Recently I’ve noticed a slew of marketers resigning from their positions. One thing they all had in common was the fact they were departing companies experiencing some form of minor duress – losing share, maturing technology, budget reductions, minor controversy, etc. None were fired. They where leaving voluntarily, ostensibly to spend more time with their family, pursue personal interests… blah… blah… blah, highlighting a current issue I have with marketing in general which is the absence of competitive instincts (not to be confused with personal survival instincts).
What happens when you don’t have extraordinary people, innovative products, extraordinary customer experiences and rock solid infrastructure (as described by Tom Peters)? As marketers what do you do when you’re dealing with regular folks, mediocre products, OK customer experiences, and infrastructure held together with spit and baling wire (in other words 99% of American enterprises)?
What happens when you don’t have the cash or the competencies of a Fortune 500 enterprise to buy the media, create the ads, bring in the consultants, train the masses, attend the seminars, do the off-sites, implement the technology and get the certifications?
What happens when you don’t have 18 months to wait for a branding campaign to work?
What happens when you don’t have $500,000 to pay for new CRM technology?
What happens when the CEO says we need to grow or die? And as a marketer the tools, resources, competencies and capital you think you need are out of reach? In other words how do you play the hand you’ve been dealt? Not the hand you wished you had?
Many marketers when dealt this hand polish up their resume and start looking for a new gig. They flee. Which is interesting because quite often it was their dysfunctional marketing strategies that led to the situation they’re fleeing. I am seeing a growing trend, that is disturbing to say the least, of refugee marketers looking for new territory to plant their flags on.
Rather than fleeing, marketers should be staying and fighting. But for many marketers who chose this profession because they like to
attend award ceremonies, plan parties, write white papers, go on photo shoots, get wined
and dined by Donnie Deutsch, be socially networked, and culturally
connected the whole notion of fighting is quite distasteful.
The best place to generate new sales is by taking market share from your competition. Why? Because the risks are minimal, customers are trained to write checks for your type of products or services, you know where the customers live and how to reach them, you can start winning new business tomorrow, and you do not have to front precious resources on bet the ranch branding initiatives, new product launches, new market introductions, technology initiatives etc.
But to do this you need to compete. Why? Because your competition will likely resist. And the customer will need to be convinced to change. You need to have a desire to win to play this game, and a laser-like focus to maximize YOUR company’s revenue and profit. You have to make the absolute best of the hand you’ve been dealt. You have get up earlier. Work later. Make more calls. Be smarter than your competition. Faster than your competition. And execute better than your competition. YEA! Lets go kick some ass!
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