When Marketing Forgets the Basics

By -
When Marketing Forgets the Basics

By Desiree Grace

Last week, I was catching up with a friend who works in distribution. She dropped a line that made me stop mid‑sip: “My marketing department sucks.” That’s a strong statement. So I asked the obvious question: why?

It turns out that her team launched a promotion without looping in IT or Logistics. Promotional pricing wasn’t loaded into the system. The featured product wasn’t even on the shelf. Someone in Marketing sent out the flyer, internally and externally, but skipped the operational steps that make a promotion actually work. Suddenly, her frustration made perfect sense.

I’ve been fortunate enough not to experience this in electrical distribution or manufacturing, but I’ve seen similar misfires during my retail days. Few things sour a customer faster than hearing the dreaded word “raincheck.” Being out of stock or having to override pricing does more than slow things down. It also chips away at trust and the overall customer experience.

And here’s the kicker: all of this could have been avoided with something as simple as a checklist. Marketing is only as strong as its alignment with IT, logistics, purchasing, and, of course, sales. It’s not glamorous work. It’s not creative‑department fun. But it’s absolutely essential.

So here’s the message for every marketing team: don’t hit “send” until you’ve checked your boxes and checked in with your colleagues. A winning promotion is a team sport.

Want smoother promotions and stronger alignment across your organization? River Heights Consulting helps teams bridge the gaps that slow sales down.

 

TL;DR

A promotion fell flat because Marketing didn’t coordinate with IT or Logistics. The result? Wrong pricing, empty shelves, and frustrated customers. A simple checklist and cross‑department collaboration could have prevented the mess.

 



Author Bio

Desiree Grace is a distribution industry veteran who believes great marketing starts with great collaboration. She blends practical experience with a warm, conversational approach to help teams communicate better, execute smarter, and support sales more effectively.





...

Location: Davenport, IA 52803, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

50 Questions for Distributors

By -
Image
Last week I wrote an article titled “Six Questions that Demand an Answer.”  Sharing the article with a few trusted advisers, I received one consistent bit of feedback best summarized by this response. “Frank, I agree these are questions we must ask ourselves; they caused me to pause and ponder.  I used them as an exercise with my team to think about our overall strategy.  I believe taking the time to think about our business from an outside perspective to be justified and worthwhile.   Sometimes it’s hard to do this subjectively.  I would like to see more questions just like these.” The following is my first round of questions.  I have put them into categories to make them easier to digest.  Some will apply to your position, some will not.  I suggest spending a moment visiting these topics with members of your own team. A note:  The readers of this blog come from a variety of backgrounds, hold a diverse collection of positio...
Read more

Commission Policies in the Automation and High Tech Electrical Industry

By -
We are gathering information and building a list of frequently asked questions.   I am often asked about commission structures within the Automation, Electrical Distribution Industry and other knowledge-based distributor operations (Power Transmission Distributors PTDA, Fluid Power Distributors FPDA and Industrial Distributors). Considering the frequency of the question (from potential salespeople, experienced seller, managers and others,) I feel it appropriate to post some thoughts on the practice. While this is not our typical kind of post, I wanted to create a forum for discussion. Commissions based on Gross Margin are one of the most commonly used incentive practices on the channel side of the business. On the manufacturing side, many people are still paid based on their gross sales numbers. Often you will hear distributors refer to this practice as paying on “tonnage” because sales professionals compensated in this matter really aren’t required to worry about whether ...
Read more

It’s Friday Afternoon, do you know where your salespeople are?

By -
Image
A Rant with a Message When I was growing up in rural Illinois, the local TV station always started off the 10:00 News with this public service message:   Not to bore you with the sob story of my pre-internet childhood, but we only had two TV stations and my parental units always seemed to watch the station featuring this message.  Sadly, at the time, if not present and accounted for at the appointed hour, I had to provide a report.  My parents were that way, and at the time, I found the little reminder to be profoundly annoying. Now on with my rant The common wisdom, Urban Legend if you will, among salespeople is this:  Friday Afternoon is not a good time for making sales calls.  Like many legends, there may be just a bit of truth buried deep in the story.  Some, let me repeat, a small number of customers prefer not to be approached on Friday afternoon; especially if the meeting is a drop by without a preset appointment.   ...
Read more