There is a significant and costly disconnect in the modern business landscape. According to research from the Fournaise Group, 70% of CEOs have lost trust in their marketers to deliver actual growth.
This is not merely a minor communication issue or a misunderstanding of specific tactics. It is a total language barrier.
While CEOs are awake at night worrying about revenue and long-term business survival, marketing departments are often focused on brand awareness or aesthetic metrics.
This creates a perception of marketing as a cost center, rather than a strategic investment. To bridge this gap, marketing must move from the kids’ table to a seat at the main boardroom table. This transition requires a fundamental shift in how we approach strategy.
This episode of the Powerful Marketing Tips podcast features a conversation between two AI-hosts. While the hosts are AI-generated, the frameworks and strategic insights are derived directly from the real-world principles found in Chapter 2 of the book, The Greatest Marketer.
The evolution of the marketing mix from 4 Ps to Px
Most marketing education is built on the classic four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. While these principles are not incorrect, they have become fossilized.
They were designed for an era when business was simple: you made a product, put a price on it, placed it on a shelf, and ran a newspaper ad.
In a digital, relationship-driven economy, these four categories are insufficient. Strategy today requires what is known as the Px model.
This framework keeps the core elements but adds the human factors that determine whether a CEO can trust a marketer to deliver. These factors are psychology, patience, and persistence.
Consider the example of selling a digital course. In the traditional model, the product is the video content, and the price is the dollar amount. This is a purely transactional view.
In the Px model, you must account for the psychology of the buyer. The customer is not buying a file; they are buying a transformation. They often feel terrified that they will not finish the course or that they are wasting their money.
A strategic marketer addresses these fears by providing physical evidence. This includes social proof, testimonials, and case studies that prove the transformation is possible.
Furthermore, persistence is required to ensure the customer actually succeeds after the transaction is complete. When you shift the focus from selling a file to guaranteeing a result, you build a level of commitment that transactional marketing cannot match.
The danger of the misaligned jacket
One of the most effective ways to understand strategic failure is through the analogy of buttoning a jacket. If you take the first button of a jacket and place it in the second buttonhole, the entire garment becomes crooked.
It does not matter how high the quality of the fabric is or how much you paid for the buttons. The result is a mess because the very first alignment was wrong.
In business, your talent, your tools, and your budget are the buttons. Your core strategy is the first buttonhole. When the strategic alignment is off at the top, every tactical move you make will be off-kilter.
Many marketers find themselves in the position of “Marge,” a character who represents the overworked marketing manager. Marge works 60 hours a week, producing content and managing SEO. She is “buttoning” as fast as she can.
However, because she is not aligned with what the CEO actually wants, her work feels undervalued. When the CEO asks for the return on investment, Marge has no answer.
The solution for this situation is not to work harder. The solution is to stop, unbutton the entire jacket, and start again from the top button. Diluted focus leads to diluted results. If the first button is wrong, you are simply running faster in the wrong direction.
Aligning the Business House
To fix strategic alignment, we must stop viewing marketing, sales, and service as separate silos. Instead, we should view the business as a single house with a shared foundation.
- The Foundation: Strategy and Culture
The foundation of the house is your strategy (Px). This includes your core values, your commitment to the Px model, and your long-term vision. If your foundation is built on shortcuts or “get-rich-quick” schemes, the entire house will eventually sink. - The Walls: Sales, Marketing, and Service
The walls represent the three core departments: sales, marketing, and client service. In many organizations, these departments act as if they are in different buildings. Marketing generates a lead and throws it over a wall to sales. Sales makes promises they cannot keep to close a deal, and then client service is left to deal with the frustrated customer. In a healthy business house, these walls are connected. They must have a shared rhythm. If one wall crumbles or develops a crack, the entire structure is compromised. - The Roof: The Client Journey
The roof is the reason the foundation and walls exist. Its purpose is to protect the customerās experience from beginning to end. If there is a crack between sales and service, the roof leaks. When the customer gets wet, they will leave and find a house where the roof is solid. This framework forces every department to realize that they are collectively responsible for the customer’s protection and satisfaction.
Avoiding the first date proposal
A common strategic error in sales and marketing is what we call the “first date proposal.” Imagine meeting someone for the first time at a restaurant. The conversation is pleasant, but before the main course arrives, you get down on one knee and ask them to marry you.
This is aggressive and socially inappropriate. Yet, businesses behave this way every day. They meet a prospect at a trade show, speak for five minutes, and then send a massive sales proposal the next morning. This mistake polite interest for total commitment.
Strategy requires respecting the natural order of human relationships. A customer moves from curiosity to interest, then to trust, and finally to commitment. You must nurture the relationship before asking for the “marriage.”
This means sending valuable information, checking in, and demonstrating that you understand their problems without immediately demanding a sale. You build trust so that when you eventually do ask for commitment, the customer actually wants to say yes.
From the sales funnel to the Customer Journey Flywheel
The traditional sales funnel is a flawed model because it relies on gravity. You pour leads into the top, and they fall out the bottom as customers. Once the transaction is over, the process ends. This is a “churn and burn” model that treats customers as if they no longer matter once they have paid.
A flywheel is a superior model because it builds and stores momentum. It consists of four continuous stages:
- Inform: This is the marketing stage, where you provide value and education.
- Engage and Convert: This is the sales stage. As the book states, “to deserve, you need to serve.” Sales should be an act of service, not a process of taking.
- Follow-up: This is the stage most funnels ignore. It involves ensuring the customer is actually happy and successful with their purchase.
- Quality and Advocacy: This is where the magic happens. When you prioritize the first three stages, your happy customers become your best advocates. They start pushing the flywheel for you, bringing in new people with less effort required from your team.
In this model, your best retention strategy becomes your best acquisition strategy.
Turning crises into opportunities
No strategy is perfect, and eventually, a crack will appear in the house. When a customer is unhappy, many businesses become defensive or ignore the problem. A better approach is the L.A.S.T. method, popularized by brands like the Ritz-Carlton: Listen, Apologize, Solve, and Thank.
Thanking is the most critical. You should always thank the unhappy customer because they have given you a gift. Most unhappy customers do not complain; they simply leave and tell their friends to avoid you.
The person who complains is showing you exactly where the “leak” in your roof is located so you can fix it. If you fix the problem and thank them for the feedback, they often become your most passionate supporters because you proved that you actually care.
Strategy in the age of AI
With the proliferation of AI tools, it is tempting to believe that strategy can be automated. This is a dangerous assumption. AI is a tool for efficiency, not for strategy.
AI can help you build the “walls” of your house faster by writing emails or analyzing data, but it cannot design the foundation. It lacks human intuition. It does not understand your customerās deepest fears or your companyās unique “why.”
If you use AI without a solid strategy, you are simply buttoning the jacket wrong at high speed. You are scaling your own chaos. At its core, business is about people helping other people solve problems. If you lose sight of that truth, no amount of technology will save the business.
Watch the episode on YouTube:
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