Marketing Is Not A Cost – A CEO Who Doesn’t Understand Marketing Is!

In all my years of recruiting, I've noticed one thing happening over and over. The more sales drop, the more layoffs occur. And one of the first departments to suffer (get laid off) is the Marketing department. What happens as a result is a very unhappy Sales department as they can no longer do "their" job - SELL! They have to spend more time finding new leads because there is no longer a Marketing department doing that for them. Have you ever noticed that?

Not too long ago, a potential client contacted me to find a VP of Sales and Marketing for them. The job description included a personal sales quota "until the department is up and running." Huh??? I asked several questions to be sure I was understanding the person's role correctly. They would create all marketing brochures, web marketing materials, recruit, hire and train new sales people, AND have a sales quota of their own. After trying to provide some insight into the actual separation of the two roles, I had to tell them I didn't think I was the right person to conduct that search for them.

I could see a long and frustrating relationship in the making with everyone being unhappy in the end

The article by Michelangelo Celli of The Cornucopia Group starts out:
"If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a CEO say, “we want to get as much marketing as possible for the least amount of money,” I would be a rich man. Believe me. I have measured it. Why is it that so many CEOs and their management teams are still approaching marketing from the position that it is a cost? Because they have absolutely no metrics to justify how they are spending their marketing dollars."
Marketing-Is-Not-A-Cost--A-CEO-Who-Doesnt-Understand-Marketing-Is
This is the last of a 4 part series and I think it's a must read if you want your company's sales to soar.