I very often see situations where a business says, “Our sales have dropped — we need to do something about marketing.”
And then it starts: let’s increase the budget, change the channels, launch a new campaign.
But I would first look at what else has changed during this time.
Has demand changed?
Is the product still competitive?
Has the price changed?
Is the product in stock?
Can the sales team properly handle all the demand we are generating?
Because marketing can be working perfectly well.
And sales can still be declining because of the product, pricing, service, logistics, or the market itself.
I think it’s extremely important to diagnose the problem correctly.
Because if we get the cause wrong, we can end up solving the wrong problem — very efficiently and at a very high cost.
So when I see sales declining, my first question isn’t, “What’s happening with marketing?”
My question is, “What else has changed in the business?”
