What does the word “marketing” mean to you? When you say “we need to do some marketing” or “we need a marketing plan,” what is the end result you are picturing?

Of all the functions that contribute to business growth, marketing has got to be the least standardized. Not only do the activities associated with marketing vary from company to company, but the purpose and goals of marketing differ widely. In many cases, marketing is a synonym for sales, which in my opinion is one of the biggest strategic mistakes a company can make.

Marketing is not sales. But marketing better be contributing to revenue generation or you’re wasting time and money. And probably lots of both.

Here is a simple way to think of marketing: your marketing activities need to make your sales process easier. How they do that will vary depending on your company and market. Product marketing is very different from service marketing. Business to business marketing is very different from business to consumer marketing. Marketing high cost goods and services requires a different approach from marketing commodities.

Even in the same industry and marketplace, how one company markets will differ from the way its competitors market. Just watch a couple of beer or car commercials on TV and you’ll see what I mean. This is because company culture, personality, and brand will impact marketing activities and messages.

So, I ask you: Is your marketing program making your sales process easier? Be careful when answering. There are nuances to marketing that are important to consider. Some activities are more direct than others and so are much easier to gauge. An example is direct response marketing. Another is e-commerce web sites with incorporated shopping carts. In both cases there is a clear link to the sales side. This type of marketing can be very easily quantified and its impact on sales can be accurately measured.

Some activities, though, are more subtle. Things that get your company better known in the marketplace will help the sales process, but not as clearly as direct response or “click here to buy” activities. They are qualitative in impact but no less important.

Effective public relations, for example, will certainly influence your target market by keeping your name top of mind in the people you want to buy from you. This type of activity, of course, is nowhere near as measurable as more direct things. Does this mean you shouldn’t do it? Absolutely not!! It does mean, however, that you need to stay awake and find ways to gauge how successful these more subtle activities are in making the sales process easier.

Here’s the bottom line. Take time to clearly and accurately define what marketing means specifically for your company, and define how it can make the sales process easier. Don’t just accept any published definitions, no matter how exalted their sources.

About the Author
Trish Lambert (http://www.trishlambert.com), principal of 4-R Marketing LLC, is an experienced marketing consultant and creator of the 4-R Marketing Model™ for service businesses. Very much a “non-conformist” in the marketing world, Trish produces measurable results with marketing that drives revenues for her customers.

Entrepreneurs pay a lot of attention to the mechanics of marketing. They take workshops, read books, and hire consultants to find out how to do the best job they possibly can. With my own clients, I often discover that their knowledge of marketing techniques is quite good already. What they might lack is the right kind of marketing attitude.

Do any of the attitudes described below sound familiar? If so, you may be sabotaging your own marketing efforts. Read on for some possible solutions.

1. “I shouldn’t have to market.” If you are good enough at what you do, you tell yourself, clients should just come to you. Marketing is for products, not professionals. You have years of training and experience in your specialty, why should you have to spend your precious time on marketing?

This perception is extremely common among consultants and professionals, although many won’t admit it. The fact is that successful marketing is a necessary part of business ownership. If you could get all the paying work you wanted without having to market, why wouldn’t everyone be self-employed?

If you perceive marketing as a dirty business, try thinking of it as the diapers you need to change in order to have the joys of being a parent. But instead of focusing on what you dislike, tie your marketing chores to your vision of a successful business.

Visualize checks arriving in the mail when it’s time to make a cold call, or picture a signed contract when preparing for a presentation. Post visual reminders (e.g. photos or clippings) at your desk of the reasons you became self-employed in the first place. Parents don’t remember all the diapers when they’re looking at the baby photos.

2. “I don’t have time for marketing.” There are only two situations where this can really be true: you’re too busy doing the client work you already have, or you have other important responsibilities (e.g. an outside job or young children) taking up your time.

It’s easy to believe that doing client work already contracted for is more important than marketing, especially when deadlines are tight. But if you always follow this policy, you will be locked into a feast or famine cycle, with no new clients waiting for you when the work is finished.

Whether your responsibilities preventing you from marketing are within the business or outside it, you need to allocate a minimum amount of time each week, no matter what. Even two hours per week can make a significant difference, if you consistently use that time for marketing.

Imagine that you have overslept, and are late for an appointment. You might skip breakfast, but would you leave the house without brushing your teeth? Of course not. If you are going to be successful in business, that’s how automatic marketing needs to become for you.

3. “My marketing isn’t working.” It’s true that there may be something wrong with your marketing. Perhaps your message is unclear or the tactics you’re using are inappropriate for the audience. I find, though, that for the majority of business owners who say this, the real problem is not that their marketing isn’t working but that they aren’t working their marketing.

Let’s say your business needs two new clients a month, on average. If, in your experience, you must make a detailed presentation, proposal, or initial consultation to three potential clients for one to say yes, you will need to make six of these presentations per month.

Now how many prospects do you need to have contact with for one to be interested in a presentation? Ten, maybe? That means you need to make contact with 60 prospects each month to land your two new clients. If you do this math for yourself, you may quickly find that the only thing wrong with your marketing is that there hasn’t been enough of it.

About the Author
C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at http://www.getclientsnow.com