for you, convert them into sales please, then tell Marketing how much money they have helped you take home that month, say thanks, and don’t be surprised if they log that somewhere and remind you of it regularly. Love your Marketer, recruiters!