Carts & Horses
Is Your Firm’s Marketing Culture Limiting Its Growth?
Final: Carts & Horses
Bruce Ditman — November 19, 2021
This Corner Talk is the final installment in a series in which we explore marketing cultures common in professional services and how they may be limiting your growth. Today, we’re going to pivot and examine what it takes to build a Working Marketing Culture.
Before we begin, let’s start by giving ourselves a pass. There is no blame to assign here—not to leadership and not to marketing. As we’ll discuss later, it is very likely that if marketing culture shortfalls exist that they are actually a function of your success and growth.
So far, we have discussed the two marketing cultures I see most often at firms, the Administrative Marketing Culture (AMC) and the Completist Marketing Culture (CMC) Today, Let’s talk about the simple principals for cultivating an Working Marketing Culture:
A Working Marketing Culture:
Knows that marketing it is not in the business of marketing…it is the business of the firm
Knows that while marketing ain’t magic that doesn’t mean it’s unskilled labor and values it’s professionals
Knows that there are no marketing silver bullets…only bullets
Seeks ROI on marketing but only when there is agreement on the “R” before they make the “I”
Sees marketing as the solution to confusion
Recognizes that marketing and sales are simply different points on the same funnel
Seeks out competitive inspiration but never chases
Sees marketing as a critical part of the firms success
Counts on marketing to be an expression of the firm-wide, holistic strategy
In the past, we noted that:
In an AMC Practice drives Strategy and Marketing.
In a CMC, Marketing drives Strategy and Practice.
Carts…meet horses. Those dynamics are impeding your firm’s ability to grow.
Firm’s with a Working Marketing Culture know and execute on the following truth : Strategy must drive both Practice and Marketing.
There is a lot of talk about “How to build a winning culture” and “How to foster a culture of growth” out there (on my side of the fence and yours). And, of course, we all need to do that. But it remains talk without an executable plan. It’s all theory if your operational departments can’t scale and deliver to that success. It’s a dream if your practice areas aren’t aligned to the desired strategic outcomes.
Here’s the truth: Too often we make plans in earnest but are reactive in deed.
At Chief Seconds, we say: “Let strategy lead the way.” For real growth and change to happen, we must align practice and marketing behind a data based and inspired strategy. Then, we do the work and then we reap the rewards.
Chief Seconds knows that it takes all kinds to make a business successful and there’s not one right way to do things. We hope to inspire positive change at your firm with our insights, coaching, and organizational services. If you’d like to start working on this today, click below or visit us on the web at chiefseconds.com.
