Marketing is everyone's focus these days and Quokka Systems is no exception. This is why we are so thrilled to have just a few days ago signed on HarbourLynx (the soon to be launched harbour to harbour ferry service between Nanaimo Vancouver) as a marketing affiliate. It's so new we haven't got our promotional material together or the links set up on their site!

HarbourLynx is just one of the ways we are working on enhancing the value of being a Quokka Systems client. As you can imagine, Marketing and Sales has been on my mind a lot and I conclude they are like apple pie and cheese. One of my favourite memories of my stiff upper lip grandparents - who raised three boys in The Depression and never let anyone forget it - was when I told them I didn't like apple pie with cheese. (Apple pie good; cheese bad.) "What?" my grandparents said, "That's like a kiss without a squeeze!" I was mortified. I was seven.

So, Marketing without Sales, or vice versa, is like a kiss without a squeeze. In our various business lives, doing Marketing without Sales is kind of like Hyde without Jekyll. All the horror and no time to think.

In essence we all have to keep an eye on the entire customer purchase loop. This starts the moment someone first sees your logo or advertisement to the last step in delivering the service. In some cases that would be collecting the money or doing a post-sales checkup. No area of a business is free of Marketing and Sales. Even such backroom processes such as accounting has customer contact. It needs to be as professional as your initial contact. Marketing may be about disseminating information about a product and Sales may be about closing the deal, but all other aspects of the business need to be so smooth that they facilitate Marketing and Sales. A sales rep doesn't want to hear about how rude the Accounting person is. Such things are in the way of making a sale and make Marketing claims ring hollow.

My motto is: We all have competitors. Let's work together to make their job harder and ours easier.

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