If Your Marketing and Business Growth Efforts Have Not Been What You Had Hoped Them To Be, Then You Can’t Afford NOT To Read This Article…
I am the owner and founder of a marketing consulting firm that has been around since 1990 and has clients throughout the United States. I have a staff of marketing business strategists, communication copywriters, graphic and web designers. We have successfully marketed a diverse array of businesses, from technical, e-business and manufacturing firms to health care to private practices in the legal and accounting industries. I also teach Marketing and Public relations on both the Graduate and Undergraduate levels at the University of Phoenix.
So what has made it difficult for us to most effectively do our job of creating client and business growth in the past two years? The stock market? Lack of consumer confidence?
The reality is that marketing means so much more than the "utilization of resources and strategy creation to grow the client base of a business." The hoped-for outcome of marketing is to create more business, but we rarely stop to think about the "ramifications" of such business growth, other that the fact that the business might make a few more bucks.
For example, we never address or consider the strain on the personal lives of employees under the increased workload. If this issue is not correctly addressed it can create resentment in your employees (consciously or un-consciously) that will invariably undermine your marketing and business growth efforts. Additionally, the present state of both the economy and of world events has created a fear of layoffs, lack of business resources and the general deterioration of the safety, quality-of-life and well-being of people’s lives. This says nothing about what may or may not be going on in personal lives, such as divorce, death, illness or family problems. This fear can cause employees to "choke down" this employee resentment, intensifying its detrimental effects.
If you find that your employees and perhaps even your customers are "on hold" and not moving ahead with business progress since 9/11 or the war in Iraq, consider this:
"Business is a integral part of society as a whole, and so when society gets cast into an unpredictable (treacherous and scary) future, business inevitably goes with it."
Businesses are comprised of individual people, who shut down when their future is obstructed or, in effect, taken away. We, as managers, need to give that hopeful future back to our employees.
To that end, marketing creates the future of a business. It is important to create a "marketing centered" business, where marketing and the future it creates, becomes the very fabric of the organization.
Past organization structure has a "visionary" at the helm, with the rest of the organization following that vision. What if you had an organization where each person was a "visionary," each understanding how the success of the organization will in turn create their own success for their individual lifepath? Notice that I wrote the words "individual lifepath" here. Many of you might think that in "these times" that we can’t afford such frivolity. It is this simple:
"A happy, self-directed employee is a productive employee. A happy, self-directed employee sees how the good of the company will truly be for the good of them. A happy, self-directed employee makes marketing business growth happen."
Marketing and business growth strategies become productive because you now have a team that will effectively advance themselves no matter what the business terrain.
I offer several case studies for your consideration:
- [We need to know that our personal lives and families have a future.] I am working as a marketing consultant to assist in increasing the client base of an interior design and architecture firm. I have been setting up appointments for the sales staff, but the staff had been seeing little success with closing. When I worked with the sales staff to try to uncover the problem, I found that when it came right down to it, the staff did not see much point in trying, because with the world situation being the way that it is, they felt that “The Bomb” was getting ready to fall anyway, so why bother? I got them to see past “The Bomb” and envision the success of their sales efforts. This, in effect enabled them to take back their futures. They are now enthusiastically pursuing the sales and marketing efforts of the company with successful results despite the slow economy.
- [We need to know that our business and professional lives have a future.] The problem employee—I am working with a manufacturing company and have been meeting regularly with the partners. One of the partners has been especially difficult for everyone to deal with not only in our management meetings but generally in the office as well. I finally pulled him aside and asked him what was wrong. He said that everything was wrong, and that it didn’t matter because the company was on the verge of economic collapse. I asked him the question, "What would it look like if everything worked—if everything was going right?" He told me that there was not enough money in his development budget and so he could not do his job. I called a meeting of the partners to bring this up and discuss with them—not an especially comfortable thing for me to do. After we looked at the issue, we called in the accountant to see how we could budget more money (in this economy by re-budgeting from other areas) to development. Now this partner has a clear view of his future and direction to move forward with the overall vision of the company. He is no longer a “difficult” member of the organization.
- [We need to be allowed to dream of our business success.] A new client walked into my office for a business consultation appointment very tight and guarded. This person is a very conservative, "technical" type and I had a hard time getting her to tell me why she was here. To make a long story short, she has a great idea for a new product for the veterinary industry. She has never told anyone about her idea because she was afraid that they would think that the idea was stupid. She was worried that someone would ruin her dream of making this idea into a successful business, and that she would be stuck in her present job (which is not very challenging) forever. She has a great idea and we are taking it to market!
- [Future visioning and life balance.] I work with many different types of private practices in the area of client development for the practice. In this case, I am working with a surgical medical group that is opening a new practice office in another area. Getting this new practice office off of the ground is making it that several of the doctors are having to make long commutes and spend even longer hours at the office. Overall, marketing and growth was happening but as I saw success unfold for this office I noticed that the senior doctor was getting more and more sullen and unresponsive. Over lunch one day, I brought up this overall sense of "tightness" and I asked him what was wrong. He told me that every day when he is at home he walks by his unfinished painting in his art room, and it frustrates him that he has been unable to get the chance to finish it. We worked on making changes and re-balancing his life, so now he is able to have a successful practice AND have time for his artistic pursuits. He is now achieving success in all areas of his life.
- [We don’t have to take "whatever we can get." We need to have a vision of what we want for our future and know that each one of us has the power to get there.] I have seen this work with businesses struggling in the present economy. This brings to mind a situation where I am working with a company that is in the manufacturing industry. If your business is struggling, you are facing scarcity in your future. It is important to get past that and look at what it would look like if everything were going as planned? This single step allows you to be open to higher possibilities and opportunities when they come along.
About the author: Lynn Sarkany is Principal of Marketfinders® in Thousand Oaks, CA. Marketfinders® specializes in helping companies and private practices to grow their business by using a proven system of marketing strategy that will get results. She can be reached at (805) 777-7479, www.marketfinders.net, or consulting@marketfinders.net
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