Recent Articles From EvanCarmichael.com http://www.evancarmichael.com/ http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/The-True-4-Ps-of-B2B-Marketing-for-CEOs.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/The-True-4-Ps-of-B2B-Marketing-for-CEOs.html As a service company there is a need out there in the market for the offering you have. You must align your offering with that need to be in the game. But once you are in the game, relevance is what is going to win it for you. Achieving relevance over all comers in your customer’s eyes is going to come down to how well you have understood their need in the first place. So start here. Because if you don’t do a good job of understanding the customer’s need you quickly will fall down on your face when you try and make a unique promise that clearly demonstrates how you can service that need better than alternatives. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/CEO-Marketing-is-Not-Advertising.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/CEO-Marketing-is-Not-Advertising.html There is not a corporate function where you will see more money wasted on program investments that return poorly than the marketing function. This is unfortunate because marketing should be supplying leverage to your business. It should be helping you sell more of your products and services more easily. Instead, you are putting money into marketing programs, and watching it go right up the chimney in smoke. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Marketing-Is-Not-A-Cost--A-CEO-Who-Doesnt-Understand-Marketing-Is.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Marketing-Is-Not-A-Cost--A-CEO-Who-Doesnt-Understand-Marketing-Is.html If you have not taken the time to measure what your customers are worth to you over their lifetime, you have no way to build a rationale for what you should be willing to spend to win more customers. Without an understanding of the true value of your customers, any decision you make about investing in marketing is a risk. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Lean-Marketing.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Lean-Marketing.html The number one complaint from CEOs of companies who are trying to rapidly increase sales is that they can’t measure their return on marketing investments and that the sales process performs unpredictably. When considering the bad habits and waste that they allow to exist in marketing and sales planning, execution, and management it is barely any wonder why there is so much money, time, and resources thrown down the comode in the sales process and marketing operation. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Establishing-Customer-Relevance-Drives-Sales-Spells-Relief.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Establishing-Customer-Relevance-Drives-Sales-Spells-Relief.html Those companies that have a tighter grip on the customer than their competition know the key to keeping and winning customers is what it has always been – relevance. http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Dropping-the-Ball.html http://www.evancarmichael.com/Marketing/961/Dropping-the-Ball.html CEOs must take a more active role in the marketing of their business. More money is spent in this function without a thorough understanding of how or why B2B marketing really works than in any other business function. If the job of marketing is to create a strong environment for a sale to take place, then the CEO ought to be involved in the marketing process to give direction and guidelines that align with the corporate vision. Those CEOs who choose to ignore the complexities of marketing are dropping the ball.