The Hard Work Begins

Ok, you've done the following ...

First, you told your Executive Team that Customer Acquisition is the focus of the marketing team, going forward. Worse, you told them that future Customer Acquisition efforts are going to be outside of the catalog. You made enemies. Folks feel that you are disrespecting the heritage of the business. 

This means you are doing your job.

Second, you told your marketing team that Customer Acquisition is the focus of their efforts, going forward. They immediately resented your comments, and are waiting patiently until you are fired in eighteen months. If they aren't careful, they will lose their job(s) within the next eighteen months.

Third, you built a Brand Response Marketing Team, comprised of 30-39 year olds from each functional area in your company. This angered your Executive Team, because you offered to pay bonuses for these individuals out of your budget. Worse, your plan limits the ability of each Executive to squelch your efforts.

Congrats! You are on an island, isolated and unloved. All because you want to do what is right for your business.

This is where the hard work begins.

Do not let up.

Do not relent.

Do not give in when people say that your strategy "isn't working".

Do not get down when your Executive co-workers take pot shots at you during weekly team meetings ("gee, business was down 3% last week, I guess our focus on customer acquisition is actually hurting business, hmmm, I wonder who is taking us down this dead-end path?")

Do not let your own marketing team sabotage your efforts by falling back upon "what we've always done".

Continually remind every employee that ten years of "business as is" resulted in tepid performance. Always use a portfolio of tepid metrics to your advantage. At every meeting you attend, remind every single employee what the tepid metrics look like. Remind them that their efforts, when followed to their logical destination, yield tepid results. This is why you are changing how the company manages the customer base.

Questions?