In marketing class many years ago the professor hammered at us time and time again, “The entire firm is a marketing entity.”

Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family with customers, products, machinery, processes, people, debits and credits for dinner table talk, the “entire firm is a marketing entity” was loud and clear. And years later, in business for myself and going to the bank on Fridays to borrow money for the payroll, I would wonder how to create more cash by better having my entire firm as a marketing entity.

Soon it became second nature to me – everything we did that impacted our customers must be weighed for positive and negative impact. From the cleanliness of our parking lot to the way we answered the phone to the way our invoicing looked, all impacted the customer in some way. For example, we had a messy, disorganized unprofessional looking machine shop. We cleaned it up and more business came in from customers who visited. We billed our customers late and had many complaints. Then we speeded up the billing process, and the complaints stopped.

Now a consultant to small business I tell clients, “The entire firm is a marketing entity.” We work together to make it that way, to the great satisfaction of clients and their customers.