When you consider how to make your business more profitable, you inevitably arrive at the only real solution: You have to sell more. While this may seem simplistic, selling something for a profit is actually the essence of business. Great companies such as Irving Oil, McCain Foods, Clearwater Fine Foods, and Moosehead Breweries start and end every day selling more, or figuring out how they’re going to sell more, of their products.

The interesting thing about business, however, is that you can’t just create a product or a service and then wait for customers to beat a path to your door. Right now the world is highly competitive, and competition for every sale is so extreme that companies that aren’t beating a path to their customers are in serious trouble, or about to be.

So how does a company access that elusive customer? By creating great products and services, marketing strategically, and selling, selling, selling. Several elements comprise a successful marketing strategy, including ensuring that your company lives your brand promise; delivering that message to your employees and stakeholders; and conceiving, creating, and executing a marketing-and-communications strategy that sends your message to current and future customers.

Sales generate profits. Profits create capital on your balance sheet. Capital drives growth and increased stability for you, your shareholders, your employees, and the families and communities that support you. Continued sales growth comes as a result of well-thought-out strategic plans that increase awareness, stimulate purchasing activity, and prepare the market for your sales efforts.

Every type of marketing tool—TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, trade shows, and so on—has a variety of options from which to choose. There is network vs. specialty TV; country vs. lite-rock radio; consumer vs. B-to-B magazines; and daily vs. weekly newspapers. The list is endless. All of the tools are legitimate, but are they the right ones for your business?

The best approach to increasing sales and profits is to secure the services of professional marketing counsel. Advertising, marketing, and public relations specialists provide the creative thinking, guidance, and strategy that will drive your sales and profitability. These professionals expect to be held accountable for achieving a measurable return on your marketing investment.

This issue of Progress features five organizations that competed for Marketer of the Year. The award isn’t about design or creativity but rather about maximizing ROI from marketing. The way in which a company measures ROI is irrelevant. The important thing is whether the marketing strategy delivers measurable results that drive sales, profit, and capital growth.

As this region emerges from 138 years of dormancy and pursues a culture of capital—formation, retention, and repatriation—we have to understand that marketing and sales are directly connected with capital creation. If we sell more stuff for more profit, we’ll have more capital to hire more people, buy other companies, and move into new markets.
That’s success. It’s what will drive regional prosperity. Companies must assess the effectiveness of their marketing strategies and consider hiring professional marketing counsel. Think about growing your business and how much capital you want to create—then think about which agency will help you get there.