Every company needs a marketing plan - why? One reason and one reason only: to achieve accelerated, profitable growth! If any consultant, agency, outsourced marketing company or any other so-called “expert”, tells you anything else (e.g. to build awareness for your brand); run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Building a brand can be an important tactic in reaching your goal — but it is not, in and of itself, a goal. Nor are lead generation, customer loyalty programs or value propositions. All might have their place for your company – but they are NOT goals.
You might ask, “If marketing can really contribute to sustained profitable growth, why doesn’t every company have a marketing plan?” There are many different answers. Some VARs or resellers don’t understand marketing’s role in a growing company. Others believe it is too expensive or unnecessary for a company of their size. Still others bemoan the lack of internal expertise or time to make it happen. A few even believe that the channel marketing organizations of vendors and distributors make it redundant for them to market their own company. This last sentiment can usually be dismissed by answering one question: When a vendor offers to put your name or logo on a direct mail piece or seminar invitation, whose company do you believe they are promoting – yours or theirs? If you answered the former, you need to stay and see me after class.
So, if good marketing can enable profitable sales growth, how does it happen? Well, begin with the understanding that a well-devised and executed marketing plan can enable and direct sales growth only if it can successfully build and articulate the connection between your company’s resources (people, products, services, etc.) and your target end users. I didn’t say “sell more stuff” or “sell your stuff to more people”, because until you can build a strong connection between your organization and your target customers, it is difficult — if not impossible — to figure out what to look for in new customers, and equally challenging to articulate the value you offer once you find them.
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