Losing A Quarter.

Today's Marketing Cookie is one of the first lessons I learned in marketing.

For most companies, the year is divided into four quarters. Most marketers are measured by quarterly lead generation numbers, and the sales team is measured by quarterly revenue. When the final numbers are reviewed at the end of the quarter, the marketing department is either praised for meeting their goals and everyone is smiling, or they are chastised for missing the number and scrambling to make up the shortfall in the next quarter. Unfortunately, you can never make up a lost quarter.

While it is technically true that you might be able to get more leads and sales in the next quarter and hit your goals for the year, what you can never make up is the momentum you'd have if your campaigns got off the ground on time. Time and time again, we see marketers spending six, nine, or even twelve months or more on focus groups, market research, and lengthy branding exercises to determine what their audience is looking for, and totally neglect to generate leads and sales in the meantime.

It is tempting to want the branding, imagery, and positioning to be "perfect" before developing any campaigns. However, most companies do not have the luxury of resting on their laurels while waiting for twenty-seven rounds of revisions to be completed on the new logo. You need to develop campaigns that'll fill the coffers and keep the phone ringing while you're busy trying to refine the company's image. Even when all the new branding, position, and website are completed, it will still take another three months before you know if it has had a positive effect on the bottom line.

When we are asked to help a company redefine themselves, we insist on bringing two teams to the table. The first team will be focused on the "new you", while the second team will create hard-hitting, rapid lead generation. By taking this approach, the sales team will have plenty of leads to work with and the revenue will increase, which will give us the time needed to achieve the new branding your company needs.

Today's fortune is a promise we make when partnering with a company to help them generate leads and revenue. We won't let you suffer from a lost quarter. We believe that the most beautiful branding in the world is meaningless if the revenue is allowed to fall into the basement. We are believers in today's fortune, and at the beginning of a quarter, we often say, "Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you."