Intention vs Agenda – a Reminder of what truly matters in Marketing
Sabine Ehgoetz, M.A.
Content Marketing Specialist | Social Media | Sales Enablement | B2B Marketing | Branding & Design
Years back, I worked in network marketing – bear with me, in case you are rolling your eyes at the thought of one of those “pyramid schemes”!
I was in fact successful with it, my little team generated roughly a quarter million $US per annum. More importantly, it taught me something that became extremely valuable later in my career in content marketing and sales enablement. There was the idea of “5 asks a day” to reach your monthly goals, and I noticed something interesting: whenever I had an agenda – get my 5 asks for the day done, close a sale, reach my quota – nothing worked.
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However, when I very consciously put those thoughts out of my mind at the start of these daily conversations, and replaced them with true intention – the intention to make a difference for someone and help solve their problem, I was able to listen without my inner voice telling me to “close”. Within minutes they told me what they needed and were open to solutions I could offer. And everything closed.
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I do believe most entrepreneurs, when they start a business, come from “intention” – they have an idea they truly believe can make a difference, they are passionate about “solving a problem”. But as business grows, there are targets to meet, employees to pay, growth strategies to drive, and “agenda” often takes over. Their true intention may not even get communicated down to their teams, or it gets "washed out" as they grow and everyone has to meet performance targets. The problem: it doesn’t matter “what” you say – your intention, or agenda, will always be heard.
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A successful marketing strategy always needs to come from the true intention of solving a problem. Sure, there are OR, CTR, conversion rates, CPA, CPL and KPIs – and those matter when it comes to measuring profitability and growth.
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But all those numbers will improve, when the human emotion behind it, and the marketing strategies based on it, come from authentically hearing the audience, empathetically feeling their problems and from truly wanting to make a difference in whatever they are dealing with - at any stage of the funnel and life cycle of a lead.
Whatever marketing strategy, collaterals or content you are working on - remember to consciously put the agenda of moving the lead down the funnel out of your mind, and replace it with the intention of making a difference for another human and helping solve their pain today.
Sabine Ehgoetz