If you know all the Marketing answers, why are you asking the question?
CMC- InsightExec 26 Sep 08
Measuring marketing performance is essential if one is to analyse and define
the current marketing situation and the results of marketing activities. But
the measurement of marketing performance does not predict future results and
neither does it indicate potential performance.
The responsibility for generating the profitable revenue for any business
is that of the senior executive or CMO, in charge of all those activities
which are directly or indirectly involved in anticipating and satisfying customer
demand. But in assessing the performance of their marketing activities, every
chief marketing officer (CMO) or marketing executive may at sometime develop
a tendency to “tunnel vision,” restricting their ability to identify
and appreciate new threats and opportunities.
When it comes to finding answers to marketing and business problems, there
is rarely only one solution. The question is, not whether one marketing policy
or action is the right one, but rather in the given circumstances, is it the
best one? When managing marketing strategies, plans and actions, there is
generally an advantage in submitting them to peers' review by a knowledgeable
third party, to test the theories and principles. For many reasons, alternative
views and ideas are often sought from outside the business from specialist
consultants.
Outside consultants provide the advantages of coming to the problem without
the baggage of “company history” and prejudice and being independent,
they provide no risk in terms of company politics. Consultants provide a dispassionate
answer with a different perspective as “the onlooker, who sees most
of the game.”
It is often said of consultants that when asked the time, they borrow their
client’s watch, tell the client the time and return the watch with an
invoice for a fat fee. But if the consultant has told the client what the
client already knew or could have found out for themselves the question is
why did the client not act themselves?
When a professionally qualified consultant, properly briefed provides an answer
to a problem, it should be based on their dispassionate analysis of facts
coupled with their experience and expertise. How that answer is received by
the client depends largely on why the client asked the question in the first
place. Usually, the client is seeking confirmation for their own actions,
or for alternative and new answers to their own.
From time to time consultants will make unsolicited approaches to businesses
and CMOs. In most cases they will seek to present themselves and their business
to demonstrate their capabilities and to invite enquiries. However, sometimes
consultants will offer to demonstrate how they can be of potential benefit
to a business, based on detailed research which may have identified some problems
in which they specialize. For the CMO with an open mind to new ideas and results,
the opportunity of a meeting to explore the ideas of informed consultants
can prove very beneficial. Alternatively, the CMO who rejects such opportunities
may be accused of having a closed mind to anything “Not invented here”
and afraid of peer group scrutiny. The attitude of “we know all there
is to know” by some chief executive officers and CMOs, is not helpful
to the company as it tends to fossilize productive management thinking and
practice. Such attitudes can damage the image of the business in the eyes
of both customers and investors, as they can rarely remain hidden for long
and soon become apparent in the public domain.
Assuming they have been selected for their competency and experience, consultants
can make a major contribution to the success of the marketing organization
by providing specialist expertise, independent analysis, and objectivity.
Consultants do not claim to provide the perfect answer to every marketing
or management problem, neither do they claim to be always right, but whether
or not their answers are acceptable will largely depend on how well they were
briefed, and the prevailing culture of the business.
Marketing performance should be measured by results. However, whatever advice,
proposals or answers are given by consultants, the ultimate responsibility
for marketing performance lies with the CMO, not the consultants, who remain
useful contributors to marketing success but do not share executive responsibility.
© N.C.Watkis, Contract Marketing Service 26 Sep 08
Contract Marketing Service, (Marketing Performance Measurement Consultants)