Marketing’s Not Magic
Is Your Firm’s Marketing Culture Limiting Its Growth?
Part 2: Marketing’s Not Magic
Bruce Ditman — November 10, 2021
This Corner Talk is the second part in a series in which we explore marketing cultures common in professional services and how they may be limiting your growth.
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.
Last week i began this discussion with one of the two marketing cultures I see most often, the Administrative Marketing Culture (AMC). For this installment of Corner Talk, let’s explore what a Completist Marketing Culture (CMC) looks like and consider if any of these traits could apply to your firm’s marketing culture:
The Completist Marketing Culture
Are good about brand but not about business development
Creates a complicated and large marketing organization
Thinks good marketing is “magic” or unknowable
Doesn’t require rigorous business cases for marketing decisions.
Desires to build an “internal agency” yet still pays multiple external agencies to actually do the work.
Frequently overbuys and underuses services and technology.
Has marketing middle management.
Has marketing systems on systems—bureaucracy abounds.
Chases marketing trends.
See all marketing as culture (until the money’s tight).
Ringing any bells?
That’s okay if it does. Here’s why: High-growth firms have experience their success due to hard work, smarts and (it may feel like, sometimes) who knows what else? The feeling that “more is more” is the safest way to keep chugging ahead and is perfectly understandable. But, it’s not correct.
Strategy must drive both Marketing and Practice. In a CMC firm, Marketing drives Practice and Strategy is second to tools, trends and toys.
“Hey, Bruce, that’s still not us!”
Excellent! Tell you what: tune into Part 3 where we’ll dive even deeper into firm marketing cultures and explore what an ideal firm marketing culture might look like. Maybe you’re already in the promised land? If not, we’re here to help.
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.
