Cold calling is dead. The days of the “hard sell” are behind us. Thank goodness, right? However, this places the onus on the marketing departments to support sales even more and create a united front of messaging and brand positioning. Both departments need to work in tandem with each other with the new trend of “soft selling,” a trend that is here to stay.

If your company depends heavily on referral work and repeat business, you’ve been in business for a while and you have salespeople and project managers who possess years of relationships and experience in their field, chances are you are already employing the soft sales approach. How do we increase its effectiveness? We engage Marketing. Yes, you – Sales – will not get rid of us. You need us. The hard sell is going away, but we – Marketing – are here to stay.

Companies lose important sales opportunities when they don’t engage Marketing. They don’t understand this new relationship between marketing and sales. In the old way of hard sales, Sales could act more independently through cold calls, forceful sales letters and unsolicited pitches. The customer knows he or she is being sold to. There is no gray area. Marketing was able to act more independently as well, while employing more traditional, straightforward marketing techniques that didn’t need the salesperson’s collaboration.

The buyer persona is changing. Buyers are more aware, more informed, doing their own research online, choosing when they buy and preferring to order online with a few clicks on their keyboard or mobile device rather than picking up the phone. Because this customer/sales dynamic is changing with a new, softer approach, Sales and Marketing need to work together to strategically find ways of informing customers rather than pressuring them.

This type of selling focuses on the relationship-building aspect of sales and finds less aggressive ways to show customers the solutions they need. Enter Marketing.

Marketing should support the sales effort with a brand image and message that delights and informs the customer. Useful and creative messaging that captures the customer’s interest and information is the key to growing your sales pipeline. While Sales engages customers, builds relationships and becomes trusted advisors, if Sales doesn’t have the brand, messaging and marketing expertise to back up this soft sell approach, Sales misses out on major low-hanging fruit opportunities.

It’s actually more than a soft sell approach. It is a creative and strategic partnership between Sales and Marketing that connects the customer base with the identity of the company.

Many undermine or dismiss marketing’s importance because it is more difficult to measure. I was recently asked, “Are print ads in industry magazines really worth it?” Why was I was asked this? Because it is difficult to measure results and the bottom-line value.

My answer is simple: If your customers are reading that magazine, if you want to position your company as a premier, experienced expert in your industry… then yes, they are worth it. And guess what? You can measure an ad’s effectiveness. While the main point of print ads, billboards, commercials and more are to position and elevate your brand, they can be measured through analytics. A customized website link can be printed on the ad that directs traffic from that ad to a monitored landing page.

Image is power. You are presenting an image of your company that helps support your sales effort.

Both traditional and non-traditional marketing techniques are needed to accomplish a cohesive strategy. The older, more traditional way of marketing will not properly reach those newer buying types and is being reinvented to remain relevant. Landing pages, digital marketing, analytics and SEO/SEM are all part of this reinvention. These non-traditional methods are becoming an integral piece of the marketing playbook. The key is for Sales and Marketing to develop a strategy that uses the best of both traditional and non-traditional marketing.

So how do we accomplish this? I sit down with marketing teams to discuss and create strategic approaches. How-to videos, white papers, social media engagement, search engine optimization, electronic newsletters, lunch n’ learns and digital engagement are just a few of the marketing tools my clients use to become the go-to source for their customers.

My clients also still use traditional marketing techniques such as print ads, billboards and press releases – but these traditional techniques have been

reinvented. Traditional marketing is not dead. It is reborn. Billboards call attention to creative website URLs to increase traffic and SEO on a mobile website. Press releases link to blogs and white papers on the company’s website. Print ads have call-to-action links to increase online engagement.

In softer, strategic sales, we shape the narrative. Because the soft sales approach relies on expertise and relationships, our marketing position plays an important role. More importance is placed on the marketing team to help facilitate the soft sales process. It’s no longer a transaction between a salesperson and a customer. The whole company’s image is becoming part of the transaction. Website presence and traffic, search optimization, digital tools and electronic marketing are all essential in a comprehensive communication strategy. If the brand and message of Marketing isn’t in line with the values Sales is presenting, then the relationship with the customer – and the customer’s trust – is at risk.

How do you increase your marketing efforts and image? Each company and industry need a customized approach. The good news: There are so many tools in our arsenal now to make an impact. The bad news: Learning how to master each takes more skill and a team of people to facilitate.

I find that companies are still struggling to get sales and marketing departments on the same page. They each go their separate ways, as if their paths do not cross. Whether you know it or not, your paths cross. Your customers see what the marketing department sends out and then they see the salesperson. The two need to be unified in their approach. Get a good team of people, work on a strategy, solidify your identity and work together. Marketing and Sales need each other. It’s “’til death do us part.”