The Chief Deckchair Rearranger

This week, we are on a mission, and as you can probably guess from the title, are we doing the right things?

What’s the most important thing you or your business needs right now, and are you doing it?

I don’t mean this in a hustle-porn kind of way; as I’ve shared before, many things distract us marketers from the mission.

Last week, I described the mission as:

“to take revenue out of the market and grow this company before the market gives it to those other bastards to grow theirs”.

Ooooh… so maybe I should give this hustle-porn thing a go.

It’s not just us on this mission; the other day, I was reminiscing with a sales leader chum of mine, and I did that “whatever happened to” thing about a mutual colleague we had. It transpired that my chum had to let this chap go, as he was constantly busy but couldn’t close deals because they couldn’t ask for the business.

“Asking for the business” means being pretty clear that at some point in a sales conversation, you need to move on from the jolly chatter, empathy, and discussing the problem to finding out if they really want to buy.

Do the thing.

I’m not a salesperson, but having observed the boiler room from pretty close quarters for a couple of decades, I’ve seen sales can be pretty brutal: you close business, or you don’t. Thirty years after it was written, people still quote the play “Glengarry Glenross” for a reason: it hasn’t changed.

Notice I said “play” not film, because I am classy and have seen the play. And the film.

Find yourself a good salesperson, and you’ll discover that being busy is not a guaranteed measure of future success. Yes, to working hard, but being simply busy is not the mission.

These folks are at the sharp end of the joint sales and marketing mission, and I am sharing this story because I don’t think we, in marketing, can or should immunize ourselves from the mission; we need to feel that.

I often talk about ART being our mission (Awareness, Revenue, and Trust) but “take revenue out of the market and grow this company before the market gives it to those other bastards to grow theirs” is a bit more pointed.

Especially if you’ve had the small company or startup experience, this feeling is visceral, you have to feel this, it is the …. hustle. Yes, I said hustle.

The message of Glengarry Glenross is not the flashy Alex Baldwin soundbites, it’s the fear of the sales team, that that weak leads will mean they lose their jobs.

However, like busy salespersons, we in marketing have plenty to distract us.

The question for this 2￠ - Are we standing on the deck of the Titanic and rearranging the deck chairs?

Maybe you care deeply about the alignment of deck chairs.

Perhaps you’ve been asked to make sure they are neat.

Maybe having deck chairs in a line is what we’ve always done at this company.

Perhaps an executive heard Gary V and Steve Bartlett mention deck chairs on their podcast

Maybe deckchairs are your niche or the thing you want to be known for.

Perhaps the chairs need to be straight to work with Deckforce.

Maybe the deckchairs are just so cool and SHINY.

Whatever our motivation….

Is that an iceberg?

Is there something more pressing we should be focused on that will make a difference to the business?

And it’s not just icebergs; it could be something positive, a prevailing wind, or a wave that might sweep our craft forward, accelerating our business.

What impact could we make if it wasn’t for these pesky chairs?

What could we do if we weren’t the Chief Deckchair Rearranger?

I'm not really suggesting YOU are, but hypothetically, you know.... someone…

You may also like this previous 2￠ on distractions from marketing