“You then buy a list of demographically correct people living in that area.
“Is that enough ‘how to do it’ for now?” I asked Sarah with mock impatience. “Will that keep you busy for a while?
“Because if it is, I’d like to go back to the ‘what to do’ for a minute. There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.”
“This marketing thing isn’t nearly as complicated as I might have made it seem,” I continued. “But it’s important that you take it seriously. Because it most often is regarded by small business owners as merely ‘good common sense.’ And I have seen more often than not that the only definition of ‘good common sense’ is ‘my opinion.’ That most small business owners, suffering as they do from what I’ve come to call ‘willful disinformation,’ simply decide what they want to do without any information at all, without any interest in what’s true, and then simply do it. Stationery designed by the local quick-printer with a logo thrown in. Colors picked by their wives. Signs designed by the local sign guy whose experience is in painting signs, not in determining what colors and shapes are psychographically correct.
“In short, Sarah, while you don’t have to go over the scientific deep end, you do have to be sensitive to the science of the marketing art. You have to be interested in it. In fact, you have to be interested in everything your business needs. You have to become a student of the art of business and the science of business. And that’s the ‘what to do’ part of all this. Do you realize how much marketing money is spent by companies like McDonald’s, Federal Express, Disney, and Walmart to get it just right? Do you realize how much time and attention companies like Pepsico and American Express spend to get their brands just right? And how easy it is to miss the mark? And what it costs them if they do?
“In a small business you simply can’t afford to spend the money they do. But you can afford to spend the time, the thought, the attention, on the same questions they ask.
“And that’s why I keep on going back to the true work of the small business owner—the strategic work rather than the tactical work. Because if you’re doing
tactical work all the time, if you’re working all the time, devoting all your energy in your business, you won’t have any time or energy left to ask, let alone answer, all of the absolutely critical questions you need to ask. You’ll simply have no time or energy left to work on it.
“The owner of the business must start out by asking marketing questions.
“The COO must continue to ask marketing questions.
“The VP/Marketing is absolutely accountable for asking marketing questions.
“In fact, there isn’t a function or position within the company that is free of asking marketing questions, if by marketing we mean, ‘What must our business be in the mind of our customers in order for them to choose us over everyone else?’
“And so, seen from the appropriate perspective, the entire business process by which your company does what it does is a marketing process.
“It starts with the promise you make to attract them to your door.
“It continues with the sale you make once they get there.
“And it ends with the delivery of the promise before they leave your door.
“In some companies that process is called Lead Generation, Lead Conversion, Client Fulfillment.
“In your business, Sarah, it’s called Marketing, Sales, and Operations.
“But whatever you call it, it is the essential key process that runs through every business.
“And it is how well-integrated that process is, how totally and completely connected each part of the process appears in relation to the rest of the process, that will determine how successful you are at getting them to come back for more.
“And it is getting them to come back for more that is the Primary Aim of every business.
“Because what McDonald’s knows, and what Federal Express knows, and what Disney knows—indeed, what every extraordinary business knows—is that the customer you’ve got is one hell of a lot less expensive to sell to than the customer you don’t have yet.
“And that’s why the business process of Lead Generation, Lead Conversion, and Client Fulfillment is so critical to the growth of your business. And that’s what marketing is. The whole process. Not just a part of it but the entire thing.
“And it never stops!
“And so, while the VP/Marketing and the VP/Operations and the VP/Finance each have their own specific accountabilities, they share one common purpose—to make a promise their customer wants to hear, and to deliver on that promise better than anyone else on the block!
“And the place where they join each other is at the position of COO. The COO is the driver of all this. The COO connects each part of the business process. The COO maintains the integrity of the whole by acting as the arbiter of the Strategic Objective he is accountable for fulfilling, of the rules of the game he is accountable for maintaining, of the game the business has chosen to play.
“And it is there, at that point in the middle, where Hierarchy and Process meet.
“It is there, at that point in the middle, that your business comes together.
Your Marketing Strategy 233
“It is there, at that point where your Management System and your Business Development Process play out their respective roles so vividly.
“It is at that point, the point I have called the Power Point earlier, that a business truly becomes alive.
“Where the static and dynamic nature of every great business meets. ‘This is how we do it here,’ and then, ‘This is how we do it here,’ and then, ‘This is how we do it here,’ over and over, and still over again.
“Continuous improvement.
“Electrifying, ecstatic, alive.
“To do what?
“To deliver the promise no one else in your industry dares to make!
“That’s what marketing is, Sarah. That’s what your business must be. Alive, growing, committed to keeping a promise no competitor would dare to make.
“That’s what needs to be done. Are you ready to do it?”
“Then let’s go on to the last part and tie it all together,” I said.
“Let’s take a look at Systems, and the absolutely essential role they play.”
