Does anyone remember the time when marketing was simple? Many of us involved in this exciting world long for those times when entering the market and getting to know the customer was a relatively easy exercise and provided those who did it with great satisfaction and few headaches. Much to the chagrin of those of us who have always had faith in this field, Marketing has long been considered the “easy” material in Economics and Business studies. Who hasn’t been the victim of Financiers’ jokes about those of us who opted for this supposedly simple subject when we were studying?

For better or worse, the rules of the game have radically changed since then. Good, accurate Marketing has become an increasingly exciting challenge, although at the same time it has become more complicated. Although it weighs on the minds of Financiers – allow me this entirely affectionate revenge -, a company’s survival relies on its sales. Without sales, there is no company. Without customers, there are no sales. And without marketing, there are no customers. The truth is as simple as that. All business schools have understood this, and they have progressively shifted towards Marketing, creating specialties within this field that were inconceivable only a decade ago.

Our companies operate in an increasingly complex environment. The competition is fiercer every day, globalization presents constant changes, adapting to global and local markets simultaneously requires us to redouble our efforts, liberalization processes have created increasingly experienced and demanding customers, financial markets are relentless with profitability, and generating value for the stockholder has many Boards of Directors on the ropes.

To this context is added an avalanche of information of all types that seems to have no limits and that has caused the majority of directors to succumb to two plagues typical of this new millennium: “infoxication” and “info-addiction”. Numbers, data, confidential clues, references and reports increase the businessman’s anxiety and intoxicate him when it comes to making risky, decisive decisions for a company. The pressure to sell more and better is high, and the tools our companies have to achieve their objectives are decreasing. There are no longer secret or exclusive formulas to seduce the market. We are increasingly running a marathon, working without advantages at the starting line, and sharing the mission of reaching the finish line first. We are slowly emerging from an economic slow-down that has increased the pressure for our companies to survive. We have all had to juggle in order to achieve objectives with smaller budgets.

The sum of these factors explains the fact that the majority of the basic foundations of traditional Marketing, which worked so well long ago, have gone down the drain, and that we are currently facing the challenge of reinventing the art of selling.

How? That’s the million-dollar question. But don’t be discouraged. Selling more and better is possible. Many companies are doing it brilliantly. Those that the competition works to emulate, without realizing that the tools are within everybody’s reach, will be the winners.

Some clues: Has your company identified its best customers? Specifically: not those who spend the most money on it, but rather the most profitable ones. More clues: Does your company know the names of the customers who are on the verge of migrating to the competition? Are your sales directors sure of having a well-sized sales force that is present in the geographical areas with the most possibilities of generating the highest revenue? Does your company know which customers are worth investing in for loyalization plans? Do you know the real value and potential lifespan in your company of each one of your customers? Does your company have rigorous data about the markets it plans to invest in?.

The answers to all of these questions make up the pillars on which a new way of Marketing is being built, based on empirical knowledge, and not on intuition and experience: two of the basic but insufficient tools on which our country’s company directors have traditionally relied on.