When I go to networking meetings, instead of posting my own name on the nametag, I write down “Ima Geek”. Geeks come in many flavors. Geek often branches out into specific social scenes: “movie geek,” “food geek,” “music geek,” “guitar geek,” “band geek,” “suburban lawn geek,” “computer geek,” “academic geek” … you get the picture. So, let's get geeky!

I would consider myself a computer, music, guitar, and academic geek, but not a comic or superhero geek, but I have dabbled. As a kid, I watch Batman and Superman on TV and I've followed along with the movies over the years. The difference between Superman and Batman is Superman is superhuman, while Batman is a tech gadget geek. I am definitely more of a Batman than a Superman.

In business, people are often looking for that one guy or company with superpowers to solve their critical issues. They are looking for Superman (or Superwoman) when what they really need is the Justice League.

The Justice League is brought together to solve big problems and combines the superpowers of multiple men and women to keep the world safe. It's what I have found to be working in business. We all want to find that one single superhero solution that will solve our issues (and often we can for small problems,) but big problems (such as generating more sales) often need a team to solve them.

Moving a Couch

Imagine you have to move some furniture from one floor of your house to another. It's near impossible to do yourself, but you could find a tool or dolly that would help. I did that when removing old tube TVs from my send floor. It was a combo of sliding them down the stairs on their glass and then using a dolly to get them out to the truck. So you can do it yourself with the right tools.

For other furniture, I used the help of a neighbor. It cost me a 12 pack of beer, but we got it done. When I needed to move a bunch of furniture from the basement, 1st floor, and 2nd floor, I hired a two-man crew. That cost me $250, but I had to do nothing but point. They moved 10 pieces in less than 1 hour.

It's the same in business… You can do it yourself, collaborate, or hire a crew. I have found that most success comes when you use your superpowers in business and team up with others to form Super Partners.

Brain

Our brains are amazing. We process an immense amount of data daily. Some data is saved for retrieval while some is quickly forgotten. That's especially true when we don't do things repetitively and often. Our brains are not like a computer. We are better at pattern recognition than storing large amounts of events or sensations. We don't store or process sequences great, but we can store things like riding a bike or in my case muscle movements needed to play music.

I sat down at my piano the other day, and in about 15 minutes of clinking around, I was able to perform a song that I played in high school. I posted it to Facebook and had a bunch of people remember me performing that in music class.

A pattern is often what we recognize and what want in business. It's about cause and effect. If we do “A” we get “B”. Often people will sell you on that concept. If you only have more leads, you will get more sales. Often we look for that superhero who can solve that problem, but really what you need is a Justice League team.

Tools & Tactics

In search of a solution, we all want a one size fits all solution, but I hope by now you see that often solutions need to match the complexity of the real problem. It's often a series of problems that need to be solved in order to reach your desired outcome (more sales.) You can buy things like a CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, and many others) that try to fill the bill for sales & marketing. These may do a good job at some things but often lack the ability to fix multiple problems. It may be good for sales, but not for marketing (or visa-versa.)

I have trained sales teams on how to use social media, but they are not content creators and don't generally see the value. I have also worked with marketing teams to create great content, but have no pull with the sales team to get them to use it to their full potential.

One thing that I have learned is that marketing only works when it's integrated into all aspects of business. If it's not, it will fall flat on its goal to drive business and increase sales. It takes the Justice League!

System of Systems

I have found that in order for marketing (Batman) to be completely successful, it needs accounting (Wonder Woman), and sales (Superman or Supergirl) to be in the Justice League with it.

Marketing needs the sales process and the sales team to be a part of it and integrated into the process. It can take people through the customer journey (from awareness to education, to buying decisions,) but it needs a solid handoff to sales to complete the process. Marketing should be designed to create conversations between your prospects, customers, past customers, and your sales team. And marketing can help with closing and retention, but it cannot fix or replace a broken sales process or system. It takes a champion (or superhero) to map out the processes, and manage that part of the customer journey.

Another aspect that needs to be integrated is accounting. Someone needs to be responsible for assuring that each marketing dollar, can be tracked to closed sales, and report on the effectiveness of each marketing and sales activity. If you can't associate which marketing concepts, tools, and methodologies are financially impacting the sales process, then it's hard to measure success. You need to have a way to measure the ROI of each marketing dollar spent and do more of what's working best with your prospects and clients.

Final Thoughts

Marketing alone cannot solve business and sales issues. It takes the concerted effort of a cohesive team of superheroes.

You may already have parts of your Justice League on staff or in place, but I will explore this further in another post about how to turn on your Bat Signal, and call them to action. Each has its own superpowers, but when you combine them, they will give you the best chance to scale and grow your business.

“I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” – Superman

I would love to hear your thoughts on how you built or are building your own Justice League of superheroes. What challenges do they face with making your marketing work for your business? Are you hiring or contracting and empowering quality people? Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about avoiding the Superman Syndrome.

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.