If you’re currently doing a big initiative, say a new product launch, a new campaign, a sales kickoff or a lightning strike, let’s talk about why you are also, most probably, making a huge mistake. Shit sometimes, gets too complex and we know that complexity is the enemy of revenue. So on this episode, let’s talk about why it’s time to shave the marketing dog.

Doing Too Much

There’s 99.9% chance you are doing too much in marketing. Christopher candidly shares that sometimes in life, it is not about winning the activity. For contests, as a matter of fact, there is an inverse relationship between activity and results.

“I see this a lot in marketing, a lot of activity, a lot of moving, a lot of bands, bouncing and dancing, and there's stupidities in marketing today. I hear stuff like, ‘Oh, you need to be everywhere. You need to be on every channel. You need to be putting out 200 pieces of content today across every channel.’ That stuff is ridiculous. All that stuff is bullshit.” - Christopher Lochhead

Where To Shave The Dog

Whenever Christopher is doing anything marketing related, he loves to pose the question, “where do we shave this dog?” He encourages every marketer to do a forced ranking of all the activities and choose top 3 (or more) that will guarantee the same level of results from doing a couple.

I learned everything I know about design from a couple of legendary designers and one of them is John Bielenberg. He's an incredible business and corporate marketing designer. He has a perspective, he calls thinking wrong. The idea is this, when you do anything creative, ask yourself ‘what is 180 degrees from what everybody else would do? What is wrong? What would be the wrong way to go do this?’” - Christopher Lochhead

Activities That Multiply Outcome

Christopher also shares another thinking of pursuing activities that multiple the outcomes of another former activity. One should always ask, “does this component of our plan, materially multiply our chances of achieving the outcome we want from this marketing activity?”

“Shave the dog. Shave that doggy down. Practice getting everything out. Consider getting even more radical.” - Christopher Lochhead

To know more why Complexity Is The Enemy of Revenue and Why It’s Time to Shave The Marketing Dog, download and listen to this episode. 

Bio:

Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.

In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.

He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.