If you are building a business, I urge you to put marketing at the heart of your business. With marketing, I don’t mean advertising. I mean your vision, your products and services, and your customers.
I will tell you what happens if marketing is underfunded and ignored. I will also tell you what it means to put marketing at the heart of your business and why it allows your business to thrive.
I used to work as a sales rep for a company where marketing was seen as this slightly frivolous department that didn’t bring enough leads. Marketing staff were often laid off as a cost-saving measure during downturns.
Selling was an uphill battle at this organization. There was no marketing or customer intelligence in place for Canada. Customers didn’t know what the company stood for, and they weren’t informed about what products we had on offer.
I was in charge of the sales strategy for Canada without any guidance beyond revenue goals. Leadership visited customers with me sometimes and hogged the conversations, bragging about their recent promotion and the details of their latest skiing trip.
I tried to be marketing, sales and customer support all in one, and I was failing everywhere.
While there was a vision statement on the company website, sales leadership had a separate strategy that was in direct conflict with this vision. Selling became a race to the bottom: pressure tactics, discounts, random pricing, spamming customers with offers to hit the quarterly goals.
If you’re building a business, I urge you to put marketing at the heart of it. Develop a vision for your business that touches everything you do and that everyone working for you understands and takes to heart.
Let’s say you’re selling dog biscuits. Your vision might be for dogs to live happier and healthier lives. This vision will inform everything you do:
- How you make your biscuits
- What you research
- What you say on your website
- What kind of ads you create
- What customers you attract
- Where you sell your products
Your sales rep will never have to say “buy these biscuits because they’re on sale”. Instead, the rep will have information on how the biscuits help the dog’s teeth and digestion, and how the right diet improves the dog’s quality of life and life expectancy.
Your dog customers will thrive. Your human customers will promote your products by word of mouth and inquire at their pet store why it doesn’t carry their dog’s favourite treat yet.
Your excellent social media strategy and your two sales superstars are not responsible for your exponential growth. You’re growing because everything you do makes your customers happy and satisfied.
Put marketing at the heart of your business, and everything you do will be unified and guided.
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