Marketing is a commitment, a long-term commitment.

In fact, marketing is like a marriage. A good marriage, that is! But it’s no cake walk.

Remember when you fell in love? You decided to get married; you made the commitment for happily ever after. Marketing is the same. It’s a long-term commitment.

Yes, you have disagreements but you don’t throw in the towel because he leaves the toilet seat up or she has 112 pairs of shoes. No, you communicate and compromise. You do that because of your commitment to the long-term. Marketing requires the same effort.

Marketing is a commitment to a long-term result. You discuss (communicate) with your partner(s) to decide on how to allocate the budget (compromise) to engage in marketing strategies that develop your brand.

I met with a new client yesterday. It was exciting because he was excited. He had great ideas, useful tools of the trade and understood the value of basic marketing.

But, over six months ago, he sorta left me at the altar. He originally contacted me after a presentation I was invited to give on prospecting. We spoke, but nothing happened. And I mean nothing. He didn’t hire me and he didn’t execute his great ideas or launch his own useful tools to do the marketing on his own. His excitement waned because he didn’t execute.

Sales gets a bad rap and marketing is an afterthought. That is, until we realize that we want to build our business because maybe we want to take that dream vacation, buy that bigger house or we need to put braces on the kid or send them to college. Or both!

We can’t fear the sales process if you have no clients to sell to.

Take a vow to your business, get engaged with marketing and live happily ever after.