How NOT to Get Fired from Your Marketing Job

What a compelling headline!

This is not mine, but rather a question posed by a marketing leader of other CMOs and marketing executives throughout the US who are MENG members.

DMCG Results

Since CMOs keep their jobs for a little over two years on the average, such a question is bound to come up within the minds of marketing types -- at least subconsciously.

Some of the answers are both humorous and sometimes cynical.

Here are a few of them for your thoughts.

-"In a small organization, if [you are the] top marketing dog, make sure the C-Suite Exec you report to is a true believer."

-"Kiss butt.  Corporate jobs don’t care if you know what you are doing; just if they like you."

-"Know who is the real boss."

-"Make your boss look good."

-"Go into Sales...only kidding (but not really)."

-"Do marketing. Don't do all those other sorta marketing jobs that you get asked to do. So [do] your job and keep track of your accomplishments."

-"Don't have an affair with David Letterman."

-"Clearly define your role."

-"It is not your ego but what is best for the Brand."

- This is one of my favorites. "Become a partner with the CFO and keep s/he informed on marketing programs, goals, and ROI estimates so that they are as informed as the CEO (your boss)."

Which comment do you like best. Tell us how you would answer the question, "How do you NOT get fired from your marketing job?'

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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