Why sales might matter more than marketing (yes, really)

Hey there,

Whenever I host a Brand Quick Fix with a service provider, the conversation almost always drifts away from marketing and straight into the dreaded territory everyone loves to hate—sales.

I’m not a sales expert (but I know one, and you’ll meet him below!). But what I do know is that sales are essential for every business owner—dare I say, even more essential than marketing.

The problem? Most of us feel allergic to the whole idea of “selling.”

But here’s the thing: sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin—and that coin is your revenue.

That’s why today I’m chatting with Brandon Rush of Small Axe Sales, a sales strategist who helps B2B service providers build the skills, habits, and systems to close more deals.

Enjoy!

Brandon, let’s start with an ice breaker. If you’re brand were an animal, what would it be?

An Orca whale. My work is making systems that look so fluid and natural that they seem improvised. In reality, they are extremely calculated and take a lot of intentional practice to master.

Okay, so a real ice breaker! I love that you mention that it’s so good it looks natural, but it’s actually extremely calculated. That’s super relevant to what I do in the brand world, too.

Most of my work falls into the marketing wheelhouse, but I see marketing and sales as two sides of the same coin. I’d love to hear how you think about sales and marketing—which comes first? Which deserves more of a small business owner’s attention?

I think it’s helpful to delineate between the two. Marketing is broadcasting a message to an audience (podcast, socials, speaking, etc). Sales is reaching out directly to one person for the explicit goal of working with them. 

With that out of the way, I say (with much bias—ha!) that I think sales comes first.

Okay—I’m listening! Why do you say that?

Reason #1: I’m a big believer in the idea of “eating your vegetables.” Start with the task you least want to do, but have to do in order to hit your goals. Most people (even sales professionals) prioritize marketing because it feels easier than sales -we’ve got to resist that urge. If you don't tackle sales initially, you're unlikely to return to it. Just like your body needs vegetables, your business needs sales!

Reason #2: It requires you to face hard truths. If you don’t know who your buyers are, what they care about, what makes you worth the money in their eyes, you feel that in each sales conversation you have. You know immediately what you need to know, what you need to improve, etc. It might take you 6 months to see those same deficits in your marketing approach.

Ooh, almost like market research!

Yes! But the quantity of market research data you get from sales activities dwarfs the amount of data you get from marketing (assuming you don’t have a massive audience). Ten sales conversations teach you way more than ten LinkedIn posts that average 200-300 impressions and 9 likes each.

But as far as what deserves the most time, I think that depends on each business.

I’d say the success of marketing or sales activities should inform which should get more attention. Some people legitimately do not need to prospect for their business to reach its goals. They have more attention, more inquiries, and more completed payments than they need. That legitimately happens.

In which case, I’d say, “Make sure you know what is getting you those results and keep it up. Don’t worry about sales”.

On the other hand, some people never know where their next client is going to come from or how to get them (outside of praying for a referral). That means your marketing is not going to carry your business, and you need to get into the field and drum up interest via direct sales.

One observation I’ve made from working in a variety of spaces is that bigger, more mature businesses can index toward marketing more than small, less mature businesses. Marketing works for people with a lot of trust in a space. If you’re brand new, it’s a lot harder to get people to talk about you enough to get new referrals to carry a business.

Also, this is specifically for high-ticket service buyers. If you sell $30 digital products, I don’t know what’s right for you. 😂

People might be shocked to read that I COMPLETELY AGREE. I find a lot of folks I work with want to market as a means to not sell. It’s very “If I build it, they will come,” out here, and I am constantly reminding people that you’ve still got to talk to people who are interested in what you’re doing (especially on the high-ticket services).

We’ve worked together a bit, and you gave me some resources that CHANGED THE GAME. I am forever grateful! What is the most common thing you see small business owners like me get wrong about sales?

Not following up! No one is thinking about us when we’re not around. I see so many folks waiting for people to remember they exist without REMINDING them that they exist consistently. That goes for lead gen and closing. Staying top of mind is the most important thing to do in sales.

Mic drop.

Okay, but I hear a lot of folks say “ I suck at marketing,” and I’m sure you hear a lot of folks say, “I suck at sales.” What do you say to that?

“That just means you don’t know how to do it”.

Sales is hard, but it’s not complicated. I haven’t met a business owner who isn’t smart enough to figure out how to be great at sales. It just takes the time to learn the system and then the consistency to run it. The system is the simple part. The consistency is the hard part.

Is it ever too early to think about sales and sales strategy?

Nope! Sales is business. You’re never too early, too busy, etc., for sales.

It contextualizes market research, it informs marketing, product, and client experience. If you’re not thinking about sales, then you’re not thinking about how your product or service makes money. If you’re not thinking about how your product or service makes money, you’re not thinking about business.

So where should people start? What are some of the foundational things folks need to have in place to get the most out of their sales efforts?

A process.

Sales has a lot of moving parts, and without a framework to organize them, you’re basically packing for a trip by scooping everything out of the dryer and shoving it in a suitcase.

Do you have the right clothes?

The right quantities?

No clue.

A sales process is like packing with cubes—shirts in one, pants in another, formalwear separate. Everything’s organized and easy to grab when you need it. The same way you don’t want to dig through a messy bag to find socks, you don’t want to dig through scattered scripts and strategies when you’re trying to close a deal. A clear process makes the difference between winning and losing deals.

I know you’ve worked in tech, and now you primarily work with small business owners. I’m sure those processes vary a lot…but are also oddly similar!

What is one thing you wish tech would learn from small business owners?

What I wish tech would learn from small businesses: Chill TF out.

We don’t actually need to move any mountains. Small business owners (at least the ones I hang out with) aren’t trying to create something impossible. They acknowledge that they are mere mortals and that’s ok. Maintaining at 0% YoY growth for a decade and enjoying your life is ok. Hockey stick growth isn’t the only goal in life. Learning that will save a lot of people from high blood pressure problems. 😂

Louder for the tech founders in the back!

Okay, on the flip side—one thing you wish small business owners would learn from tech?

Your job is not service delivery. Your job is managing your business.

No founder of a tech firm has ever said, “I don’t have time for revenue generation and that’s okay.”

If they don’t have time for revenue generation, then they know that their business (explicitly a revenue-generating entity) is broken and something needs to be done immediately to fix it.

How you fix it will differ from a tech founder to a small business owner (ex., hiring to make sure revenue generation happens vs. restructuring offerings to make sure that there is always new business coming in, respectively), but something must be done to make sure that the business is generating new income constantly

Note: I don’t mean constantly growing income, I mean constantly bringing in new and diverse income sources so you’re never caught with no income at any point in time. This doesn’t require hustle. It’s just a sustainable business structure.

Speaking of diverse income streams, I was a spin instructor in a former life. My brain thinks in soundtracks. So if your business had a karaoke song, what would it be?

My business is actually named after a song, so it’ll have to be Small Axe by Bob Marley & The Wailers.

Okay, I’m definitely coming to karaoke with you!

If folks want to work with you, or just soak in some of your knowledge, where should they connect?

Sign up for my newsletter! I share weekly editions to help you build a sales system that closes more deals with less overwhelm. If you’re a high-ticket item B2B service provider and want a 1:1 session of free advice, sign up for the Small Axe Sales Show.

You can also grab my flagship training program for 50% off through 9/30.

Thanks, Brandon!

And thank you for following along!