I will not deny that I believe in the power of research - and specifically, in the power of measurements. I believe that goals should be clearly defined - and in the case of marketing and sales (which I think should always be aligned), they should be quantified.
I also believe that there are a lot of factors that affect - facilitate, catalyze, result to - sales.
I also believe that whenever something emerges as a risk to achieving sales goals, one should sit down and respond.
However, I think that marketeers can become trapped in what I can only call as "metrics myopia".
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Metrics myopia leads to a knee-jerk reaction to a slight change - usually a dip - in certain metrics deemed to be determinants of success.
The knee-jerk reaction from marketeers and sales executives trigger a chain of panic that affects the entire marketing organization, with the potential of triggering the entire organization to respond with "urgency".
What causes metrics-myopia-induced panic disorder?Immediate data access - made accessible by cheaper costs of doing research and by technology.
And since costs and technology are making data access even far cheaper, a pandemic is a real, possible phenomenon.
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My recommended response:
- Stop.
- Don't panic.
- Verify the trends.
Are they real? Are there precedents that show it is indeed a trend-reversal?
What made you think it is a trend-reversal?
Does the dip even warrant an investigation? - If it is indeed a trend-reversal, then identify WHY it is happening.
- Revalidate your hypotheses from (4).
Check the past.
Check the competition. - Revisit your overall business and marketing strategies.
(If you're gunning for profitability as a key annual business metric, for everyone's sake, don't launch a promo or increase your ad-spends without checking!) - Respond - in accordance to (6) and to (5)
- Monitor. Set up metric-screens. And by all means, do it regularly. But...
- Don't panic. Sleep.
(And keep your fingers off the red telephone line to the CMO or the CEO.) If things don't improve, then repeat from (3).
Sure. It is a competitive world out there.
Time and speed are always critical considerations.
But use them wisely. And respond rationally.
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