My firm, SHIFT Communications, recently conducted a survey with Launch Pad to discern the differings views of Public Relations by Sales and Marketing pros.
The results were dramatic.
I'll write more about this in coming weeks, but clearly, there is a disconnect between the disciplines of Marketing and Sales. The VP of Marketing intuitively knows that PR can impact Lead Generation, but he doesn’t have the data, the methodology or the clout to make the PR:Sales connection.
Get this:
**Over 50% of all respondents said PR impacts Lead Quality.
**About 50% of all respondents said PR impacts the length of the Sales Cycle.
**About a quarter of all respondents said PR can increase the size of a first-time order.
**49% said that Lead Generation was the best measure of PR success.
Yet just 30% of all respondents felt that Lead Generation is a function of PR!
And fully 36% of respondents "sometimes" to "never" use PR in the Sales process!
Marketing pros in general and PR pros in particular are missing out on a huge opportunity to ensure their seat at the table by demonstrating bottom-line results.
Trust me, no one will care about "Share of Voice" when the revenues are in free-fall. But what if the PR team can show that sales leads that came through the PR channel are the only leads to consistently make it thru the Sales funnel to the deal close??? In that case, PR can be salvaged at the expense of other programs; today, we’d be the first to be cut.
Am I missing something? I feel like the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. Then again, they made that fella king, didn't they?
I guess that ain't so bad.