How to handle expectations from your client audience?

I often find it amusing to be a marketing and communications professional. One of the things that amuses me the most is the reaction of other parties in the organization to how marketing, communications and public relations should be run. First of all, everyone has an opinion and believes if you follow it, then the company shall basically have a license to print money.

There is a great quote by baseball Hall of Fame member Leo Durocher. When asked to describe the fans in the stands who criticize his moves said, "baseball is like church, many attend but few understand." To a certain degree everyone believes that they can do marketing and PR. I think to a large degree it is why so many people are drawn to it and , congruently, why so many organizations struggle with it.

I remember one time when I met with this company and it had a woman who was in charge of MarCom and she was sharp as a tack but I could tell by our meeting she was feeling pressured and more than a little deflated. The company was losing sales and dropping market share. It was only after I met her boss that I realized why. First he was a lawyer who just took the job about 3 months previously. He told me that marketing was just a matter of doing what your competitor is doing but only six week ahead of them. I thought that was so silly I nearly laughed. I realized the depth of the problem when he suggested a possible PR strategy which I shared an idea and he looked at me and said, "no, that would never work, what else do you have."

The point to the story is that you have to treat marketing, communications and PR as strategic tools and let your audience know that this is not some bottomless bag of magic tricks. You have done your job and recommend the following. Just like if a doctor tells you to quit smoking or if a lawyer says don't sue, you don't sit there and say, "no I want something more." Marketing people try to please and that is a great weakness which hurts us within the organization. By being strong and passionate advocates for our beliefs, our profession and most important our ability can we elevate marketing to more than just a game that can be twisted and bent to reflect the mood of the moment.

We can only manage expectations by being strong and forceful defenders of what we do and our area of expertise. Don't be afraid to challenge a poser who thinks they understand more than you in your area of expertise but be sure you can back up words with actions. Once we do this, marketing, PR and other communications professional should be viewed in the same role as other professionals.