I saw this morning that CNBC had a slideshow on Jobs People Hate. Marketing was mentioned as no. 10, indirectly mentioned as Product Management at no. 3 and coming in at no. 2 was Director of Sales and Marketing. The reasons they are listed? Lack of direction and an absence of opportunity for growth were blamed as the top two reasons for dissatisfaction.
Who wouldn’t hate a job where there was a lack of direction and no room to grow? On the other hand, in today’s economy, a pragmatist might ask, “who has the luxury of loving their job?” I wrote my book, “Buyer Steps” to help business obtain direction in their 21st century marketing and sales efforts. My experience would tell me that a byproduct of getting an organization moving in the right direction is more opportunity for everyone in the company.
A few questions for a marketing team:
1) do you truly understand your buyers from a persona, motivation and expectations standpoint? If you’re not speaking from their standpoint, using their words, there is no relevancy to the message.
2) what is your “so what” – what makes you stand out in impact to the buying organization? Without this, expect long buying cycles and poor leads.
3) are you using the same techniques and getting the same (if not diminishing) results?
4) do you receive proper and fair support from the CEO?
I have always liked marketing and sales. The reason is simple, it’s the moment of truth. When marketing and sales have clear direction and leadership,
