Marketing-Run or Sales-Run Company?

So if I had a choice, would I rather be in a marketing run organization or a sales run organization? And you probably noticed that, you know, in any of the companies that you know you're currently inhabiting, they're either run by one of those two departments. One is usually the lead department. It's either marketing or sales.

Yes, some people will say product. I would argue that product really has to have demand driven by one of the other two parts of the organization. The demand driving parts of the organization tend to be the lead teams in the organization. They set the tone for the rest of the organization.

What gets prioritized? What gets moved? What gets pressed upon and focused on tends to be run by marketing and sales. So, you know, a lot of times we can't make this choice, meaning that our audience is either big, has to be accessed by marketing, or very, very small, has to be accessed by personal selling.

There are a lot of times, though, where you can actually choose one or the other, and you could go either by marketing or you can go by sales. And if I have a choice, I want to be run by marketing. And the reason for that is because one, marketing, because it's usually project-based, campaign-based, campaign-focused, initiative-based, it disciplines the organization. It disciplines the organization to stay focused and to be able to have rigidity in its testing and its messaging and its strategy.

Marketing tends to not only be the one that helps formulate the messaging, but they also help crystallize the strategy of the organization and are able to drive it forward. If it's a more sales driven organization, what happens is priorities, big growth priorities and initiatives tend to get deprioritized for the next deal. They tend to more often be driven by politics and by personal agendas rather than by demand and by growth initiative. And that makes an organization harder to scale.

And you're also driven by a handful of individual performers. Rather than by getting out in front of demand and being able to drive large swaths of demand. Now, to be totally fair, I actually coach several organizations that are sales driven organizations and we can eliminate all those politics and all that silliness and we can grow in great ways. However, it's still slower than if we could get out and grow via marketing.

Meaning, your messaging can reach hearts and minds a lot faster than it can via sales vehicle. And that makes it easier, an easier glide path for the organization. So for all the reasons I just talked about, I would much rather be a marketing-led organization if I can at all control that variable. So who knows what's happening with TikTok over the next few weeks?

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