Marketing and medicine, are regarded as practices. Both engage in diagnosis. And, both prescribe remedies for ailments.
Both require that those seeking a remedial cure must have trust in the professional, their judgment and their opinions. Sometimes a bitter pill is offered to swallow. Marketing and Medicine are best practiced with preventive maintenance in mind.
The problem in practicing either of these professions comes down to “patient” perceptions about symptoms and causes. The human body is organized into systems; respiratory, cardiac, endocrine and so on.
Businesses too, have systems and are generally divided into labor and management. There are specific departments depending on the size of the organization which may include; Sales/Marketing, Financial/Accounting and, Research and Development, as well as, Human Resources and Operations/Production.
A business patient exhibiting symptoms of poor heath needs to be checked out to determine what is causing the reaction. Symptoms after all are reactions. They usually boil down to anyone of the five major functional elements of the organization: Product, Price, Place, Promotion or People.
Each of these elements is integrated into the others. Disinterested People make bad Products. Uninformed People make bad Price decisions. Bad locations and poor housekeeping make for a bad Place of business. Bad or, a lack of, or no Promotion at all does not attract those other People – customers!
If the best way to fight a cold is as soon as you get the sniffles, then the best time to ward off business problems is at the sign of even the smallest complaint from your staff or customers. Call us today for a checkup – it won’t hurt a bit because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!