I've nailed it, John thought to himself, suppressing a victory grin. He had just delivered a presentation to the management team at Sinclair & Hall's breakfast-cereal unit, arguing for development of a new low-carbohydrate cereal. And he felt proud of the compelling facts and figures he had conveyed to the team.
John gathered up his laptop and files and then sat down to await a verdict that he was certain would be in his favor: approval for funding in next year's budget to begin developing the product. But to his surprise, his listeners continued to sit quietly. In fact, they looked a bit skeptical.
Finally, Pamela, the head of the unit's finance department, said, "John, some of this information looks interesting, and may represent an opportunity. But I don't feel comfortable approving this investment when we've got so many other challenges coming up next year."
One by one, the others nodded their agreement, concluding the meeting with a promise to reconsider John's idea the following quarter. As they filed out the room, John sat back in his chair and thought, How can they not see the importance of this opportunity?
John had made a common mistake: failing to "market marketing" inside his organization. That is, he hadn't used his powers of persuasion to cultivate a brand linking marketing with cash flow in the minds and hearts of others in his company.
As a marketer, you regularly cultivate your company's brand so customers know what the firm and its products stand for. As John's story reveals, to let others within your organization know that marketing stands for cash, you must draw on these same skills.
You can help others in your organization see the link between marketing and cash through several means. But persuasive communication and smart decisions are two particularly potent tools.
Leverage the power of persuasion
As a seasoned marketing professional, you're a persuasive communicator. You know how to deliver messages that speak to consumers' most pressing needs, enabling them to perceive the unique value provided by your company's offerings. To win support for the marketing initiatives you know will generate cash for your company, your communications within your organization must meet the same standards of effectiveness.
That is, you must make a convincing case to executives and colleagues for why they should "buy" your ideas. Only then will you receive the funding and assistance you'll need to put your ideas into action.
To make your internal communications about marketing persuasive, augment factual information with emotional appeal. For example, John had presented relevant data that suggested a major opportunity for Sinclair & Hall. But he forgot to include the second part of the persuasion equation: emotional appeal.
By stirring up their audiences' passions, persuaders convince their listeners to embrace their ideas. At his next presentation, how might John activate emotions within his audience that will move them to support his idea? He can do this through several means, including these:
- Communicating his own passion. He delivers a heartfelt story about his own commitment to healthy living: "Ever since my health scare last year, I've made a disciplined effort to eat better and exercise regularly. By cutting down on carbs, I've lost 20 pounds. My doctor told me last month that I'm healthier than ever—even with a family history of heart disease. I credit diet changes with actually extending my life."
- Inspiring his audience with victory stories. John reminds top managers of a time when Sinclair & Hall took a chance and introduced an innovative new product that scored a major hit in the marketplace. He then links that victory to the current opportunity for success that he believes a low-carb cereal could generate—if management were to back it.
- Building suspense. He emphasizes disturbing details about rival companies' success with launching similarly cutting-edge products. He also uses stark graphics to show how these firms have been stealing customers from Sinclair & Hall. He then demonstrates how his company could regain these losses by launching a blockbuster product.
Make smart marketing decisions
Of course, all the persuasive prowess in the world won't help you unless the decisions you're advocating are smart ones. Savvy decisions produce the cash flow that matters to your firm—thus they're essential to market marketing inside your organization. Consider this helpful decision-making strategy:
- Frame the decision. Ask a question that guides your decision process. Note, however, that your question can set you on a productive path—or a destructive one. For example, when John Sculley was vice-president of marketing at Pepsi and trying to decide how to beat archrival Coca-Cola, he framed the decision by asking: "How can we design our bottles better?" He and other Pepsi executives had assumed that Coke's classic bottle was the company's most powerful competitive advantage. As a result of this framing, Pepsi executives spent millions of dollars researching new bottle designs before realizing they had asked the wrong question.
The company, Sculley explained in his book Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple (Harper & Row, 1987), didn't know enough about what consumers wanted to merit such investment in bottle designs. Sculley then began studying how people actually consumed soft drinks in their homes. He decided to design packaging that made it easier for people to get more soft drinks into their homes. The larger and more varied packaging choices Pepsi developed pushed the company from a distant second to a strong competitor for first in the category—and made the classic Coke bottle virtually extinct.
- Gather intelligence. Once you've framed your decision properly, the question you posed will help you gather the right information to further inform your decision—as Pepsi's story demonstrates.
- Reach relevant conclusions. Objectively evaluate all the information you've gathered—resisting the tendency to consider only data that confirms your theory. Practice principles of good research. For instance, ensure you've obtained a sufficiently large sample of data. And check your interpretations of the data with others to see if they have additional valuable viewpoints on what the information is telling you.
- Take appropriate action. Based on your conclusions, take action. Sculley did this by deciding to design Pepsi packaging in ways that bore no resemblance to the classic Coke bottle and served the consumer needs he had identified.
- Learn from experience. Evaluate your decision's outcome. If it isn't what you wanted, learn from the experience. Track your decisions over time to see where your decision-making weaknesses lie. For example, do you often fail to gather information that disconfirms your assumptions? Adjust your decision-making process to strengthen any weak areas.
By honing your powers of persuasion, you boost your chances of gaining the resources you need to get your good ideas off the ground and soaring. And with a rock-solid approach to decision-making, you make smarter, more profitable choices for your firm.
Both tools enable you to "market marketing" inside your organization—ensuring that everyone around associates your role with hard, cold cash.
Note: This article is adapted from the book I wrote with Allen Weiss and David Stewart titled Marketing Champions: Practical Strategies to Increase Marketing's Power, Influence, and Business Impact (Wiley, 2006). To learn more about the book and to download a chapter, visit www.marketingchamps.com or order the book from Amazon.
