Mari Pérez Gómez: Adapting your Mindset to Drive Sales in 2021

Obtaining a clear direction for sales through marketing was difficult for many businesses in 2020, with the world changing so drastically. Sometimes, the best thing to do is by adopting a new mindset and starting fresh. With a new way of life, a new strategy for marketing is needed.

After an insightful discussion with Mari Perez, we learned a lot more about how the sales world was affected by Covid-19 and how to drive more sales when there’s uncertainty around us. Mari believes focusing on a change of mindset is the best way to go and provided us with crucial information on how to do so. 

In today’s Rediscover Marketing, we got a different outlook on the marketing world in terms of sales. Below is a rundown of the valuable points Mari provided us with and how you may be able to use them yourself. 

Meet Mari Pérez Gómez

Mari Pérez Gómez is Head of Sales and Marketing at Interprenet at Interprenet with many different interests and hobbies. Originally from Mexico, Mari grew up to study business administration alongside a master’s in music business. Music and language are her passions, being a trained opera singer and fluent in three different languages. 

Before Interprenet, Mari worked for a large tire manufacturer and focused on sales. She’s now been with Interprenet for two years and focuses on creating, nurturing, and developing effective sales teams. As a manager, Mari organizes processes and workflows for people to follow, ensuring a successful sales team. 

Interprenet is an interpretation company that specializes in medical and pharma. Mari elaborated on the industry by telling us that interpreters usually work in pairs due to strenuous mental activity. There are two different types of interpreting; consecutive and simultaneous. Consecutive interpreting is where you allow the person to speak and then interpret for them. Simultaneous interpreting is the opposite, where you are interpreting while the other person is speaking. It was helpful to get more insight into the industry before diving into her marketing approach. 

How Marketing and Sales are Intertwined

Since Mari focuses mainly on sales and ensuring the team’s work runs smoothly, it was interesting to hear her input on the differences between marketing and sales. 

Mari believes that sales are a completely separate department from marketing. Instead, she thinks that marketing is the planning of sales. Therefore, you can’t have successful sales without a great marketing plan. At the same time, getting feedback from sales can also help contribute to your marketing strategy. It works like a cycle, making them both intertwined. 

After more discussion, Mari stated that marketing plans need to be aware of the market needs of the product you are selling. You’re able to get this insight about the clients you’re selling to from the sales. Mari uses her sales team to report back on their successes and failures, which allows them to then circle back to marketing. This is what drives her team’s sales and ensures they have a solid marketing strategy. 

Adapting your Mindset for 2021

We asked Mari what she believes is the best way forward for the upcoming year and what growth leaders should pay attention to. She put a lot of emphasis on changing your mindset and how this helped her team get through the black cloud of 2020. 

In terms of sales, most of the time, you need your team to go out in the field and interact with clients. This was brought to a halt when the pandemic hit, and a lot of companies had to look for alternative ways to sell. In Mari’s case, interpreters were in less demand because you couldn’t meet people face-to-face. However, instead of sitting back and sulking, Mari and Interprenet changed the way they think and their approach. 

Most of the world went online in March 2020, and Mari’s team built on this by offering their services and products by integrating them into virtual meetings. The way they communicated with clients changed, and they adapted strategies on how they approached their clients. Before they knew it, the word had spread like wildfire, and they gained a lot of interest in their services. 

Mari emphasized the importance of changing your mindset and how this allowed Interprenet to succeed through the pandemic rather than fail. She believes that the power of change is so immense, and many businesses are so stuck in their ways that they forget there are a million ways you can brand and showcase your products. 

Mari and her company were lucky enough to have a product they could adapt to a virtual setting. She states that if you can, you should do this too. On the other hand, it may not always be easy to adapt, but Mari believes there is always a way.  You’ve got to sit down and brainstorm new ideas by thinking outside the box. This is what can drive your success and sales in 2021. 

Mari allowed us to look into the sales world a lot more and has helped us see the importance of a different mindset in challenging times. Sometimes the way you market and sell works, but it can all come crashing down in rare cases. Having the ability to adapt quickly is important, and businesses need to have alternate plans in place in case of a massive change in the world.