What I Didn’t Learn in Business School

I attended one of the best MBA programs in the world (the Executive MBA program in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah)  and received a world class education on all aspects of business.  We worked in small, high-performance teams creating business plans and solving business problems.  My professors were fantastic, the materials world-class, and we had all-access field trips to corporations worldwide who participated in the program.

. . . but there was one key tenet of business that we did NOT learn in the program.

We didn’t learn how to sell a product or service.  

We never did learn the practical application of marketing.

After our courses in marketing – including the labs where we marketed fake products and explored the different strategies of the time (circa 2000) – the consensus of our class was that “marketing is easy.”  Somehow, I didn’t think so, but I didn’t work in marketing – at the time . . .

Of course if it was easy, everybody would be successful at it.  That is certainly not the case.  Failure to make sales (caused by ineffective marketing) is a leading cause of business failure.

Then my business partner (yes, my wife, Paula) decided she wanted to start an aviation marketing Company (ABCI) with no boundaries – read International.  All of a sudden, I began to learn how much about marketing I hadn’t learned in business school.  Oh, I forgot to mention she had been involved in various components of marketing (including internet) for companies such as Wells Fargo, Pearson’s and other smaller companies for about 15 years.

Then, with the advent of Internet marketing and all of the social media channels available, I was really lost.  I could see all of the “Madison Avenue” marketing firms failing, retiring or just getting by.

So, what gives?

Our marketing classes NEVER touched on Internet marketing, much less the social media channels – simply because they didn’t exist. . . further, they didn’t address how to build a measurable marketing system – never mind one that incorporates the internet, social media, print media, radio and TV if and as necessary!

My business partner convinced me we could do this (and she would teach me!) and help many companies develop measurable marketing systems that would contribute positively to their bottom line.

Well, now I can say – marketing is NOT easy!  If that is, by marketing, you mean the complete functional integration of advertising, print, radio, TV, Internet, and the various Social Media that comprises a complete, measurable marketing system!

(Yes, I learned that advertising is only one component of marketing.)

Each of these channels as they are called, can be dealt with individually – and usually are by most companies.  However when this approach is taken (at ABCI we call that approach “Random Acts of Marketing”) it is quite ineffective – that is except for spending money, for which it is quite effective!  In our practice, we have seen that businesses often waste tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaigns where there was no responses, or the response did not convert to sales, because of a missing element in their marketing “system.” (Or lack of system!)

To maximize your marketing investment dollars (marketing is an investment in your company) you must have an integrated system comprised of several marketing channels, deployed correctly. (We’ve all seen new and old media used badly and know how much good that does!)

Your company must become known as the premier problem solver for your potential clients.  Further, your company must be what is called “top of mind” to your prospective customers so they will call YOU when they have a need for a product or service such as yours.

An integrated, coordinated, measurable custom marketing system developed and implemented by ABCI does exactly that!

If you’re ready for a hands-on consultation, call us at 480-225-4233 and lets talk about how we can help.

If you’re more of a “do-it-yourselfer” by choice or because you’re bootstrapping your marketing costs,  we have an online course that includes a twenty-six page workbook and a one-hour video, both available as an instant download. The course teaches more usable, practical information than I learned in many years of university education and a long career in business prior to ABCI.

If your sales are not what they should be, get help now rather than waiting another month.   We’ve seen too many good businesses in the aviation industry fail because they don’t give sales and marketing the attention it needs.

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