Marketing has Left the Building

I was leading a whiteboard strategy meeting last week with a client in the
system management space. We were drilling down to the core So Whats and frankly,
 I was getting frustrated. My head was
aching from the continual deep dives into strings of  3
and 4 letter acronyms.

The client could describe their customers’ architectures to the deepest
detail.  But they kept missing the So
What – which sure as heck wasn’t about feeds and speeds alone.

I got specific. “Who was the last customer you talked to and what did they
say they liked about your product?  Why
did they need to buy it?”

“Well, there was a tradeshow last month and we talked to over 300 prospects
and some of our biggest customers.” 

“That’s great.  But  let’s talk about the last actual user (and
hopefully economic buyer) you spoke with about how your products impact their business.”  

“Well, the sales reps know that – so we call them.”

“You don’t talk to the customer?”

“Well, sometimes.  But we’re not supposed
to travel with the economy and all.”

“What about calling them? Setting up a webinar? “

“Oh, the reps talk to them – and so do the engineers and customer service.  So we take our lead from them.  We don’t want to bother the customers with
too many of us talking to them.”

I wish that was the first time I’d had that conversation.  But it’s not. 
It’s actually pretty common.

Rebel’s Soapbox is out!

Since when did Marketing become a corporate headquarters role that never
leaves the building? Even in tough economic times – we have phones and web conferencing and a
video camera in every laptop and the network bandwidth to drive it.  Come on – We have Skype!

It’s time for marketers to become subject matter experts on our customers.  All this hype around customer-centric marketing won’t change your results if you don’t go beyond talking the talk and start walking the walk. 

Get out there and learn your customers, get inside their heads, their hearts, their businesses and learn to think and breathe their problems.  Then apply your solutions to the walk you’re walking – and bring your marketing into the realm of customer-compelling.

There are no excuses.