We go fishin' when the fish are runnin'

I went bass fishing with my 12 year old son last week.

We sat there on the edge of the ocean, casting our lines anticipating a "bite".

Waiting, and casting.
Talking, and enjoying the crisp ocean breeze.

And I thought of an old colleague.
Morris was Vice President of Marketing of a $50 million business and his favourite saying was, "We go fishin' when the fish are runnin'."

What he meant was we should market heavily when potential customers are most apt to buy. And we should slack off when it's too hard to convince them otherwise.

Morris was smart. I learned a lot from him.

Cast the line when everyone else are casting their lines.
Fish when everyone else is fishing.
Sell when customers are most apt to buy.

I call this noise elevation.

Morris was worried about ROI (return on investment) of the marketing dollars he was spending. His children's bellies depended on him proving his marketing prowess.

I was casting my line and thinking about Morris when I realized that he was wrong.

Marketing is nothing like fishing.
It can be about timing, but that's the lazy route and too competitive.
It's not about ROI. It's about business growth.

And most marketers don't talk about business growth because they think marketing is a department within a business. And there are too many variables they have no control over.

Pareto's Law, or 80-20 rule, loosely states that 80% of outcome will come from 20% of inputs.

Marketing is 80% internal and 20% external.

Marketing internally includes every sales call, collection notice, conversation with a potential hire, potential supplier, internal discussions, weeds on the front lawn, rats in the basement, dirt on the delivery truck, logo on the letterhead, misspelling, attitude, crooked chairs, cracked windows, employee uniforms, etc.

You understand external marketing. But then again, you know the internal marketing too.

The internal marketing should be easy. You're dealing with the human element.

Now we're talking Culture.

Don't spend another dollar on external marketing until you fix your culture problem. Then you won't have to fish when the fish are runnin'. They'll always be runnin'. And when you're ready to cast your line, the fish will jump in your lap.