Revenue Journal®

As consumers, we are encouraged to enjoy life, relax, have fun, hang out with our buddies and laugh, drink, eat, travel, be entertained, look for ways to make things easier, more efficient, faster and more cool. As marketers and salespeople, we make claims that our products and services will help people do these things.

Given that the average consumer is exposed to thousands of these messages a week, consumers are immersed in an endless sea of messages encouraging them to "do your thing," "just do it," and do "whatever turns you on." There's also an overriding theme, that you are really, really important, that it's all about "you."

The problem is, in our society, money is the vehicle we all use to pay for those indulgences. We have to make money before we can spend it on our ever-so-special selves.

Marketing is a force. Like any other force, it can be used for good or ill. There are many people who say that marketing itself is evil. Not so.

Marketing is only evil when the power of marketing is used to misrepresent or hide the truth.

I supposed I could stop here, because that really is the essence of it. But I'll go a little further to and provide an example.

Working with CEOs and entrepreneurs, I identify and eliminate barriers to revenue and turn stalled or slowing companies into revenue-growth machines. I have become a revenue engineer. I am an industry of one, and happy to be here.

I'm bringing this up to talk about self-reinvention, a skill that all of us must master in this age of fast-moving markets. As you learn more and become more experienced, and apply those lessons and that experience to your next job, you need to know what you are good at, what you can provide, and what you should call it.

As part of my work helping CEOs to re-engineer and rejuvenate their revenue-generation efforts, I help them with their employee issues. We always start by trying to bring their current staff up to a new standard or, if needed, we find a new person for a particular job. I help them recruit, screen, train and manage people in marketing, selling, web, and product management positions. I've been doing this a long time.

Here are a few key lessons I've learned about the difference between people who are a drag on revenues and people whose contribution is exceptional.

Our first Revenue Journal podcast, in which I interview Brian Livingston, President/Editor of WindowsSecrets.com, who was just named Entrepreneur of the Year by MarketingSherpa.

The CMO Council and MarketBridge just conducted a study to determine how marketing is perceived and how marketers think they're doing. The results agree with what I've observed for many years: the very nature of marketing has changed and many marketers haven't changed with it.