A little more than a decade ago, Seth Godin wrote that 'people who want to become marketers ought to just start marketing' and a decade later, there are plenty of studies that suggest that CEOs find their Marketing organizations lacking.

Thomas Barta lamented this point in an article in Marketweek late last year: “Depending upon which study you pick, between 50% and 80% of CEOs don’t trust marketing.”

Maybe it takes more than just wanting to be a marketer to do Marketing well. Marketing’s obsession with ROI rather than Marketing’s ability to demonstrate effectiveness and contribute to growth may also be a contributing factor.

Gartner claimed in their 2017-2018 CMO Spend Survey that “CMOs are either being too nearsighted to be strategic or too visionary to deliver against marketing’s objectives, which results in a lack of focus on the metrics that really matter to the business.” Forrester, in their Predictions 2018, called for CMOs to “refocus energy on marketing’s role in driving top-line, innovative marketing effectiveness growth.”

Our studies mirror these findings. Regardless of the size of an organization, whether it is for-profit or not-for-profit, B2B or B2C, a services or product company, local, regional, national or global – every organization needs Marketing, with a capital M, to help accelerate growth, create customer value, and improve business performance.

Certainly someone without a Marketing or related degree or extensive Marketing experience can be or become a good marketer, especially if the company already offers a quality product and/or service that solves a real problem, is price-competitive, convenient to buy, well-positioned and promoted.

However, skilled marketers understand how to identify the needs of the customer in order to create products and services that meet these needs; how to develop and articulate a competitive advantage and competitively position the product, service, and organization; and how to craft and implement a strategy to create customer value and accelerate growth.

A person serving in the role of Marketing who can’t address these upstream aspects of Marketing is doing more harm than good. That seems like a high price for an organization to pay for a cavalier approach to the profession.

It Might Not Just Be Practice That Makes Perfect

So, if someone has the skills, knows what questions to answer and how to acquire the insights and answers, then sure, they could have what it takes to be a marketer. This takes us right back to the premise of this article – Marketing is a discipline and a profession.

Most professions and disciplines require some level of skill. From health care professionals, to accountants and lawyers, to electricians and plumbers, there are clear standards of performance requirements and expectations.

It’s not uncommon for many B2B organizations to believe that if someone has the domain experience they have the making of a good marketer. Organizations have been known to staff Marketing with people from the field or product organization or newly out of school with a degree in the domain.

Unfortunately, by the time these people can really do the “work of Marketing,” these organizations may have missed important market windows. On-the-job training and self-teaching don’t work well for organizations with limited runways, budgets and resources. These organizations can’t afford a lot of trial and error when it comes to market validation, traction and penetration.

For the sake of the discipline and profession, it is time to ensure that people entering the Marketing profession come with at least a standard set of capabilities. Yes, anyone can become a great marketer by graduating from the school of hard knocks, having terrific mentors, learning from peers at conferences, or taking courses and reading books along the way.

In fact, even the best of marketers should continue to hone their skills through these channels. But organizations that accept the idea that anyone can be a marketer should follow this approach knowing they will pay a high price with many hidden real and lost opportunity costs.

Laura Patterson is president and co-founder of VisionEdge Marketing, Inc., a recognized leader in enabling organizations to leverage data and analytics to facilitate marketing accountability.

Laura’s newest book, Marketing Metrics in Action: Creating a Performance-Driven Marketing Organization (Racom: www.racombooks.com ), is a useful primer for improving marketing measurement and performance. Visit: www.visionedgemarketing.com

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