Owner/CEO = Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

As I was conducting my quick review of the Wall Street Journal this AM, I noticed this article on the Page B1: “New Northrop CEO Dives Into Tanker Bid Debate.” From a business coaching perspective, why did this catch my attention?

Every time I speak to or work with business owners and CEOs, I stress the fact that as long as they are in a leadership role in their business, they will be selling and marketing – there’s just no way around it. Certainly as your business grows you will go after the biggest of fish and schmooze only your biggest clients, delegating the smaller accounts to your sales/business development professionals, but you should get completely comfortable with the fact that every business is first and foremost in the Sales and Marketing business. It doesn’t matter if you run a $1.8M business or an $18B business – as CEO, if you don’t have selling and marketing at the top of your list of priorities, you will soon be the CEO of a smaller company.

For example, since the mid-70s General Motors was run by CEOs cultivated in the company’s financial and operations organizations. Not one came from the sales and marketing ranks. Is that the cause of GM’s demise? I don’t know; an accountant ran GM from ’58-’67, a time when they achieved record profits. I do know that it wouldn’t have hurt GM if they sold a few more cars. I still remember an Op-Ed that former CEO Rick Wagoner wrote for the Wall Street Journal a few years ago. He presented a number of ideas for turning around GM, including getting some trade-protection and other help from the government. Not once did he mention building cars that excite people and actually marketing them to the world. It seemed to me, and to the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, that Mr. Wagoner was completely oblivious to the fact that he needed to “sell cars.”

So, will it hurt Northrop’s Wes Bush if he helps his company win a $40B contract? It’s a stretch, but I’m guessing the answer to that is “no.”

Never lose focus on sales and marketing. No customers – no business. The best operations are useless if no one is buying.

Grow Strong!

Ingar Grev 
The Growth Coach