Don't Always Listen to C-Level Execs ... or Your Deans?

I am not telling you to defy your dean and getting yourself fired. I am telling you to challenge and inform leadership. E-marketer just released a report issued by Heidrick and Struggles stating that the biggest marketing challenge of C-level (for those of you that do not know what C-level, it is "chief") executives is new customer acquisition. While I don't necessarily disagree, I do find it a bit surprising. There are many studies over the past few months which these same C-level executives state that they won't be increasing marketing budgets. So where do these know-it-alls think that new customers are coming from? Do they realize that the competition is also most likely ramping up their efforts? It's a zero-sum game unless the marketers or C-level execs come up with something different ... and hopefully it's strategic and not trickery.

My guess is that they are a bit disconnected to reality and look at things from the mountaintop ... possibly in similar to fashion to what deans might see. Without further disrespect to deans, marketers need to help deans and others within the organization that they need to take care of their own houses first ... their own customers and that if they want new customers, then it's about converting prospects higher.

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, higher education is extremely inefficient in prospect management and conversion. Address this first before you chase a new marketing avenue. The ROI will be higher. While I often recommend to my colleagues in academia to listen to business and industry, this time I am not. Convert higher from within before you chase the moving car.

Hey marketers ... break your own internal systems to find the holes in conversion. Shop yourself or have others do so. Do it credibly and cautiously, but do it somehow. You're probably chasing more possibly customers away than what a crazy new business effort might do. Did I tell you about the academic dean that got advice from a person sitting next to him on the airplane? No? Well, he came back with a great new business marketing idea and derailed the marketing department for six months. Marketer -- stand up for yourself, but do so in an informed point of view ... just don't get yourself fired.