Recently, Mickey and Phil were invited to present one of CC’s marketing workshops at an HR agency.

This differed slightly from the previous workshop we’d done, which was to a room of a couple of dozen people from various businesses. For this one, we were concentrating exclusively on one business, so the workshop could be aimed specifically at them.

The other thing that was interesting about this workshop was the fact that we were only going to be doing it for two or three people from the management team.

It meant we could really focus in and get them thinking about the direction in which they were going – what they were doing, how they might be able to do it even better, plus some things they could be doing.

A presentation to a very small group can easily become more like a conversation – and that’s how we like it.

Essentially, we went through the stages of the process we always use for any project. Whether we are making a website or planning a marketing strategy, the process is always the same. It starts with defining the customer and how to reach them and ends with a plan.

If you look at the homepage of this website you’ll see that CC’s tagline – or brand promise, or whatever you want to call it – is “We Get Sales”.

We came up with that after making a long list of possible phrases. We were trying to find something that would encapsulate what CC does and what makes us different.

When you’re doing a brainstorm, you need to be open and initially allow all ideas to be put down. Whenever we do something like this, we seem to always start with ideas that are too long and wordy, but which express what we’re trying to say.

Eventually we pare it down and come up with something succinct. But it can take a while.

Some of the things that went on the list as ideas for the CC brand promise included:

Strategists who also deliver

Marketers who know the sales process

In-house specialists

Creative, but with our feet on the ground

Marketing and Sales with a proper sense of direction

Marketing With Sales Acumen

Most of those are way too wordy, but you can see where we were going. The thing that makes CC different is that we aren’t just marketers, designers and ‘fluffy’ types. Within our team we have real experience of commercial sales. Not only do we have the sales experience – the target of increased sales is the focus of everything we do.

For a while, “Marketing With Sales Acumen” was the best we could come up with. Ultimately though, it was rejected for being too boring and corporate.

Then, suddenly, we hit on “We Get Sales”. It’s short, punchy, and direct. Crucially, it is focused on one thing, and it’s conversational rather than corporate, so hopefully it is memorable.

It also has a double meaning. On one hand, at CC we “get” sales in a theoretical sense – that is, we understand the sales process and empathise with business people who are focused on selling.

Then of course, we also get sales in a practical sense – we actually do help businesses capture and convert leads. In the end, it’s all about the bottom line.

After all, if your marketing doesn’t have a focused, thought out plan and a target of increasing sales, why bother doing it?