Winning the Race

Introduction to a new marketing framework - Part 2

Feel free to check out Part 1 if you missed it!

“Patience is a virtue.” “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” “They’re playing the long game.” “Good things come to those who wait.”?

We’ve all heard these common phrases throughout our lives. It’s probably easier to recall one of these sayings than it is our loved ones phone numbers these days. Little children are often read the fable about the tortoise and the hare in school, and as we enter the workforce we are told that we need to “put our time in” to get experience before we can get promoted or get a raise.?

Be patient. That’s what the wise ones say.?

So why do business owners often have a hard time with patience when it comes to marketing??

The truth is, it goes beyond just living in a digital age where we have instant access to so much information. It often has to do with lack of experience or marketplace knowledge, not understanding expectations as they relate to goals, and misallocation of funds. Many businesses have a basic understanding of the direction they want their marketing to go, but it’s surface level, as simple as knowing the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and beyond that it’s directionless. Businesses tend to lose their way trying to get from point A to point B and there are no flags on the trail (hiking reference) to help them get back on track.?

What they need is a way to find their way whether the sun is out, the flags are there or they come across someone else who can help them. They need a reliable and consistent tool to help guide them when all other resources fail. They need the Revenue Leadership Compass.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; marketing is a discipline and it requires discipline, i.e., patience.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; marketing is a discipline and it requires discipline, i.e., patience.

But beyond patience, discipline also includes practice, intention and clarity in order to address, “What is it that you’re trying to accomplish? And, how are you going to accomplish it?”

The Revenue Leadership Compass is a framework that breaks down everything that is important and crucial to a successful marketing strategy; the things we see, the things we don’t, the things that are connected, and how everything contributes to marketing as a whole.?

The Revenue Leadership Compass looks like this.

So, let’s get into it. First we have the ECOSYSTEM in the center.

This is where everything happens. It houses all of our customers, former, future, and current, as well as our competitors, vendors, and even the economic and political climate we (and our customers) are trying to navigate. Everything we do has to interact with the ecosystem and none of our efforts will bear fruit if it cannot survive the challenges that the real world and real customers present. Said differently, our ultimate success depends on how well we understand this ecosystem and the needs, problems, and desires of the people living in it.

I once worked with a company that built their whole offering around a guarantee: if my client was unable to save their customers a certain amount of money within 12 months, they would work for free until they did. But when we did market research, we found that the guarantee did not weigh into their customer’s decision-making process. Yes, they liked saving money, but there were other factors that mattered a lot more, like eliminating extra work, removing headaches, and improving employee retention. In other words, my client was trying to sell something that did not line up with what their customers really wanted to buy. They were out of touch with the ecosystem. Time spent understanding your marketplace is never wasted and it’s foundational to building a winning marketing strategy — that’s why the ecosystem is at the center of this framework.

Now let’s build our compass…

Every effort, every campaign, everything we do tends to have two components: the part that’s easy for us to see, feel and perceive, and the part that tends to be less tangible, or even fuzzy. For example we know how much money we’re spending on marketing, our bank and credit card statements tell us that but it’s sometimes less apparent what we’re trying to buy with that money… What’s the real benefit or value that I was supposed to get from that spend? And have I gotten it?

On that note, the first “directional” line we’ll add is INVESTMENT.?

If you’ve heard the expression that “cash rules everything around me,” that’s true here. The budget is critically important in terms of defining reality. But it’s not just about the amount of money that’s spent, it also refers to the value we get in return for that spend.?

Budget numbers are tangible (we see money being spent when we look out our P&L and credit card statements and whatnot). Value is not and can be subjective. For example, “I paid the marketing agency, but when will I start making money?” or “We went to the trade show, but did it work?” or as department store owner John Wanamaker famously said more than 100 years ago, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half.”

