What the hell is marketing?

This is relevant question today because everyone seems to point to marketing as THEE key to success. And yet, definitions and expectations diverge wildly about what marketing is and what it is not. Mostly it seems to be misunderstood, misused or both. At Re:Sourceful, we say > Marketing builds and/or solidifies relationships with customers, so they buy from you and keep buying – even when they have other options.

We view it as the beginning of the sales process. Great marketing can sell in some cases, but the days of interruptive marketing or 'advertising' having the ability to grasp someone's attention and get them to act/buy are mostly long gone. Sure it may still work for some markets and some demographics, but even those options are slipping away rapidly. For every way we have to talk with our customer, they have a method to block or shield themselves.

Most of our partners are in the telecommunications industry, and changing/threatening regulations and rising costs are major issues for companies and the customers they serve.

So, where does that leave marketing? Possibly in a very good place if we are willing to change our approach, and change it dramatically.

Healthy relationships at any level are two-sided. They are about listening, caring and acting to the benefit of other person. Business relationships are exactly the same. For years most companies didn't treat them this way because they couldn't or didn't want to make the effort. Today, tools exist to better accommodate one-to-one communication and relationship building interaction, if you are willing.

In my view, these are some steps toward change that may help:

1) You need a truly great collection of talented people. Experts that have the ability to build and enhance relationships through sharing their knowledge for the benefit of customers. If you don't have them, you need the guts to go get them. You may have to move some people to other seats or off the bus all together.

2) Your entire staff needs the desire to communicate your collective expertise and then demonstrate that your people are the authority on the subjects in which you talk/write/share. If you have the desire, you will find the methods you need.

3) And most importantly, you need to transform your company into a sales organization. I'm not talking about some sleazy Glen Gary Glen Ross type, but rather, an organization that has enough discipline and caring to monitor, track and nurture individual relationships - of both longtime customers and prospects. So you can listen and respond quickly, if needed, in the format desired by the customer.

These ideas are not new, nor are they tremendously difficult. However, in order to do them you have to stop doing some things, and you might need to significantly retrain or change some of your workforce.

Marketing is not a department. It is a mindset which needs to reside in all areas of a company, if you want to be successful.

Do something that matters

It is my assumption that everyone wants to do something that matters. I'm far from positive about this, but it just makes sense to me. The opposite is people just want to feel like failures much of the time - and I just can't see anyone wanting that. So then the questions are these:

1) What is it that matters?

2) Can I do something that matters here or do I need to go somewhere else to do it?

The answers (as I see them) are:

1) What do you have a passion about? I'll bet others do to AND would benefit from your passion, understanding and expertise. Share it and watch what happens.

2) Yes. There is not a perfect place or ideal time. Certainly timing can be important, but if you wait to find the right mix of whatever you are waiting for - you will never even start.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes for you!

The Helpful Gene is critical to a strong organization

Being helpful is a trait that is taught early to children in the US. Some take to it easily and

others not as much. There certainly are studies about how personality type and birth order affect helpfulness, and like most research you can find some to make whatever case you care to make.

But, I'll say this: when you look for staff members, or vendors of any type, helpfulness should be a key hiring trait. It's a primary key to long-term success.

Helpfulness is a personality trait. To those that have it, it's ingrained. Those that are truly helpful LOVE to help people, sometimes even those that don't want to be helped. Which can cause problems for the 'helper' that has yet to rein in their gift.

I'm a helper. I've been that way for as long as I can remember. Over my life it has caused both joy and pain, as I learned where and when helpfulness was - well, helpful.

On the surface, and maybe even down a few layers, this post might seem self-serving. And I suppose it is to some extent. Since I am helpful, I view it as a valuable and necessary skill. But this post goes much deeper than being self-serving because it is about WHY helpful people are good for organizations.

In order to use your helpfulness you have to: see issues from other's point of view, understand the big picture, develop solutions that really solve problems, and you might have to become good at presenting on topics/issues that no one wants to discuss or talk about. You have to care and, more than that, you have to care about the people affected, and to understand the issues from the business side and the customer's side.

So, consider what questions you can ask to uncover if your next vendor or employee is a helpful soul. Their long-term value to your organization will be directly correlated to their helpfulness.

Marketing is a medley relay

You've heard the saying "Success is a marathon, not a sprint." I agree, but I'll add that marketing, or I should say 'great marketing' is a medley relay. In order to do great things, your organization needs to collectively own marketing. Everyone from Accounting to HR to Operations to Sales to C level are in the marketing. That is not because marketers are control freaks (a topic for a different post), but it is because marketing is an organizational trait rather than a department.

Because this is true, in order to be great with your marketing you need to practice hand offs and run your leg and cheer your teammates and carry warm ups and guard the baton and hold the blocks and train to win.

Everyone runs a leg. It might be short like the 100 meters or long like the 1600 meters, but each leg is critical to your success. Marketing is exactly like this.

Are you using your whole squad in your marketing? What can you do today to get everyone in training for your medley relay?

How to make people care.

Many have written about this topic and the issue is not solved evidenced by an example I witnessed while traveling recently. Here's the short version: Flight was oversold in an airport full of people who had been delayed by weather, so there is a standby list. Gate agent continually begs people to give up their seat, so they can get down to the number. I'm not sure if anyone bit or not. Regardless, boarding goes on as normal.

An adult son of one of the standby passengers is on the plane. He calls Mom and says they are about to close the door and there are 5 seats available. Mom goes to gate agent saying, "Hey, please get me on that plane. My son on the plane says there are 5 open seats." Agent was about to close the door says, let me check. Turns out there were 6 seats available, so most of the stand by passengers got to go - thanks to the son.

I understand that in this situation there are MANY moving parts. Stress is huge for all involved. The airline wants to be 'on time.' However, I was struck by how little the airline staff seemed to care. They had 6 open seats on a plane leaving an airport PACKED with people and they didn't appear to be acting to fill them. Wow!

Again, I realize it is crazy for airline staff in situations like this, but what a perfect time to really care about the people standing there waiting to go - wherever they planned to go.

This situation caused a discussion among our traveling party about how to make people care. Of course, there are no quick fixes and even caring people can have a bad hour or two.

So what can you do to instill caring as part of your company culture? Here are some things to consider.

     1. If you have the chance, hire to this skill. Make it one of the skills you MUST have. Department doesn't matter.

     2. Make sure you model caring to your staff. Help people. Show compassion. Let them know this is who you are as a company.

     3. Make your expectations clear and give them permission to fix a problem. You might need limits, but keep them general.

     4. Reward employees who consider customer experience - before or during a problem.

Regardless of your industry, caring employees matter. Your company will thrive because of them while others wilt.

What are your favorite ways to make employees care?