Your sales and marketing team have the same end goal, make sales. However, they are at different stages of the buying process – marketers are key to bringing brand awareness while the sales team has the lead while it’s hot. Think of the marketing strategy as a golf tee, they place the consumer where they want them, thinking about hitting the ball.
While the sales team hits the ball to make that hole in one, the purchase. I must admit, I am no golfer, but I am a marketer and a sales director in the luxury pet industry. In my experience of being at all levels of the funnel, the message of the brand is pertinent. Dealing in an extremely niched brand category of e-commerce luxury with the added layer of pet products, many factors are contemplated by consumers. They want to know why spend the extra money for luxury and what makes it luxury? Is it safe for the dog or the environment? Why trust your brand over others?
“FEEL LOVED.”
At HUNTER Pet Store, our job as marketers is to focus the consumer on the emotions they feel for their pet. Our simple, two-word slogan “Feel Loved” portrays the message that our products will make your animal feel loved by wearing the hand-crafted accessories made by us, for them. We all wish we could communicate verbally our love for our pets, but HUNTER has found a way to communicate via branding the emotional communication your pet will understand by wearing our quality products.
We have the potential buyer’s attention through marketing now we focus on the bottom of our funnel where sales happen. Time for the sales team to relate product information to the original message: “Feel Loved.” The features of our leather products being hand selected and obscurities marked, tanned with olives and various chemical-free processes, and every detail hand-crafted with some collars taking 70 steps to ensure the best comfort and durability for your adored pet. The sales team focuses on the features to back-up the luxury label and price but returns to the overall message of the consumer’s emotional connection that brought them to the potential sale.
The importance in understanding your brand from marketers to the sales team is the difference between making sales or not. The brand identity should be easily found in all texts, campaigns and images. We as the brand, need to know who we are so we know our audience and reach them at every stage in our funnel.