Act Loudly.

Today's Marketing Cookie is where the rubber hits the road. Will you do what you say you will do, by when you said you would do it? In business, you do not always get to pick what you say that you will do. Sometimes your goals are made for you. 

For example: The board of directors talks to the CEO demanding year-over-year growth in the business. So the CEO promises to produce X-amount of revenue. He then talks to his sales manager that he needs X-amount of new business in order to make his numbers. The sales manager then talks to marketing that he needs X-amount of more leads in order to make his sales numbers. This request often comes without any additional budget, so the marketing managers freak out a little, and then comes to talk to me and my team.

Producing more for less is the place where we live.

If we believe that we can reach the new lead generation numbers, we give our word to it. The marketing manager then talks to the sales manager that he has hired an agency to help him get the leads he needs. He smiles. 

The sales manager talks to the CEO that the marketing managers have hired an agency to generate the leads, so he can produce more sales, and he will get the revenue numbers he needs. The CEO smiles. 

Then the CEO talks to the board of directors that the company has a plan to generate the revenue they need. Everyone smiles.

Do you see what happened there?

A command was given to the CEO and he gave his word to an outcome that he can only trust will happen. Each layer of leadership under the CEO also gives their word, and they each make promises all the way down the line. The buck stops here. We accept responsibility for making sure their promises are kept. We give our work so that their word is good.

Our office is where all of the promises, projections, and plans must be converted to action. When we take the right steps and make the right moves, we generate momentum and move closer to the goals. If there's one thing I've learned about generating leads and revenue, it's that promises can only be kept when actions speak louder than all the talks.