Successful business people take calculated risks. But they don’t take them without talking to experts – trusted associates who specialize in areas that the business person doesn’t know as much about.
So, it’s not surprising that CEOs and other senior executives often say “run it by legal” or “run it by finance.” They know that these areas can have huge impacts on an effort or an entire business. So it’s best to check-in before any triggers are pulled to more fully understand what the consequences might be.
But when was the last time you ever heard someone say “run it by marketing”?
Customers are important. Damned important. (Last time I checked, that’s where revenue comes from.) Yet, many executives rarely see the need to check-in with someone who understands their customers better than they do. Instead, they feel marketing is an area where they can just “wing it.” After all, customers are just like them, right? So they can just project themselves onto their target audience.
No.
Executives may excel at understanding what’s good for the company, but rarely is that the same thing the customer wants. So to assume that you can just “put on your customer hat” and know everything about your customer is a disaster in the making.
You’d never just “put on your legal hat” or “put on your finance hat.” So why does your sole source of revenue not deserve the same focus, objectivity and attention?
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