I’ve been thinking about trust and being Market Able.

For the past several months, I’ve been doing a lot of work – solving a lot of problems – for a challenging client. Most of the work I’ve been doing certainly doesn’t fit the usual concept of marketing and it really isn’t a future bullet point under a “Services” tab on the Sullivan Solutions website.

Yes, we’ve dipped our toes into advertising, e-commerce, and social media for this client. We’ve had remarkable successes in terms of deployment speed, return on investment, and engagement. We’ve clearly proven the value of these marketing tactics to this highly skeptical client.

“Marketing” isn’t a problem.

This client doesn’t feel the need for any standard marketing solution. There is no reason, in their experience, to spend their cash or time on more social media, more digital advertising, or stronger branding.

Some things are far more important to their business than marketing. The phones have to be answered. Customers must be served. Shelves must be stocked. Safety must be maintained. The premises must be secure. Salaries must be paid. All of these things, and more, require cash to keep the business operational.

Profitability is the key to their successful business and there’s no direct correlation between dollars spent on marketing and profitability.

How do you measure:

• The profitability of a smile, a thank you, a fast answer, or the confidence of expert consultation? 

• Employees who are suddenly Market Able in their customer service because they feel validated and appreciated by your investment in making their work easier? 

• Customers who self-select based on upgraded perceptions, and as a result bring you unprecedented volumes of new business?

Oddly enough, as we chip away at many of the things outside of our traditional marketing scope, we grease the wheels of daily business operations and ultimately fuel profitability in a variety of new ways. All of these are things that make the business more “Market Able”.

That’s where the trust comes in.

This client trusts us focus on solving the problems that matter to them – regardless of whether we call it marketing. And I trust this client to see the value in the relationship, regardless of the metrics.

Doing the hard work of solving the problem that really matters, and not just the selling the standard marketing services, is the foundation of this trust.

And being trusted to help make a business more “Market Able” is the heart of marketing.