Dilbert is a comic strip that runs in most local newspapers. I often read it with a nervous chuckle because the scenarios strip author Scott Adams depicts are way too close to reality in some organizations I've had experience with. Some days I think Dilbert would more aptly be referred to as a "Tragedy Strip". The 3 panel above is suggestive of the all too common strategy of trying to fix core problems with the basic product and service with intensified or clever sales efforts. I can't tell you how many sales meetings I've been in where it was suggested that the way to fix an essentially flawed but fixable problem was slicker sales language or as Dilbert would say "Jargon". If you're a "Servant Salesperson" and not just a regular sales person it must become a central part of your job description to fix the product or service you sell. Your job is not only to represent the company to the customer/client but also to represent the client/customer to the company. You are a salesperson or influencer on both occassions. This often involves speaking truth to power and may on occassion even put your job in jeopardy.
One of my favorite authors is Harry Beckwith. I think all three of his books can be found in the Servant Selling Bookstore. His first one, Selling the Invisible, starts right in with this topic in the very first chapter titled, The Greatest Misconception About Marketing.
Beckwith begins: "In a free association test, most people - including most people in business - will equate the word "marketing" with selling and advertising: pushing the goods.
In this popular view, marketing means taking what you have and shoving it down buyers' throats. 'We need better marketing' invariably means 'We need to get our name out' -with ads, publicity, and maybe some direct mail.
Unfortunately , this focus on getting the word outside distracts companies from the inside, and from the first rule of marketing. The core of marketing is the service itself.
I am not suggesting that if you build a better service, the world will beat a path to your door. Many "better services" are foundering because of rotten marketing. Nor am I suggesting that getting the word out is enough. Getting the word out and attracting people to a flawed service is the preferred strategy for killing a service company.
The first step to marketing is your service.
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