A business does marketing and sales for the money, but that’s not the sole reason to get good at it. One of my favorite mentors, authors, and consultants is David Maister. One day a while back I was reading through his archives and snipped this nugget from an article entitled “Doing It For The Money” (if you’ve been on my e-mail list for awhile you may have seen me mention this quote once before):
What getting good at marketing can do for the individual is to help him or her find the clients they could care about and be eager to help, and the types of work that would be truly stimulating. The better you are at marketing, the more truly professional you can be, because you are not forced to take money from anyone and everyone just because you need the cash.
David’s original article is a bit long, but there are some other tidbits wrapped around this quote if you feel inclined to dig them up. The link to the article is above. I recommend reading two of his books, “The Trusted Advisor” and “Strategy and the Fat Smoker“, or spending a morning with your coffee in hand while perusing his articles and blog archive.
Josh Richards 