Transformational Marketing As The Heart of Business Strategy
(Business Strategy > Transformational Marketing)
Why Settle For Average Results? Transformational Marketing asks the question, “Why settle for average results?” Average results happen when the potential of marketing is not fully harnessed. This is marketing with a small “m.” Transformational Marketing is marketing with a big “M” and harnesses all the resources of a company to a single purpose: customer acquisition and retention.
What is Transformational Marketing?
Transformational Marketing maximizes the impact of marketing by integrating it into the very fabric of a company; this includes the strategic process, utilization of people, utilization of resources, and a strong focus on ROI. It is especially powerful in Internet Marketing, Sales, and Finance.
Transformational Marketing transforms the way companies attract and retain customers, creating a customer magnet. Like a magnet, Transformational Marketing companies find ways keep its attractive forces greater than those of its competitors.
Transformational Marketing is a matter of will. For example, the business owner can decide to use marketing only as a task (“Build up my email program) or can choose to permeate the entire company with it (“I want my company to become customer-centric.”).
Transitioning Via The Four Pillars of Business
To envision how this can be done, consider the four core pillars of business: people, process, resources, and money.
People
Transformational marketing first seeks to have the right people in the right places. At one end of the people spectrum, this means having someone onboard with the requisite marketing experience and skills to match tactics to strategy, strategy to business objectives, and business objectives to vision. To be avoided is asking too little of marketing. This occurs when small solutions are asked of individuals with narrow capabilities (e.g. lack of experience).
At the other end of the people spectrum, this means enabling everyone in every position to make a marketing contribution. The obvious example of this is to have everyone listen to the customer (there are many literal and figurative ways of listening) then have management listen to what has been heard.
Process
Process is what makes the efforts of the right people effective and efficient. At the highest level process includes:
• The strategic process (where initiatives begin with objectives, then transition to strategies and finally to tactics)
• Best practices that are clearly defined
• Standards that are clearly defined and enforced
• Metrics and Analytics
• Frictionless communication
• Continuous learning
• Flawless execution
Resources
Resources provide the energy that people need to engage in process.
Transformational Marketing requires right and adequate resources. This is not a reference to bricks and mortar but to such resources as databases and CRM tools, and even to conceptual resources such as the Sales Funnel and Lead Nurturing.
Money
Finally, money enables the Transformational Marketing company to gauge its performance and to point to future improvements. Money is both literal (sales and profits) and figurative (customers and image).
Money is meant to be measured and analyzed. It is used to allocate priorities to people, process, and resources.
Examples in The Workplace
Transformational Marketing at its most fundamental level exists when the receptionist properly handles a customer complaint, when the company accountant traces a decline in sales to a manufacturing defect, when the sales rep turns new objections into new product ideas, and when the truck driver observes competitive product in a customer’s warehouse. In other words, the context of everyone’s job description is expanded to include ways to attract and retain customers.
At its most advanced level, Transformational Marketing is so embedded in the culture, practices, and values of a company that it is continuously practiced but is largely unnoticed. At this level, marketing is neither a department nor a function; it is a hub through which all company activities flow.
Summary
Three things you need to know.
1. Transformational Marketing is a real choice available to every company at any time.
2. Transformation is not a matter of people, process, resources, or money, but is a matter of executive will.
3. Transformational Marketing exists not as a static point in time but as a focus that gives direction and power over time.
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Mission: To help small and mid-size businesses capture the power of big-picture marketing.