Book Summary Preview : What Really Counts for CEOs

The Big Idea

At the end of the day, the CEO must determine what is and isn’t working for in his or her company, and act accordingly. Yet, trapped by old-school marketing practices that don’t fit and perpetuate finger-pointing between sales and marketing, it can be hard to break through and grow to the next level. That’s unless you were able to make your marketing a science, and quickly discern What Really Counts.

It’s a brave new world for CEOs; given the move from old-school print advertising to Web 2.0 social networks and the emergence of digital strategies, CEOs far too often have no idea which part of their marketing works and which part doesn’t. And neither do many of them know what to should invest in to enhance their company’s long-term success. This confusion leads to quite a few CEOs spending more marketing budget dollars than necessary, squandering profit margins and resources that could be used elsewhere.

If the CEO does not understand which parts of the marketing effort are producing the best ROI, there is a strong likelihood that he or she will cut the very infrastructure required to maintain or restore the company’s vitality.

Why You Need This Book

In What Really Counts for CEOs, you will be asked to think differently. You will learn to ask your marketing, sales and communication teams the right questions that will produce better answers, those which lead to meaningful metrics resulting in marketing outcomes that can be repeated and adjusted accordingly. In short, you will find out What Really Counts and make it work hard for your money.

This book will help you uncover the key challenges CEOs face, and will give you the tools needed to treat marketing as a science.

Accountability Dodge Ball

As marketing has become increasingly sophisticated, not to mention expensive, CEOs find themselves still in the dark when it comes to understanding what works and what doesn’t. In all other aspects of their companies, they can meaningfully measure a Return-On-Investment, usually in the form of charts or graphs that reflect the correlation between a dollar spent and the value it has, or has not, brought to the company.

The quandary for the CEO is understandable. In every other department of the company, he or she can determine productivity down to the individual employee, if that’s what’s required.

But when it comes to marketing, all this precision collapses. The CEO cannot determine which part of the marketing budget has produced which result. Typically, when CEOs call on marketing management to account for their activities in the same way as every other department in the company, the result is a failure to produce a universally accepted measurement. Instead of getting meaningful figures, the CEO finds himself playing corporate dodge ball, and not with much success, as he throws and the marketing department dodges. The result is not merely an elusive situation for the CEO, but an utter inability to genuinely measure marketing ROI.

This is a situation marketing seeks to avoid. The balls coming their way have been gently thrown, and they aren't difficult to dodge. No problem can be solved with the same mindset that created it. This very much applies to the single most important issue facing CEOs. They’ve gotten to where they are by not imposing accountability on marketing, thus avoiding the issues it creates. Accountability isn’t easy, but avoidance won’t solve the problem or create growth. The point is that every CEO must change how he or she thinks in terms of marketing. Nothing positive will happen until the CEO ends the game of corporate dodge ball.

The CEO as Quarterback

The primary ingredients for change are not complicated and require no special training. They are will and courage.

The key to effective management is the possession of the right tools, along with the understanding that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. This must become ingrained in your thinking. Otherwise, you will continue to measure statistics that don’t matter and to act, or not, in response to them.

You, the CEO, must also understand that you did not create the culture or structure of your company. This has evolved as the result of many forces, most of which are institutional and existed before you became part of it.

As CEO, it is your responsibility to provide inspiration and vision. Ultimately your imagination, and willingness to see it made a reality, is more important than the myriad details your managers present you with each day.

In many ways, the CEO is like a quarterback. As such, you have the leadership responsibility and the power to coalesce or realign your departments and management teams into a streamlined system that supports your objectives. Understand that you are dealing with an entrenched structure and with individuals who won’t give you the right information unless you ask, probe, challenge, and demand it. Success and failure is largely determined by how effectively you accomplish this.

Digital Marketing: The Promise of a New Casino

The Internet has changed not only how a company presents its message, but how many messages it presents. Companies traditionally had a single message that they presented through various media. Their magazine and newspaper advertising campaigns were essentially the same as their television commercials, even with the time restriction. The delivery was slightly different, but the message was the same. All that has changed.

This points to another innovation: your company’s website. The messaging on your website is not just viewed by a controlled group, in the way a direct presentation or print advertisement would be. In effect, it’s a sales presentation to a vast body of people, only some of whom are potential clients. It is open to the world, 24/7/365.

Your marketing resources are not unlimited, and no CEO should ever accept metrics that are selected by those who are selling the service. A CEO needs to ask questions that apply specifically to his or her company and competition. To grow, you’ll need the right metrics, not just the pie charts the search engines provide.

 

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