I know that my Marketing manager friends who are reading this title are now cringing since they live in the real world of attempting to balance strategies and long-term initiatives with the day-to-day necessities of filling Q4 MQLs metrics.  And then of course, at this time of year, there's the requirement to figure out their 2025 marketing plans with the added pressure from their CFO of keeping their expenses the same.  And all of this within the very compressed time period of the next 8 weeks.  This is exactly why I try to make Marketing simple; otherwise, there's just too much to deal with and too often the resulting plans never gets to the results we need. 

I have the perfect job since in addition to running our consulting firm, I'm now in the 4th week of our 13-week Marketing semester which ends with the development of fully developed 2025 marketing plans which will be provided to the senior management of our 7 host companies during the first week of December. As a result, I need to make Marketing less complex by focusing on just a few foundational pillars.   Here's 3 for you to think about this morning as you start your 2025 planning process 

Marketing is Everything!

That's the simplest definition there is, and my adherence to that strategy comes from Regis McKenna, one of the true founders of what today we know as Silicon Valley.  I met him at MIT decades ago, and his core belief was "Marketing is everything and everything is marketing." defining that marketing is not a function, but an all-pervasive way of business.   

To make it less complex, everything needs to fit into that definition of "everything": promotions, advertising, events, social, flyers, influencers, TV & radio, sponsorships, and everything else...including "branding".  Placing all of these possible strategies and tactics into one definition of Marketing is the simple part. The complexity comes in figuring out which of those marketing tactics will provide the company's sales organization with the most cost-effective leads in the time periods that salespeople need them.  But figuring that out is also not that complex since the answers are already baked into the math of our business plans in terms of revenue, margins, retention and customer satisfaction ratings.  Of course, it's more complex than that, but for this morning, I'm trying to take the complexity out of the process. What the best marketing does come down to is the production of the most effective lead gen measured by cost and time. 

Marketing's #1 Job is to produce leads to close deals!

Gartner just pointed out that more CEOs are putting growth at the top of their priority list than at any time since 2014.  In order to accomplish that, we need a marketing process that moves our specific personas to move from Awareness to Consideration to Engagement in order to produce an MQL. At that point, the MQL either produces a lead that Sales wants, or it doesn't, and that working relationship requires a true partnership between the leaders of Sales and Marketing.  Unfortunately, in our experience, 35%-40% of the time, egos get in the way leading to finger-pointing and obtuse excuses...when in reality the real failure is the lack of a partnership between these two leaders.  Equally disturbing in our own experience is that while most Marketing organizations do have a formal step-by-step lead creation and measuring process, 50% of Sales organizations do not. 

Marketing is either Permission or No Permission Based

• "I knowingly gave you permission to market to me".  I signed up for a download, a white paper, a blog, a podcast, an event, a discount or a trial or anything where I knowingly gave an email, phone or a tiny bit of code.  
• "I did not give you permission to market to me, but you marketed to me anyway."  I received spam, or an unwanted phone call / text, or "junk mail" in a flyer or magazine insert.  And then there's the long list of TV and radio ads, billboards, placements, influencers...and everything else. 
   

If you begin with this simpler definition and don't look at Marketing as "new/old" or "digital/not digital", then the decision points of cost and campaign effectiveness become much simpler.  The bottom-line measurement in all Marketing is the simplicity of the CAC equation of calculating the total cost of that specific permission/no permission marketing campaign divided by the total customers acquired within a specific period of days.   Personally, we love the science and the math of Marketing & Sales!   

An easy Read that Makes Complex Simple 

This subject is much too important for a quick blog on a Friday morning as I head out to Worcester for a sales call.  My best advice this morning is to pick up a copy of David Meerman Scott's just released 9th edition of his iconic book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" 

An authentic read from an authentic guy who truly knows how to make complex simple!  I've read every book he's written and for this book, every edition, and I was captivated as to how much has changed in this edition compared to "the old days" of 2021.  

Have a great day selling today and enjoy a beautiful weekend!

working on your 2025 Marketing & Sales plans!

For a few ideas on your own sales and marketing planning for 2025, click here for our "Writing the Winning Sales Plan, and Writing the Winning Marketing Plan, outlining ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best. 

Give me a call and let's discuss having us facilitate your 2025 planning process. I drive a ton of miles and there's nothing like a quick call as I challenge the end of day commute out of Boston to talk about your current thinking for this quarter with a few specific ideas. 

www.derbymanagement.com  
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.