Gray Matter at White Space

Students of improvisation are very familiar with the concept of "Yes, and..." If your scene partner sets the environment as a cruise ship and passes the baton to you, you can't say, "No, remember, we're on the moon." You go with the bit, and help your fellow actors create the story.

But, marketing should never feel as “spontaneous” as improv appears.

In the Strategy Lab, I meet with a lot of CEOs who are all too used to saying, "Yes, but..." They understand the value of marketing, yet efforts have proven unsuccessful. Even though they’ve bought into building their own “story,” something has gone awry.

• "Yes, we tried that Martech solution but it didn't pan out."
• "Yes, we contracted with [several] marketing experts but are no closer to our goals."
• "Yes, we tried using our internal resources but have gotten nowhere."
• "Yes, we hired extra sales people but we still haven't seen any revenue growth."

Being known doesn’t guarantee growth.

Meet Marjorie: She’s a brilliant CEO, invested, has a solid reputation, and remarkable revenue in an innovative space.

Despite her ambitions, her marketing wasn’t generating the momentum she expected… Even though she actually was the household name in her sector.

Was she too ambitious? 
Too aggressive? 
Unrealistic?

We didn’t think so. Marjorie didn’t think so. She believed in the mastery of her products and service. She saw the uniqueness of her product line. She knew her reputation had influence.

So, what was the issue? Why wasn’t she seeing growth?