Marketing starts from the inside and works itself out

A client recently declared that he had a marketing problem. Asking a few questions, what he meant to say is that he had an advertising problem. His sales were steady over two years, but his costs were rising. His margins were shrinking. He wanted me to come up with a fancy, quick fix equal to a shot of morphine that could make the pain go away.

Marketing is simple but unfortunately not easy. The heavy lifting to turn a company around is usually more complicated than getting more customers. More customers translates to less customers in the long run if the business under delivers on its promises. 

Marketing is just a promise.

The unfortunate thing about our client was that his margins were shrinking due to improper cost controls. His business was stagnate because of a lack of systems and controls on product and service standards. An inconsistent product made the company a liar in its past promises.

The client wanted us to show him how to increase his sales by 30%. Instead we told him he had to plug the holes in the bucket before he went after more customers. We guaranteed a fix but it wasn't what he wanted to hear. He got his morphine from someone else. 

And that's ok. For us to help a patient, we need the patient to recognize our expertise.

Marketing starts at the top of any organization. The leader's relationship with the whole team will allow for a collaborative, team-oriented approach or insular, everyone-for-himself mentality. The leader needs to build systems that the team can experience personal and financial growth. 

An environment where everyone feels they have an opportunity to voice their opinions makes it family like. Motivation, morale, happiness and profits exist here. 

You don't have to do this. The alternative is cranky, unmotivated, backstabbers in which absenteeism, and productivity is always an issue. 

We all want profits in our business. 

There's a simple solution. It doesn't start with more customers.

Leadership and vision finds, trains and motivates happy employees. Happy employees serve customers who eventually become loyal. Following Pareto's Law, 20% of customers generate 80% of the profits.

 

Increasing profits starts with the leadership and vision. It's not an outside problem. Lack of profits is usually an internal problem. Before you spend too much money on advertising, fix the internal stuff and revenues will start to shift. Once the problems are fixed, advertising can then be used. Otherwise, increased profits will take time because word of mouth is the slowest form of advertising.

So if you have money to spend on advertising, spend it first by fixing the inside of your business.  

Advertising only speeds up the inevitable. A sucky company goes out of business faster with an increase in advertising budget.