Marketing vs. Sales

[chevygirl55]

Our company has created a new position for and hired a Marketing Director.  Because it is a new position and we do not have a job description yet, no one is sure what a Marketing Director does.   As a result, he isn't doing too much.  From what I can tell, he just really needs some direction.

Sooooo.....what does a Marketing Director do?

I think marketing and sales are two different animals.  

What he is doing now....creating brochures (about 3 per month),  These are from stock material that has been created.  He will customize with the correct pictures and references, ie. health care customers, multi-family housing customers, church customers.  Again, using stock material.  Prepares PowerPoint presentations (one every 2 or 3 months).  He developed a website for our company but it has not been updated since early 2001.  The construction projects he has on there show them in progress and for instance, the school that we built that is shown "construction in progress" is now in its second year of housing students.  He handles our Yellow Pages ads and any other various little ads we may place and also writes an article for our quarterly newsletter.

Obviously, he cannot do construction estimating and sell the jobs.  That comes from the estimators and project managers (at least in our company).  Shouldn't he be out there talking to people, smoozing with the local newspaper, attending the Chamber of Commerce events, watching the papers for news on our customers and acknowledging with a card from the company?  Things like that. Or does that fall under the heading of salesperson?  

Help!  I would like to help salvage this situation before it gets any worse.

I don't think he is lazy but he seems like he really needs someone to direct what he is to do and I am thinking that a job description might be a good place to start.  

What do other Marketing Directors do?

chevygirl55

[msmarieh]

Well I agree with you on the concept of marketing directors and what they should be doing. In my opinion, marketing people should be creating brochures, presentations, giveaways, promotions, etc. They should also be tracking advertising campaigns to determine ROI. They should be attending trade shows, speaking at local association or other appropriate meetings, and otherwise getting the word out. They should be working with the media to try to get the most exposure for your company. The website certainly falls under their area in many companies.

However... I am curious as to who he reports to? I would think (no offense intended here) that it wouldn't be your job to either oversee him or to supervise his job description. I would also think that he might be quite averse to having *you* be the one to attempt to give him direction rather than his boss. You might consider talking to your boss for direction with this particular situation, but I would be cautious of going off on  your own to solve the problem, as it may backfire on you.

Marie

[chevygirl55]

He reports to my boss and is on the same management level as I am.  I am not looking to take him over as an employee.  Just looking for something to prod my boss into getting this new position off the ground instead of setting dead center.  My relationship with my boss is good enough I can do this without him being threatened.  (In fact, he stresses that since I am here all the time and he is not, that it is part of my job to bring problems and suggested solutions to him that he may not pick up on).  He will use the information in the right way.  I am confident of that because he has proven time and again that he does.  

As Assistant to the Owner/President, it is stressed that I am to be tuned into the overall operations.  Not that he takes every suggestion or comment I make to heart.  But he does listen and investigate further when needed. And he has NEVER betrayed a confidence.  

So to get back to a job description for the Marketing Director.  Anybody got a good one?

chevygirl55

[countrigal]

No job description per se, but you're definitely on the right trail.  He should be doing cost analysis to see if y'all are getting your money's worth through the various ways of marketing your company.  Did you only get 3 deals off of the yellow page ad?  Maybe instead of paying for it, you should take a billboard?  Stuff like that is what he should be doing.  Shmoozing the folks who might need your company.  Sales sell the product... marketing sells the company.  he should also be looking into possible new ways of marketing the company... should you look overseas?  Maybe there are companies overseas who would hire you to build their soon-to-be new US plants, if they but knew who you are.  His should definitely be an active position... hopefully someone out here will have a PD of some sort they could get to you.

CountriGal
Deskdemon Editorial Board Member

[iir]

Dear Chevy Girl,

Comparing marketing to Sales is sometimes difficult in a smaller organization, but generally, Marketing will deal with aspects of the company itself.  It's "brand awareness" and market positioning, right down sometimes to the look of the business cards and brochures.  Marketing and sales need to work very closely together, as they go arm in arm. One easy way to look at it, is to compare say, a high end Office manager with the file clerk.  The office manager is responsible for the running of the office, (like the Marketing director is responsible for the brand awareness and perception of the company.)

That file clerk on the other hand, is responsible for the filing only.  She doesn't generate the projects themselves.  Much like the salesperson in a medium to larger enterprise.  The salesman sells the product, the marketing people make sure customers are aware of the product.  Each job takes special skills and you'll find that sometimes, particularly in smaller operations the two jobs will cross over a great deal.  Without knowing the size of your organization, I fear I can not give you a better answer, but hope that my little bit of information helps:)

Andrea, begging excuses for the typos but at the moment you're being projected on a giant screen which is incredibly hard to see !

:p

[drsouce]

Chevy Girl, no comperable position here, but I've found the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook to be a good starting point.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos020.htm

There are also software vendors like KnowledgePoint who sell programs that create job descriptions for you.  About $200, so only useful if you are going to do several.  Hope this helps.

drsouce

[magickalmeli]

This is what I think a marketing director should be doing... if there isn't a marketing department.

- analyzing market to make sure the present marketing campaign is reaching the correct audience
- take care of all advertising buys and maier programs
- create information kits for potential clients
- create promotions to drive business
- go to chamber meetings and meet with other people in the industry
- READ TRADE NEWS!
- spend time with sales people and REALLY learn the product. In my opinion, the best way to learn the product is to spend time with the people who have to actually SELL it. Its difficult to market a product that you don't know EVERYTHING about. Maybe schedule him on some sales calls?
- network! network! network!
- create a marketing PLAN for the company including forecasted dates for his success
- track marketing trends in your category
- track expenditures related to marketing
- track ROI (retrun on investment)

I'll probably think of more later....

- Melissa

[chevygirl55]

Just an update.  Yesterday, I was in going over the days mail, etc with the boss when he came across the card for the monthly Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours meeting.  He lamented that everyone was so busy and that he was not going to be able to attend.  I offered up the Marketing Director and asked shouldn't he be attending some of these types of things to be making contacts for us and getting our name out.  He sat back a minute and said good thought.  Please pass this to him and ask him to attend if at all possible.  

It is all in the timing, I guess!

chevygirl55