No Spin PR – 21st Century Communications

A few months ago I attended a dynamic presentation on networking, put on free of charge by local business coach Sue Clement. She was able to explain to me once and for all the difference between marketing and sales, and the point at which you should stop marketing yourself and start selling (not as early in the sales cycle process as most people think).

But for Colleen Smith, who took me to Sue’s seminar, and for me, there was a certain element of frustration. Basically, using a baseball metaphor, Sue explained that your marketing efforts begin at home base and continue till you’re at – or past – second base, and the sales cycle is concluded with payment received (run actually batted in and the player’s passed third and returned to home plate again). What was dismaying for both Colleen and me was the fact that the business territory we occupy is that small square of home plate where everything begins and ends. And yet we weren’t talking about the composition of that home base at all, or the skill, money, and effort required to get that corporate presence established in virtual, visual, and concrete marketing collateral terms. Continue reading →