Marketing's role in any organization is critical; its leaders must be extraordinary.
Unfortunately, I don't think marketing has stepped up to the challenge of doing remarkable things. There is still a relentless focus on price, mass advertising, product and service flogging and applying traditional marketing tools introduced years ago.
Marketing leaders must take responsibility for this state of affairs. If they accept how their team performs its role, they can't be surprised when lacklustre results are produced.
Parochial leaders get mediocrity.
Organizations need stand-out marketing leaders; people who will not stop until their team produces unheard-of results.
Here are eight actions marketing leaders can take if they want to stand-out:
- Set short-term revenue goals. Focus on the next 24 months in order to make execution the priority and to avoid the "hockey stick" phenomenon where sales are supposed to miraculously show up at the end of the planning period. Set revenue targets monthly and review performance to ensure you are on track.
- Make revenue targets bold enough that you don't know exactly how to achieve them. "I don't know" is an effective way to drive innovation and creativity. If you know how to deliver your expected revenue, there is little or no incentive to do different things. If you follow yesterday's path, nothing remarkable happens.
- Eliminate benchmarking as a tool for your marketers to use. Copying won't step your organization up to a higher level; it simply keeps you in the competitive herd. Ask, "How can we be different?". Apply this question to every proposal you review. If it doesn't move your organization towards being a "different breed,” reject the proposal out-of-hand.
- Stop new customer acquisition programs. Insist on seeing proposals that generate more revenue from your existing customer base. Offer any special promotions or deals to your existing customers first; reward their loyalty.
- De-emphasize price and establish value creation as your raison d'être. Ask what value is being created for your loyal customers, not, "How can we lower our prices?". Replace the product manager position with the value creator and reward those who are prolific at providing value solutions.
- Recruit weird people. Contrarians. People who question traditional ways of doing things. People who hate fitting in. You need a team of stand-outs to carry your mandate to be different.
- Expand your marketing team to include the frontline; they are customer-facing and have keen insights into what customers desire. Get their ideas and implement them. And tell the rest of the organization what you are up to.
- Develop a competitive claim that is more than just hot air. Be clear and specific that the value you deliver to your customers is distinct from your competition. Answer the killer question, "Why should I do business with you?" by declaring your "only statement" – "We are the ONLY ones who..."
Marketing leaders must step up their game. Organizations depend on it.
