Every Company is a Marketing Company

Management guru Peter Drucker is famous for dividing every business into two essential functions: Innovation and marketing.

First, there is innovation. That is what the company makes, and how and why it makes it. It's everything that is done internally to create the product or service.

Then, there is marketing. That is how the company gets the product or service to customers. It's everything that is done externally to distribute the product or service.

Just as surely as every company is makes something, every company markets something. Yes, that means even the mortgage industry is a marketing industry.

The funny thing is, when I talk to many leaders in the mortgage industry, they are scared to death of the idea of marketing. Especially in this post-recession time of ever-increasing regulation, people are afraid to talk about their companies for fear of saying something wrong. I'll be the first to admit that this fear is legitimate. However, if you want to be successful, you cannot give in to it.

There is, not just in the mortgage industry but in all industries, a false notion that marketing is the equivalent of lying. People seem to think that, whenever a company talks about itself, it is always and inevitably misleading information. That's not the case. You can market your company ethically, and you can market your company while staying within regulations.

Don't give in to the fear. If you aren't a marketing company, you're only half a company. Be a whole company; share yourself with others.

David Lykken is 40-year mortgage industry veteran who has been an owner operator in three mortgage banking companies and a software company. As a former business owner/operator, today David loves helping C-Level executives and business owners achieve extraordinary results via consulting, coaching and communications, with the objective of eliminating corporate dysfunction, establishing and communicating a clear corporate strategy while focusing on process improvement and operational efficiencies resulting in increased profitability. David has been a regular contributor on CNBC and Fox Business News and currently hosts a successful weekly radio program, “Lykken on Lending,” that is heard each Monday at noon (Central Standard Time) by thousands of mortgage professionals. He produces a daily one-minute video called “Today’s Mortgage Minute” that appears on hundreds of television, radio and newspaper Web sites across America. He may be reached by phone at (512) 501-2810 or by e-mail at [email protected].