Selling marketing to managemant: focus on the basic marketing approaches in which return on investment can be accurately measured and proven.

• Author: Kassing, Jay

MANY MARKETERS STRUGGLE with how to get management to see the power of marketing. Have you ever felt dismissed as not strategic enough or branded a "cost center" by members on the senior management team? The key is in getting your CEO and CFO to understand the basic marketing techniques where results--ROI--can be proven.

Are you able to speak with confidence on each of the following ideas? In the words of Albert Einstein, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't know it well enough."

What is marketing?

Marketing is, in its broadest sense, how your company is seen from the outside. Sure, it's branding. Yes, it is communicating your products and services. And, of course PR, plays a role here also. Marketing is also about generating interest in your company and turning that interest into profitable sales opportunities.

If your marketing budget has $250,000 in it, then you must at least prove that you have generated at least that much (plus a dollar or two) in profit as a result.

Take this quick test to see how the total dollars required to break even on your budget.

Your budget [A]: ($250,000)

Your spread [B]: (2%)

Divide A over B ($12,500,000)

In this example, your budget needs to generate over $12 million in directly attributed results to justify the minimum cost of marketing.

Marketing must be about driving sales, it should not be viewed merely as a cost of doing business. Done right, marketing is the catalyst for growth.

Unfortunately, management doesn't often see marketing in this light. Could this be the reason why budget cuts always find your budget or why you have to fight for dollars?

If marketing is proving its results, then management simply cannot afford to cut it.

There are two kinds of marketing: One that makes you feel and one that makes you feel and act. Which one adds dollars to the bottom line? Which one is a giant black hole that can drain a budget in an instant? Which one can you directly track?

Is your bank really unique?

Financial services aren't exactly sexy products. And considering that research has proven that consumers feel that "if you have seen one financial institution, you have seen them all" how do you stand above what your peers provide? What makes how you deliver the "same old products" differently?

So how are you different? If you can wrestle this concept to the ground, you will have a distinct and sustainable sales and marketing advantage over everyone else in your market. Hint: Don't say it is "customer...