With the results of Q1 left in the dust of last week, we're already reworking new sales plans for this quarter, hiring and changing a few new team members and taking apart, piece by piece, those perfectly planned lead generation tactics conceived in the dark winter of last January.  Some worked, many did not, but blogs and video continue to be clear winners.  Certainly, social, but so much of it falls under the classification of "It depends..."

Time for some spring house cleaning

Your overarching guide in this spring cleaning should simply be...nothing will get better by itself by waiting!  If it was a bad idea with weak results for 90 days, there's nothing in this questionable economy that's magically going to change the outcome of the metrics unless the tactic itself changes or the amount of investment in time or actual expense changes.

It may be time to think about Adding or changing marketing talent 

We've seen it before, and unfortunately, once again, we're seeing it repeat itself now.  In a downturn with the continuing media whispers of a tougher economy and the dreaded "R" word, someone in Finance has the brilliant idea to cut back on Marketing expense.  As a manager who has run lots of companies, I personally understand the heartbreak of having to make personnel and salary cuts-nothing is worse than a management failure that results in layoffs.  Recognizing that, in comparison, today I would I want to make analytical decisions about any marketing expense reduction based on marketing talent that is deeply steeped in analytics with deep hands-on experience in Inbound Marketing.  Rather than marketing cuts, the better questions may be:

• Do we have the right people in Marketing?
• Should we add a talented college junior or senior marketing intern for specific projects?
• Do we have, and are we correctly using, an all-in-one marketing software platform?

AT Tufts

As most everyone knows, I'm a professor of Marketing and Sales at the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts.  I teach through a process of "Content in Context" where each semester, we accept six projects from real companies, who want to create a detailed marketing plan over the period of the semester.

In some cases, for smaller companies, the work becomes a complete marketing plan, both strategic and highly detailed in market and competitive research, analysis and implementable tactics.  In our larger companies, these projects are typically focused on a new product launch.  The companies purposefully cover a wide spectrum of markets from services to products, from tech to consumer distribution, healthcare and CPG...and everything in between.   

If you're interested:

• Right now, I am looking for six companies for my Marketing course for the fall semester. The syllabus along with the company projects will be sent to the incoming students on June 15th since there is work which is required to be done during the summer.   If you want, you also have the opportunity to employ those who have extra time giving everyone a fast start on the semester ahead.
  
  If you want to know more, just email me at jack@derbymanagement.com, and I'll send you the instructions on how to apply.  
• I also have a few highly talented seniors and at least two grad students in my current Marketing and in my current Science of Sales courses who are still actively looking for full time positions.  Also, a few juniors who would take on some work immediately and move to full time internships in May-June.
    

2023 PLANNING for detailed marketing excellence