The Education of Millionaires - Michael Ellsberg [62]
In his wonderful book No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses, which is in my view the single best introduction to direct-response available, Kennedy lists “Big Company’s Agenda for Advertising and Marketing,” which includes:1. Please/appease its board of directors (most of whom know zip about advertising and marketing but have lots of opinions)
2. Please/appease its stockholders
3. Look good, look appropriate to Wall Street
4. Look good, appropriate to the media
5. Build brand identity
6. Win awards for advertising
7. Sell something
He then lists “Your Agenda” for advertising and marketing, which includes, in its entirety:
1. Sell something. Now.5
If you’re an entrepreneur, or self-employed, marketing is one of your most important jobs, period.
However, if you work for a large corporation (or aspire to), and you’re not in the marketing department, you might wonder: What relevance does all this talk about learning marketing possibly have for me?
There are several important reasons you should learn marketing, even if you work for a large corporation and aren’t planning a career in marketing.
1. Marketing is a mentality. It’s a worldview that puts customers’ emotional reality first, and inquires deeply about their needs, wants, and desires. Do you think adopting that mentality might be good for other parts of the business, besides the marketing department?
2. There’s no better way to rise up the ranks of your organization than bringing in new business, or coming up with ideas that bring in new business. Not in your job description? If you’re seriously that attached to your job description, one day someone is going to come along in your department who’s willing to go the extra mile and go way beyond your job description. Whom is the boss going to think of first when it’s time for considering promotions? And, if you’re using your job description as an excuse for avoiding proactive leadership and initiative, whom do you think your boss is going to think of first when it’s time to hand out pink slips? Few employees are more popular with the higher-ups than those who come up with workable ideas about how to bring in more revenue.
3. If you’ve noticed, your job may not seem so secure these days as it used to. Now is a good time to start thinking about what skills you’re bringing to the table if you find yourself looking for work in the future. Not only will these marketing and copywriting skills help you promote yourself to future employers when you need to (see Success Skill #6 on personal branding, for Marian Schembari’s story), but there is no skill, and I mean no skill at all, more highly prized by potential employers than a demonstrated ability to bring in new business. Employers love rainmakers. They hire rainmakers first, and will never, ever fire them, so long as they continue making rain. Learn to be a rainmaker.
There may even come a time when you are finding it difficult to find employment. Instead of sitting around moaning and watching an empty screen in response to the hundreds of resumes you’re sending out, you could try getting some freelance consulting gigs in your field while you look for work. It’s a great way to meet prospective employers (vastly more effective than job hunting), and you’ll also have some money coming in to smooth over the transition to your next job. The marketing skills you can learn through this chapter will be invaluable in helping you get these freelance gigs. Who knows, the self-employment bug might even bite you, and as you enjoy these freelance gigs, you might just “neglect” to find a new boss to replace the old one!
Frank Kern (http://frankkern.com) “got the