Start on the Right Path to Value Creation
People have been making resolutions for nearly 4,000 years. While the celebrations and timing around making resolutions have evolved, the tradition of making them continues. So much so that Google created a program to map New Year’s Resolutions from around the world. But despite the fact that we continue to make resolutions, less than half of us are still sticking to our resolutions by mid-year, and only about 8% of us actually succeed in achieving our resolutions. One of the most important resolutions every marketer should make is to stay focused on value creation.
Many of us make personal resolutions, with the most common being to lose weight, get organized, spend less/save more, stay fit and healthy, quit smoking, and so on. And quite a few of us make career-related resolutions, such as earn a raise or promotion, or reduce stress. As a marketer, being able to quantify results and acquire new knowledge and skills are among the top five ways we can secure a promotion. Two common causes of work stress are the pressure to perform to meet rising expectations and the pressure to work at constantly optimum levels.
Experts such as Shawnice Meador, director of career management and leadership development at MBA@UNC, say one of the most important steps and best practices for achieving a resolution is to have an action plan. If earning that promotion or reducing stress are on your list, we’ve compiled 12 Marketing Resolutions or Best Practices, along with resources that will help you
- Meet the increased expectation to prove the value of Marketing
- Create a performance-driven Marketing organization, quantify your results
- Increase your knowledge and skills related to performance management and measurement
3 Best Practices to Put You on the Path to Marketing Excellence
You may already have achieved some of these. If so, start with the first one you and your Marketing team need to address. If all of these fall on your “need to do list”, start with one and work your way toward 12!
Marketing Excellence Best Practice 1: Resolve to Serve as a Value Creator
Best-in-Class marketers who have cracked the code when it comes to the ability to demonstrate their value, impact, and contribution to the C-Suite, serve as value creators. Value creators market and offer decisions that create value for both customers and shareholders.
Best-in-Class Marketers Serve as Value Creators
How Best-in-Class Marketers Serve As Value Generators
Marketing Excellence Best Practice 2: Resolve to Act as a Change Agent
Implementing marketing performance management and measurement initiatives is hard. For many organizations, it is a change. And few of us enthusiastically embrace change. You may even face resistance from your own leadership team when it comes to implementing the changes needed to succeed at improving marketing performance management capabilities. So before you get too far down the path, you and your team may first need to understand change management and take on the role of change agent.
Three Elements of Successful Change Management
Five Steps to Serving as an Effective Agent of Change
Marketing Excellence Best Practice 3: Resolve to Create a Performance-Driven Culture
Expectations and pressure on Marketing to generate value by capturing market share, increasing customer lifetime value, and growing customer equity have become the norm. Creating a performance-driven marketing organization will help you meet these expectations.
Seven Steps to a Performance Management Culture
See some best practices where help would be welcomed? We’d be delighted to hear from you.
See the companion posts on best practices:
How to Go About Proving Marketing’s Value, ROI, and Impact
Resolve to Be a Marketing Center of Excellence
Take Your Marketing Performance Management Over the Finish Line
FAQ:
A: Because Marketing is under rising pressure to prove value, quantify results, and perform at consistently high levels. Staying focused on value creation helps Marketing make decisions that create value for both customers and shareholders—and strengthens credibility with the C-Suite.
A: Many resolutions fail due to lack of follow-through and structure—less than half persist by mid-year and only a small percentage succeed. For Marketing, the implication is clear: improving performance management, measurement, and value creation requires an action plan, not good intentions.
A: Having an action plan. Career goals such as earning a promotion or reducing stress are often tied to quantifying results and building new skills—both of which require deliberate planning and execution.
A: They help marketers:
- Meet increased expectations to prove Marketing’s value
- Create a performance-driven Marketing organization and quantify results
- Increase knowledge and skills related to performance management and measurement
A: Resolve to serve as a value creator—like Best-in-Class marketers who can demonstrate value, impact, and contribution to the C-Suite. Value creators make market and offer decisions that create value for both customers and shareholders.
A: Resolve to act as a change agent. Implementing marketing performance management and measurement is difficult and often requires organizational change. Because change can trigger resistance (including from leadership), marketers must understand change management and lead the shift in behaviors, processes, and expectations.
A: Resolve to create a performance-driven culture. As expectations rise for Marketing to capture market share, increase customer lifetime value, and grow customer equity, a performance-driven culture provides the discipline to manage performance, improve accountability, and sustain value creation.
A: Start with the first best practice your team most needs right now. If all are needed, begin with one, build momentum, and work toward the full set over time—progress beats perfection.
A: Related best-practice topics include: proving Marketing’s value/ROI/impact, becoming a Marketing Center of Excellence, and taking Marketing Performance Management over the finish line.
Recent Posts
- The Destiny of Siloed Priorities is Random Acts
- The Power of Customer-Led Product Development for Market Growth | What’s Your Edge?
- Footprint Expansion: A Customer-Centric Growth Strategy for Scaling
- The Focus on Right-Fit Customers Yields Faster Profitable Growth | What’s Your Edge
- Customer Research and Growth: The Hidden Cost of Not Truly Knowing Your Customers
You must be logged in to post a comment.