As a black belt marketer, you are in management. You manage the marketing function of your business. But what do you really do? What is management? The late Peter Drucker, the legendary management guru, defined management as predictability. Notice another P of marketing (move 50). Management is your ability to predict with a high level of confidence the outcome of an activity.
As an executive, owner, or top executive, you make decisions. These decisions are based on the confidence that you will gain a positive outcome. You predict the outcome.
Management = Predictability = Quality decisions = Money
Testing is the quick and dirty of marketing. Through testing you find out what works and what doesn’t. Large corporations have a board of directors and you may have a mentor, so you can predict with a high degree of confidence the result of a certain investment. This is based on the experience that they have in similar business situations.
Management and marketing are all about predictability. Few of your competitors know what management is, although this is what they do for a living. Master this move, and you will pass them by.
Top management at large corporations spends days, weeks, and maybe months reviewing data before making a decision. They try to predict the outcome of a decision. The market data is there to help them.
In the same way, once you know what to do as a marketing manager or executive, your job becomes easier. While most of the competition does not know what managers do, as a black belt marketer, your goal is to make quality marketing decisions to drive revenue through the door.