Alternate point of view about efficiency: it shouldn’t be localized or within a silo. In a true market-driven company, the CMO needs to be the person who knows about every process within the company, because he or she has taken the time to listen to the people responsible for those processes, and ideally has the capability either to suggest process improvements or know where to go to get that information.

I call that MBWA (Marketing By Walking Around), which is one of my 3 great contributions to business culture along with VAAS (Vaporware as a Service) and HCRM (Human Capital Relationship Management). Feel free to appropriate any or all of these.

My a-ha moment regarding process improvement came during a marketing consulting engagement for a company that was in a very niche professional services sector, and was in a potential market leading position but unable to achieve its potential because it kept repeating many of the same mistakes.

We were scheduled for a marketing meeting with the CEO, a heavy hitter who had been recruited from Kelly Services, and he said “I don’t even have time to think about marketing, I’m always too busy fixing operations.”

And I said (drum roll) “Well, then, maybe marketing begins with fixing operations.” Because if you can’t deliver on the promise of your product or service, marketing is B.S. anyway.

So to the 4, or 5, or 7, P’s of marketing, you really need to add one more P, and perhaps put it first on the list: Phulfillment. (Apologies for massacring the language.)

Chris,
Thanks for these suggestions. Great addition to the post. (For those unaware of Chris’expertise, please meet one of the best “go to” experts in large account sales process implementation.)
-Dave