I have a marketing strategy in place, but why isn't it working?

I am reading a very interesting book at the moment, 'Execution - the discipline of getting things done' by Larry Bossidiy and Ram Charan.

I think the book is a great read for any business and some of the core themes explored are just as appropriate for the world of sales and marketing as they are for general business managment.

I often have businesses come to Manning & Co for a strategy/plan - whether it be for marketing, communications, PR or a general business one. I explain to these businesses from the outset that no matter the blood, sweat and tears that we will put into creating the most brilliant strategy for their business, unless it is implemented well, the strategy is not always going to be a success.

It is a common practice that when businesses fail to deliver on targets and goals, people are quick to jump to blaming the strategy and saying that the strategy is wrong. However as summed up in Larry and Ram's book,

"Strategies most often fail because they aren't executed well. Things that are supposed to happen - don't happen."

We have developed some wonderful strategies for businesses and know that post our work on these strategies, execution is often not followed through. We find this frustrating at times, because we are confident that businesses will get the results they desire if they were to focus on executing the strategy.

Some of our most successful client engagments are with those companies who we continue to partner with post strategy development where we work with them to execute the strategy. This is simply because we are executing the strategy and delivering tangible results. ROI on marketing investment is realised.

So, how do you execute?

There are four core elements at the heart of execution in a marketing context that includes:

• Strategy
• People
• Operations
• Sales

Marketing needs to be linked closely with each of these four elements (and the four elements also need to be linked).

I am developing a more detailed article on this...so watch this space for part two of this post!

And in the mean time next time you think, "my marketing strategy is wrong because it is not working...my business is not meeting its targets and sales objectives" ask yourself, "have I executed this strategy well".

There is no point having a business or marketing plan that just sits on a shelf in the office and isn't acted upon.

Gemma