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Some estimate that 80% of most inquiries in organizations are not followed up by the sales organization so marketing feels like sales is making them look bad.  On the other hand, sales departments get what they feel are DOA leads that are terrible and will never be sold anything.  Sales basically learns to ignore most leads coming out of marketing.  It is time for both teams to sit down and figure out the definition of a lead that is ready to buy.  If your organization has not done this, you are wasting a large amount of your lead acquisition investment which affects your bottom line and will draw the ire of the CFO.  It is a simple thing to do and it will contribute to a better relationship between sales and marketing.

“The Greatest Victory is over Self” – Plato

The workplace can be a very rewarding place for our egos.  It does not really care if the reviews are good or bad as long as it gets all the attention.  It is rewarding because your ego is put in the position to win or lose everyday.  “Who likes me?”  “Who is going to help me?”  “Am I the best in everyone’s opinion?”  And of course, when it really gets control of the internal conversation, “who is out to get me?”  Notice the omnipresent “I” or “Me” in this dialogue.  This is your ego at work and in some companies you will find that there are some experienced executives who are totally self-absorbed.  The damage this causes has been far too evident in the recent scandals in the financial markets.  Everyone has to deal with their own ego but the first step is to recognize when the ego is lobbying toward a limited direction.

If you watch young people in an organization, they tend to want to talk about themselves to build your view of them because they lack a record.  This is the ego hard at work to establish itself in their mind too. It wants internal dialogue control and it wants to believe it can influence relationships which can be painfully short-sighted.  Only later in life do most people begin to surrender to the notion that their best relationships have been built on joint experiences where trust was earned.

People that are much older or wiser tend to have already crossed the line to the sweet surrender of the unforeseeable.  Their shields have been dropped and they are ready to talk in the most candid way possible to get to the essence of something.  Some of them have even evolved to the point that they laugh at that silly voice in their head.  They are present and listening.  By surrendering, they enter a new dialogue of understanding and proper response that is much more collaborative.

Another name for it would be wisdom and it opens much larger doors for any relationship.  When you talk to prospects or customers, is your ego in charge or the desire to listen and help?  What line of questioning are you pursuing?  “What do I want?” or “What are the issues for this customer?”  If so, it is showing up on your face and through your voice.  The internal is reflected in the external.  Is your ego hard at work to own the internal dialogue of what you need or wish to gain?

One of the most common tricks of the ego is to focus on past mistakes or worry about the future but not be in the present.  If your full attention is in the present, the customer senses this.  They can feel it and it gives the impression you are listening.  The customer will be relieved to find someone who is listening and is down knee-deep in the present moment with them.  If you can meet them there, you have increased the odds of creating a remarkable experience for the customer and you will probably earn a friend.  Lose the I, gain a customer.

Like me, I am sure you have wondered what it would be like to put on a white robe, enter a public square and lead a philosophical discussion with people who are dedicated to truth and reason.  Okay, maybe this isn’t a fantasy of yours, but at least now you know I need to get out more.

Stoicism had its day in the sun as a belief system from about 400 B.C. to 200 A.D. in the Greek and Roman empires.  A famous follower was Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor who lived from 121-180 A.D. One of the beliefs of the philosophy is that one needs to remove emotion to optimize decision making.  The idea of Marketing Stoicism is compelling and certainly has some merit in a mercurial world.  Being able to remove emotion from the planning, execution and personnel development in marketing is of enormous benefit to the entire organization.

A Stoic-minded leader will also garner respect from C-level executives who need to know marketing is helping mitigate risk, not create uncertainty with a large budget.  The everyday vacillations of worry and over-excitement of the day would have very little impact on what needs to be done to address the plan that was built with measurable objectives in mind.

One might think that this kind of direction is at odds with a company that exercises creative marketing, but that’s not true.  In fact, it can be a settling contributor to the peace of mind of all personnel.  Employees feel like their survival needs are being met when results are coming in from a clear plan.  This gives the marketing department permission to have innovative ideas that might carry more risk and more reward.  It isn’t very comforting to have that wonderful offsite to explore new marketing ideas if the foundation of the house is not solid.

Marketing Stoicism belongs with the old saying, “do what you have to do - so you can do what you want to do”.  Good advice for marketing in any economic environment.

Just this past week President Obama and his economic team rolled out the stimulus package to the house and the senate.  Although it passed the house this week, it did it with no Republicans voting for it and 11 Democrats saying no.  On top of this, according to polls less Americans are supporting this specific package.  So is the package good or bad?  There is obvious risk with any stimulus.  We probably have to gamble a bit to move the needle on a bad situation.  Regardless of an opinion we would have about the package, let’s talk about the presentation of the package and how we can learn from this.

Why would anyone take such a visible initiative and not know they had some Republican support prior to the public vote?  By doing it the way it was done, the plan now has the stigma of a partisan plan which is not part of the change Americans were hoping for from Washington.  A strong leadership move is to sit down with representatives from both all invested parties and create a plan that is collaborative.

In the business world a smart project leader, manager or executive will walk a “directionally correct” plan around.  Talk to people, get some feedback and ideas.  Create many parents of the plan in order to gain consensus and ongoing support.  Once a manager has done this they’re in a much better position to get it done and they will garner the respect of the organization.  A leader does not present stakeholders with a surprise plan.  They engage stakeholders to help accelerate results once the plan is approved.

Sometimes, you have to slow down to speed up.

“The Lord Hates a Coward” – from the film The Untouchables

Life is way too short to wait around.  The earth is estimated to be close to 4 billion years old and we get maybe 75 years in our lifetime.  In most cases, a person experiences about 40-50 years of solid career work.  The math is pretty daunting in regard to this seemingly accelerating dream we call life.  How long has your company been around?  The facts should compel you to do something today to move the company’s brand to extraordinary. 

What will you do today?  Will you focus on the present and take positive, growth-affirming action or do you find yourself constantly daydreaming about the company’s future success?  What does this have to do with marketing or the business?  Everything!  Business can be institutional, bureaucratic, boring and about some future that never shows up.  But hopefully by now all of us have worked in a company where our feet didn’t seem to touch the ground, we laughed often and there was a commitment to improve the client offering.  You decide.  It’s the choice the collective company makes everyday.  Be a great example of “take action now” to the rest of the company.  Marketing must provide superior planning, dependable execution and always be knee deep in doing something that could change the game.

Look for opportunities to lift up your entire company.  This is how marketing can help inspire a company to move from good to great.  The time is now.