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The Strategic Value of Marketing in Planning Average profit margins in our industry hover around 8-9%, well below other professional service sectors. Among firms that routinely engage in strategic planning, however, profit margins are as much as 30% higher, according to PSMJ. Their data also show that 60-70% of firms in the A/E/C industry aren't planning! Hopefully your firm is not in the majority. If your firm does practice strategic planning, is your marketing group given a substantial role in this process? I am surprised how often marketing's contribution to planning is marginalized in our business. I suppose that many technical managers view themselves as the experts and don't see the need to significantly involve their marketing staff, especially if the marketers lack a technical background. The painful fact is that many in marketing roles don't know the business as well as they should, giving some justification for their not being significantly included in the planning process. But let me suggest that marketing professionals be invited to a meaningful role in the process for a couple of primary reasons: (1) they can bring a different, vitally needed perspective and (2) there needs to be a careful alignment of strategy and marketing. Let's explore these two points further: Marketing's needed planning perspective Just as
technical professionals tend to vie Marketing
professionals add value to the planning process when they help their
technically-oriented colleagues see the
bigger picture. They should have a good understanding
o Aligning strategy with marketing Another reason for marketing's significant participation in planning is the need to align marketing activity with implementation of the firm's strategy. This seems obvious, but I've witnessed numerous examples of where marketing operated on the fringe of corporate strategy. If planning is to succeed, the strategic plan must drive every facet of marketing activity. This will include:
It's not uncommon to find these activities being performed in a manner that's inconsistent with the firm's stated strategy (of course, you will find the same lack of alignment in other aspects of company operations). The marketing department obviously has a critical role in determining how to best align strategy and marketing. The Strategic Value of Marketing in Service As noted earlier, the Value Perception Gap points to a tremendous opportunity to distinguish your firm by delivering superior client service (i.e., a superior "experience"). In fact, I think providing great service constitutes the best differentiation strategy in our business. Since one of the primary responsibilities of marketing is helping differentiate the firm, and because marketing specialists often possess strong client service skills, I see a strategic role for marketing in this area. I've explored a unique service delivery process elsewhere on this site (refer to "The Service Difference," "Managing Client Service" and "Uncovering Client Expectations," for example). With this backdrop, let me suggest the following role for marketing in supporting a structured client service approach: Assign some marketing resources to client service. There's no better expenditure of marketing time that helping delight your clients. Plus, if marketing doesn't help with the service activities listed below, who will? Have marketing create tools and information of value to the client. This would include things like articles, informational newsletters, presentations, checklists, a resource website (like this one), etc. Divert some of the time spent producing promotional materials that no one really looks at to developing materials that the client can use. Conduct research about your clients. Learn about the trends and issues affecting their business or mission, those things that drive current and future need for your services (or services you should add). This helps you define how to create resources that they will find useful. Research should also include identifying leading-edge service strategies. Provide people skills training. Marketing professionals are often well suited to provide training to their technically-oriented colleagues in crucial service skills such as listening, relationship building, conflict resolution, negotiation, etc. Conduct client satisfaction surveys. This activity should ideally be conducted under the direction of the project principal or client sponsor as assigned. But marketing can help create, distribute, collect, and analyze the survey instruments. (See "Soliciting Client Feedback" for more information) Keep in mind that building trust is the foremost objective of marketing. There's no better way to build trust than demonstrating a commitment to superior client service. This is clearly an area where marketing can add value.
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their technical credentials as their main point of differentiation, this
inclination towards "techno-centricity" often colors their
perspective of planning. As the adjoining figure illustrates,
technically-oriented managers often view the marketplace through the lens
of their capabilities. This can blind them to opportunities or market
forces that exist just beyond the sphere of their expertise. 
f
the larger business and political environment that drives client
needs (as illustrated in the adjoining figure). These factors then
guide what services the firm should
offer, not the other way around. The best marketing people I have worked
with over the years possessed keen insights into the forces that shaped
the marketplace, and ultimately their businesses.
They not only supported the strategic planning process,
but served as vital catalysts to making it successful.