Strategies For Improving Marketing

Posted On: 2006-12-15
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Hello and welcome to another edition of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. This is your host John Jantsch, and my guest today is Roy Young, the director of strategy and development at MarketingProfs.com, and the co-author of "Marketing Champions, Practical Strategies of Improving Marketing's Power, Influence and Business Impact." So, thanks for joining me, Roy.

Thank you, John, sorry.

Hey, you've got a couple co-authors on this as well. Alan, is it Weiss or Weiss?

Alan Weiss.

Weiss and David Stuart. I think that would be a nice way to write a book, or did it prove more challenging?

Actually the collaboration worked very, very well. We each had specific interests and background that we were bringing to the table and the project, and we really fed off each others' ideas very well. So I was very pleased.

That's great. So let's just kind of get a definition for everybody. What is a, according to this book, and according to the thought that you're trying to put out there, what is a marketing champion exactly?

Well a marketing champion actually leads the production of cash flow inside the company. That is to say that marketers are real good at understanding the external environment, the customers and the competition. But marketing champions are those who effectively manage the production of cash flow in the short term, and in the long term, inside the company. So they rally the troops and they put together the teams, and they figure out also what they can bring to the table so that the company remains healthy and vibrant and continues to grow in the future.

Now that's a radical concept, did you run that by the accounting department at all? I would have to think that there are some people listening out here who say, marketing and cash flow, now those don't seem to go together.

Yes, that's right. And here's our thought process here. If sales sells, and R&D invents and operations delivers, and HR staffs, and finance funds, and accounting runs the numbers, what is marketing produce? What's the output of marketing? And many people answer that question and say the output of marketing is a customer. We say that's true, but at the end of the day what good is a customer if in fact customers, rate top line revenue, and ultimately bottom line revenue for the company. We think that while other functions inside the company might say they produce cash flow, certainly sales says they do, but the reality is that no one is leading the drive for cash flow the way that marketers can and should...