“Remember, when it comes to value add--speak of that which you know!”

Looking for a surefire way to suck the life out of your marketing efforts? Listed here are the three things not to do.

Deny or Limit Client Access

It doesn’t matter whether it’s inside a distributor or at an asset manager, real marketing is all about client advocacy.  It’s about making sure the company is meeting client needs by offering the “right product” to the “right customer.”

So, if you’re not putting your marketers in front of clients, how will they know what right is? How can they be sure that every decision the company makes, from operations and IT to legal, has the client’s best interest at heart? 

O.K. Even if you believe that marketing is primarily a sales support function (and WE don’t!), you’ll find that the materials they create for you will be far more on target once they’ve seen how the sausage is made.

Sales guys used to tell us all the time that they were the client experts. They are right! Listen, no one can or should know more about the point of sale experience than the sales force. But the sales force can’t be the client “advocate” at the home office. They not only don’t have the time--that’s simply not their role. The role of the sales force is to build and manage client relationships. You tell me…would you rather have your sales people spending time in front of the client, or in front of a spreadsheet!

REMEMBER: By limiting or denying marketers access to the client, you’re either protecting your powerbase or you think your marketers aren’t smart enough to get it.

And if you’re a marketer and haven’t demanded client time…shame on you!

Segregate Product Management and Development from Marketing

A recent trend in asset management to send product management and development into the investment organization. It makes sense for a number of reasons:

1. Investments is tired of never achieving wildly off-base sales targets on new products
2. They are tired of having to launch asset-chasing investment disciplines at precisely the wrong time.
3. As the space gets more institutionalized, the “street cred” is upped by carrying an investments business card

Each is fair reasoning.

However, this reorganization not only leads to similar bad habits, (i.e. $10 million bio-tech fund launches and products built to retain an analyst threatening to bolt to a hedge fund) while having the unintended effect of taking your marketers eye off the ball.

At the end of the day, the asset management business is about investment process and results. And when you remove product responsibility from marketing, you’ve sent a not so subtle signal—that you don’t need to worry about that!

Guess what…in a pretty short time, they won’t. They’ll stop educating themselves, distance themselves from everything but the results and soon are not investing themselves in the essence of your/our business.

The most stimulating meetings we’ve ever been a part of are product strategy meetings. At those meetings, industry trends are discussed, competitor’s offering dissected and groundwork laid for future actions. This free flow of information keeps the marketer engaged, gets them in front of the curve regarding performance anomalies and is one of the few opportunities to build an investments/marketing partnership.

Don’t permit them to be dumb—demand that they engage. You’ll find that they are a pipeline into the minds and hearts of the end client as well as a great resource.

Bring Them to the Table Late

There’s no better way to ensure your marketer is nothing more than an order-taker than by introducing them to a new product or program at the last minute. Last minute orders must be filled without question. And by springing it on them at the last minute, you’ve eliminated the opportunity for a better solution while reminding them exactly who’s boss!

“That’s a great idea, we just don’t have time,” you’ll say.

Want a really smart and leverageable marketing organization? Include them at an idea’s inception. Whether that’s a product, a program, an acquisition or even response to bad news. Better yet, if they’re involved in your business everyday, you might be surprised to find the they are the source of some of your best ideas.

Most of time these “mistakes” aren’t by design but by benign neglect. If you want to create an environment where you can attract and retain the best marketers, give them the latitude to be smart.