The CEO's marketing problems: part 2

When marketing is just a tool for sales.

Marketing and sales should be seamlessly linked. If this is not the case, it should be corrected immediately.

However, if a company sees marketing as a mere sales tool, it is likely that marketing is not being used in the right way or sufficiently. So what should marketing be, apart from supporting sales?

- The primary owner of customer insight
- The demand generator for products or services
- The long-term growth builder
- The strategic builder of a brand or brands

If marketing's only role in a company is to support sales, it is likely that the above is not working well. I am not saying that marketing should not support sales, but if that is the only role that marketing plays, there is a lot of potential to be squeezed out of marketing.

This issue, like the first CEO marketing problem, is of course intrinsically linked to the role of marketing in the business, and the competencies of marketing. When marketing's role is to be a mere sales hand, it is likely that no one with a broader understanding of marketing will stay with the company for long.

Or if marketing is completely subordinated to sales, it is difficult to expect marketing's role in the company to grow to the proportions it could at best.

So if marketing is just a sales handyman in your company, the CEO has a problem on his hands that is likely to be a barrier to growth. The focus of marketing is very likely to be on short term and tactical marketing measures. In the best case, the company has marketers who are very closely involved in sales and are strongly led by sales target setting.

In addition to this, the company should have marketers who ensure the long-term growth of the company, bringing customer insight into product/service development and developing brands into valuable assets.

If this is not the case, then this, if anything, is the CEO's problem.