Marketing activity sometimes confused with results

Friday, February 13, 2009 by Sean Geehan

This year one of the themes for me and my organization is to not get “Activity confused with Results.” This happens more than we care to admit, especially in the marketing and sales part of many organizations. People stay very busy all day long with email, calls, meetings, etc. but when I ask people, “Are the activities you did yesterday (or last week or month) the best use of your time to meet your or your firm’s priorities and objectives?” - most of the time the answer is an apologetic "NO." 

So why is it that in this “do more with less” environment, we don’t take the time to organize, prioritize and focus our efforts on those which will deliver results? Why aren’t we taking the time to “plan the work and then work the plan?” And how far up the organization is this pattern happening? Now that’s the $64,000 question!

For instance, in this environment, what are we doing to maintain revenue by retaining our current customers, identifying ways to sell these customers more and seeking referrals and introductions?  With new customer acquisition cost at premium, it’s a very logical plan. 

As marketing and sales leaders, we need to factor market conditions into sales and marketing plans. By doing so, you’ll have a much greater opportunity to keep more of your budget. You’ll also need to show the return on the programs. And you’ll need to track and report in a simple and credible way.

This planning and focus will allow you to provide clear direction to your marketing and sales teams that is tied to goals and objectives that will truly affect results.

Comments for Marketing activity sometimes confused with results

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009 by Erik Nebergall:
Sean, you don't know how right you are. It is rare that marketing efforts are scrutinized for their effectiveness and return-on-investment. My company, Meta Marketing (www.meta-marketing.com) helps businesses with hard-to-sell offerings build healthy sales pipelines. We work primarily by phone, because it provides the best pay-back for our clients. Here are three examples supporting your point: 1. We regularly work with Marketing executives who insist that we do mailings before we call. We find that this is a waste of time and money since most of the mailings go to the wrong people and are trashed. Its amazing the cost of some of these mailings too. One of our clients sent out 100 VCRs with a prepared video message. We recommend calling the targeted companies first to determine if the company is a good fit for the client and, if so, identify the targeted individual(s). Then mail if you must. We suggest talking to the targeted individuals to determine if there is need before proceeding further. 2. A client insisted on placing a full-page ad containing an 800 number (we were to answer) in the Wall Street Journal for several days. You can image the cost of this. As you might imagine, we got two calls. Neither had anything to do with the product being advertised. 3. A major Fortune 500 company spent $80,000 mailing invitations for a webinar. Subsequent to the mailing we were engaged to call the same database as follow-up. Meta registered over 100 executives who attended the Webinar. Only one person we spoke to remembered receiving the mailing. So figure the cost of marketing on this mailing. Isn't it time CEOs require Marketing to became accountable for their actions/efforts. Sales would benefit.