Every Friday, I post a scenario that poses a dilemma to marketers. These dilemmas are less about the science of marketing and more about the art of getting the job done. I try to pick scenarios where there is no obvious right or wrong approach and you really have to think about the advice you would give to the marketer in the scenario.
In today’s dilemma, imagine you are a marketer in a mid-sized IT shop. The annual revenues are roughly $50 million and the organization has achieved year over year growth for the last several years. However, this year the demand for the technology services your organization offers has declined significantly. In order to meet financial goals the staff was reduced by almost a third.
The marketing team was made up of three people. You, a peer and your manager. Your team was primarily responsible for lead generation but you were also tasked with some PR work and developing sales tools. In your “spare time” you did a bit of competitive research as well.
Marketing was affected by the down-sizing more so than other parts of the organization. After the layoffs, your team is down to one – you.
At first, you had a bit of survivor guilt and you felt really bad for your colleagues. You even wondered why you were spared. You figured that maybe it was the recognition of your hard work that you’ve always dreamed of. But no matter what the reason, you were just glad you still had a job.
After a couple of weeks the shock of losing your colleagues to the layoffs wore off a bit and your eye was back on the job. While you would never say it out loud, you were thinking this may be the opportunity to show what you are really worth. When the economy improves and staff can be added, maybe you can even get promoted into a management position.
After a month or so, the bloom is off that rose. Not only are you a third of the marketing staff the organization once had, your programs budget was slashed in half. Now you have to do it all and you have less money to do it with.
It’s also apparent that your organization, especially the sales team, seems to think that you can market your way out of this recession. If anything, they are asking you to produce more than you did with the money and staff you had prior to the cuts.
Whether it takes months or years for things improve, how do you best meet your goals and maintain your sanity?
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