Why is it that companies see marketing as a department of the business? Either something they outsource or something that ends up being run by a young person to do internally. They end up attempting to work with their sales teams (I say 'attempt' as often they seem to be a logger heads) and now and again they will bring them into a strategy meeting. "Hey we need whatshisface from Marketing!"
This can often mean that the department is directed by the company or business owner and sometimes can be seen as the part of the business that doesn't make money, rather it a department just spends it. We have also found (even in large companies) that the marketing manager can be in control of large spends for the business but often has no real clarity of where they should spend it or where it would have the most impact to drive sales. They end up in a bubble, left to their own devices to come up with a marketing strategy when of course what they need is a business strategy.
If you look at business from a business perspective, regardless of what you sell: Without good marketing, you often don't have good sales; without good sales you, haven't got a good business. In my mind, marketing is central to any business (well I would say that wouldn't I?) simply for that reason.
Now, it is imperative that you understand what I mean by marketing. I don't simply mean a direct marketing piece, an email news letter, a bit of networking and an exhibition every now and again. What I mean by marketing is nurturing the sales cycle and ensuring that at all times your message is coming across to the potential audience however and whenever the potential customer interacts with you. In a previous article I wrote about communication when you are there and when you aren't. This is marketing.
It could involve networking and ensuring that your networkers have a strategy and key points to raise with the people they meet. It could be ensuring that power points are correctly structured and aren't overly long. It could be helping your telesales people with a script.
Marketing encompasses the business. It is everything you say and everything you do. Without a cohesive strategy that comes from the business voiced through your marketing you are leaving yourself open to long sales cycles, reducing prices or always coming in second. Worse still, you are looking at having a discord between what your business provides and what it is saying and doing.
So, the next time you look at your marketing department think of them as your key operatives, the people who need to know and understand what the business is trying to achieve. Give them more that just sales figures, a spreadsheet and a bit of collateral. Give them the core business processes that will determine if you are successful or not.
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