Before I construct this conversation, I will unequivocally take the position that, “yes, I believe your company’s communications efforts must tie into sales.” I’m tired of all those in communications (marketing, PR, advertising, social media, etc.) toeing the line on this issue.

I hate to be so literal and direct, but let’s look at the overall Webster’s definition of “marketing” (NOTE: I realize not all of you view communications within marketing…but I do) -

1a : the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market
b : the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service
2: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer

Do I believe this is an accurate definition of marketing today? No. Do I believe the principles of marketing are to generate sales? Yes.

Personally, I’m tired of “awareness” and “branding” as default measurements of our communications efforts. While both are significant effects of a solid communications effort, I would question one’s ability to measure either.

The evolution of “Social Engagement” and technology enhancements have allowed us to closely measure the impact of these conversations. While interactions, sentiment, engagement and insights are all valuable ways for us to better understand our audiences and how to help them, they don’t always result in direct sales. What does generate sales are “call to actions” with these audiences that result in clicks, conversions (sharing information with you) and the leads or direct sales that are generated from these efforts.

We shouldn’t limit our ability as communicators to tie into the sales process through our online and social engagement only. Shouldn’t we (marketing/communications) be aligning ourselves with the subject matter experts (SMEs), sales and other customer-facing teams internally to ensure that the most valuable communications and content are being created and shared throughout our company?

I was fortunate enough to have discovered a technology called SAVO. While SAVO prides itself on being a “sales enablement” tool, I’d like to view the on-demand software platform they’ve created as “Marketing’s Holy Grail.” I encourage you to explore their site and blog to learn more about how their technology works, but realize that their platform incorporates all important aspects of fostering such a marketing & sales relationship internally with it’s social networking design (share, comment, rank) and measurement capabilities (ties directly into most CRM systems).

Ultimately, SAVO provides marketing & communications teams the ability to directly tie and measure the sales effectiveness of all forms of communications. Keep in mind, “garbage in, garbage out” so each piece of communications and content must address the specific needs of your sales teams and other customer-facing teams internally.

This certainly gives us all something to think about and consider!

How do you measure the effectiveness of your communications efforts? Are you directly impacting sales?