After all these years helping business to business companies, I have something to admit: I have a total inferiority complex about being in marketing.
I was all about academic rigor until I entered the business world, and never got over thinking that what I do now is fluffy compared to what I did in academics before. I may come off like a bimbo or a jerk (or -- oiy vey -- both?) when I say I'm a marketing consultant.
And maybe there's good reason: In general, in light of our specialization, we suck at marketing Marketing. Do you know what I mean?
So here's how I sleep at night. Remember Daily Affirmations on SNL? It's kinda like that.
- Am I practicing trust-based marketing? (Would a reasonable person on the receiving end perceive my client's marketing communications as thoughtful and respectful?)
- Is the content I am helping to produce genuinely useful? (Would a reasonable person on the receiving end think, "Cool!" and click?)
- Am I really aligned with Sales on customer acquisition? (Have I really listened to Sales about the most common objections or friction they encounter during the sales process?)
- Have I helped to systemize marketing communications? (Am I establishing efficient, stress-free processes and sparing my client from "fire drills"?)
- Am I making recommendations and marketing decisions informed by data -- with a closed-loop measurement system in place? (I admit it - it's hard to always answer "yes" to this one.)
- Am I regularly assessing whether any marketing dollar, services, or practice needs to be trimmed in order to achieve and sustain a high return on investment? (Am I looking objectively at expenditures and returns?)
- Can my client track my progress and performance on clear, quantifiable performance indicators, like visit-to-leads conversion rate?
- Is my client getting more than they're investing? (Am I providing 3, 5, or 10 times more in new business opportunities, than I'm charging?)
Do you have any smidgen of the sort of complex I mentioned above?
Is there another mental test you run to see if you're doing B2B marketing consulting right?
Are there other principles you live by professionally?
