At its base, marketing failure can be attributed to one of two factors: the wrong strategy or the wrong people implementing that strategy. More often than not, we spend time trying to fix the wrong problem. Many firms can begin to solve marketing issues by first determining which of these two is causing the problem. For instance, if you do a lot of public seminars but lack sales results, you may want to stop doing them.

I received a call from a financial advisor early last month with a "strategy" issue regarding workshops he had been hosting. Many people attended his workshops, he received high evaluations on his presentations, and 75 percent of attendees said they would like more information or a meeting. But very few ever turned into an appointment or sale. He became convinced that the wrong people were attending his seminars.

A brief interview with his staff revealed the problem, which was right in front of him. The two staff people responsible for scheduling appointments after workshops were swamped with day-to-day duties and hadn't been calling to schedule appointments until a week or more after the event. By that time, interest had waned. Conclusion: people problem.