Revenue Disruption: Game-Changing Sales and Marketing Strategies to Accelerate Growth

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This is pretty high-concept stuff: “benefits and satisfactions of customers,” “the well-being of society,” and “long-term value-added relationships.” What do we make of this?

The Good

It’s hard to argue with any of these as philosophies, although one wonders how helpful they are to a front-line marketing professional under the gun to launch a new campaign. Even so, they contain some pretty solid practical ideas—specifically, the notions of “two-way communication to identify customer need,” “long- and short-range planning to achieve profit,” and “teamwork and well-trained, customer-oriented personnel.” We’ll keep each of these ideas in our blueprint for accelerating revenue growth.

The Bad

While the relationship marketing concept does in fact call for teamwork, I am struck by how insular these philosophies appear when read as a whole. They are about the marketing department setting policies and formulating plans basically on its own. Indeed, each of these marketing concepts evolved in response to earlier sales-oriented models of buyer engagement. Notice the complete lack of any hints as to how we might harmonize any marketing and sales philosophy.

The Ugly

While the guiding philosophies of marketing continue to evolve, neither the academic discipline of marketing nor the day-to-day operation of the marketing function itself have managed to keep pace with the massive changes in media, technology, and culture that have occurred. In particular, there ...