Marketing With Integrity

Steve Duplessie referred to me as "a marketing guy" in a recent post.   Kind of understandable given my CMO title.    But I also bristle at the label a bit since it feels confining.

My wife is a teacher.   I think we have stayed married for almost 25 years because we both enjoy seeing the light go on in someone's eyes when they realize they have learned something new.    She got to do that with kids in the classroom.  I get to do it every now and then when I talk with customers.    Helping people understand how to solve a problem is what really excites me.     I get to learn from them as they describe what they are trying to do, and sometimes I can describe a new product or technology that will help them get it done.    It is a win-win.

While there are many aspects to the function of marketing, I believe the essence of marketing is about teaching.   Good marketing focuses on how customers learn, and how to reach them with just the right information at the right time to address the challenge they are trying to solve.      Marketing often gets a bad rap because the timing of problem and solution don't align, and customers find themselves barraged with information they can't use at that time.    Reminds me of 10th grade biology where I was buried in information that had no relevance to me finding a date for that Friday night.   

I have done "marketing" roles for most of my career, but those roles included technical teaching, product planning, and conducting technical customer councils.   I also did some software engineering management, and was even a Chief Technology Officer at Brocade.   Lots of time talking technology with practitioners of IT.    I think of marketing as the function that translates between customers with business and operational needs and engineering teams anxious to make a difference by solving them.    

Remember the teacher that really lit up your mind at some point in grade school?   For many people, it was a single teacher that set them on a career path by finding the link between their passion and the real world.     But also remember how hard that teacher had to work to simply get and hold the attention of the class?   He or she was "marketing" learning to you - sometimes you were buying and sometimes you were not.     A great deal of marketing activity is simply to try to catch your attention. 

The analogy is not perfect.  As a child, you had required courses to take.    And the teacher did not starve if you did not learn.   But the principles were similar.    If marketing is the mutually profitable exchange of knowledge between consumer and provider with the goal of stimulating informed action, then I am proud to be a "marketing guy."

Comments

[Shibin Zhang]

Jay,

I like the title of your article!

My name is Shibin Zhang, a software developer who likes to do self-study in the spare time. I worked at Brocade too and we might had some overlap. I have never been a marketing or sales guy, but I feel I have occasionally been in similar roles in daily life. I like to give some comments based on my life experiences.

1. Customers are not kids

I am a father. I enjoy teaching my kids. I also agree that educating customers is important. However, customers are not kids. They are usually cunning adults.

2. Discovering the truth

When customers want to turn you down, they sometimes don’t tell you the truth. They might find a reason that sounds right when you hear it, but sound odd when you pay a second thought. If I show my humble attitude, some of them might tell you the truth or give you a hint. I found this is a common phenomenon to all cultures. Maybe that’s because sympathy is a human nature.

3. Doing homework

When you are targeting a customer, you’d better do some homework before talking to him. If you know his pain point, you can offer him some customized solution directly or indirectly within ethical range. Of course, your product must be included in the solution. For better effect, you can offer him partial solution first and full solution later so that it appears to him that you have helped him multiple times. If he is happy with your solution, you have succeeded by 50%. Even he is not considering your product at the first time, he might consider it at the second time. He might help you back indirectly as well.

Shibin

[Shortcuts to Millions]

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