Aligning the organization

Marketing operates in a world of ambiguity. Every marketing situation faces some uncertainty, and you need to be prepared when unexpected things happen. Hey, if you’re not prepared, your strategy may derail, and you may end up losing competitive ground in the marketplace. Now, sometimes those unexpected events happen internally. The priorities in any organization are constantly shifting. Problems can occur externally as well. Hey, things are always changing in the marketplace. New competitors emerge, or new regulations or legal actions might affect your ability to market a product. A bad customer experience may be going viral on social media. You wake up one morning, and you find that your company is on the front page of the business section (laughing) and it’s not good news. Sales of your product are off-forecast. So here are some tips to help you cope with these types of challenges. First, be nimble. You have to act fast when these things pop up. You don’t want to let a small problem become a big problem. Your managers will appreciate when they see that you’re on top of it. Next, gather information. What’s changed to cause this problem? Now make sure you separate fact from fiction. You don’t want to react to bad information or just assume you know what’s going on. What may have been the truth before may not be anymore. Seek advice, especially from credible experts. Hey, you need to leverage the brain power of others. That’ll help you prevent from getting tunnel vision around the problem or possible solutions. Next, get into the solution mode. By that, I mean stop wishing the problem will go away. Develop a list of possible alternatives, then work with your team on selecting and implementing the best one. Work on the things you can change and avoid the ones you can’t. Now be flexible here. You may have to give up on certain aspects of your plan to keep things moving forward. If you dig in too hard, you could make your situation worse. And finally, look for ways to innovate. My experience suggests that the best way to revitalize a struggling marketing campaign is to unlock new value. If the organization is stuck, use systematic creativity methods to generate new opportunities for your business. And that’s what great marketers do, they help lead the company forward, especially in challenging times.