Several years ago, I worked with a tech company whose sales and marketing budget was basically a shopping list: we’re going to this conference, we’re going to do a new website, we’re going to do Google Ads and SEO. So we sat down and looked at the Lifetime Value of every new user they acquired, did some math, and found that they were actually leaving some opportunities on the table. There was more than enough budget to hit the modest goals they had, but with a slightly bigger and more strategic spend, they could get a lot more growth. There was the value! That company ended up selling their business just 2 years later based on that growth.

The next piece of the puzzle is SUCCESS.?

The metrics are going to be what’s tangible here. The numbers might tell a story about revenue, about brand awareness, about customer satisfaction, or various other things. But goals are often a lot fuzzier: unless we have context, our numbers aren’t able to tell us whether we are being successful. And without clear, common goals, all we get is confusion and mistrust.?

I had a client at my old agency who wanted to grow their customer base by a fixed number of new online sales each month. It seemed simple and I agreed. The problem, it turned out, was that there was a key difference in how I interpreted that goal versus how my client did. From my perspective, I thought my team was in charge of WINNING a certain number of new customers per month. From their perspective, they thought they should be NETTING that growth every month, including the customers that left during that time. But their churn was enormous, they were losing customers almost as fast as they were gaining them and there was no way that goal was achievable with the resources we had. Goals only work when there’s agreement and understanding around what success looks like. Goals shouldn’t be debatable.?

INGREDIENTS are next.?

These are the raw materials that we use to drive revenue growth. On the tangible side, it includes our logo, our content, the marketing materials, sales proposals, and the business website, things we can easily see and interact with. On the other side is our team and the contributions of the people on that team. These tend to be less tangible, despite the sheer amount of tangible material that many marketing people are able to produce. Marketers also tend to be less visible than their counterparts in other departments: when someone in sales signs a new deal, we celebrate, we pay commissions. But the contributions of marketing that helped make the sale possible are often not celebrated as heartily.?

I had a meeting with the owner of an accounting firm who was frustrated with his marketing manager. Every week they would sit down for a one-to-one and the marketing manager would go through their projects item by item and give the status on every one. But the CEO was frustrated because he wanted his marketing person to bring him strategy and a plan that would help his business grow. So I asked him if the marketing manager knew that was his job, and the CEO paused and then said, “I’m not sure.” People are essential to the success of any marketing strategy and we only get to be successful if everyone knows what’s expected of them, and where they have authority and accountability.?

And finally, we’ve arrived at the EXECUTION portion of the compass, where tactics are tangible, while planning is often unseen.?

What do I mean by this? We see a billboard over the highway, we see the direct mail, the email marketing, and the social media posts. But, we devalue the time it takes to plan those efforts to ensure that we are doing the right thing. We don’t have a magic lamp. No one is granting wishes with the snap of a finger and rushing into the part of the process where we produce stuff will often yield poor results. Good decision-making is key and if we want to be successful picking the right tactics, we have to acknowledge the plan that went into it.?

A very early client of mine was desperate to have an SEO strategy that drove their company’s growth. So they hired a firm, and then a year or so later they were frustrated by the lack of success so they fired that firm and hired another. Then they did it again. And again. And… again. But what if the problem wasn’t that every SEO firm in town was incompetent? What if the problem was that the expectations my client had about SEO just weren’t realistic??

Great, but how can I implement this?

I know right now it might feel like I’ve dropped a lot of information on you without telling you how my Revenue Leadership Compass is going to keep you out of trouble in the future and help prevent you from wasting time and effort on marketing down the line. I’ve told you what this is, but I haven’t really told you how it works.

Fear not, Part 3 in this series will detail how you can apply this framework in your business to prevent costly mistakes and ensure a straight line between dollars, effort, and results. Continue to Part 3

Thanks for taking the time to read Going Up! Please subscribe if you found this valuable and reach out if I can help in any way.

-Erik Wolf

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn.

Website: https://ewolf.live/

About the Author

Erik Wolf is a Denver-based marketing leadership coach/consultant. He has also written three books, taught as an adjunct professor at Metropolitan State University, and is a speaker with Vistage Worldwide, a coaching and peer advisory group for CEOs.