We have all felt the pinch in a tough economy.  Messages get jumbled and clustered together; marketers shifting campaign focus to lower cost mediums such as webcasts and social media outlets.  And emails, oh boy the emails… ping, ping, pinging away at your inbox until you cannot take anymore.  As marketers, we must refrain from jumping on the “buy from me now” podium and take a different stance in order to stand out in this challenging time. 

My message is not a novel idea by any stretch.  But why not make sure that traditional sales efforts are once again in sync with marketing - and truly integrated. If marketing launches an educational campaign, whether it be a download, a white-paper, or a prospect reach-out, companies have to make sure those leads are followed up with quickly—which means that sales communicates back with those contacts in a timely manner.  I manage marketing for an IT consulting firm and we have implemented “Marketing 101″ in a sense, where marketing provides awareness, then sales drives the client through the purchase process with the proper phone call and follow up steps.  Again, this is not a novel idea but a simple reminder in an environment where the next greatest technology has us running to catch up. 

Do not get me wrong of course, organizations and marketers in particular must stay on top of the latest technologies in order to maintain b-to-c and b-to-b reach.  But we cannot lose out on the opportunities to remain traditional in our execution. 

In a tight marketplace, it is more important to coordinate and execute marketing and sales efforts as well as you possibly can. Make it like a re-training exercise if you have to. Learn to sync up sales and marketing all over again, since opportunities are few and far between. You have to take advantage and maximize each possibility, and that means being more on the ball than ever.  Do not forget the basics!

I wish I thought of this question, but I read it in a feature article on the acclaimed French actress, Juliet Binoche. She said it was her favorite question to ask fellow artists. In this age of distractions, I find it hard to answer for myself.

I worked from home the other day and with the exception of occasional frenzied barking from my dogs, some phone calls, and beeps from my laptop, I spent the day in relative silence. I emailed my colleague toward the end of the day and said I felt calm. I also felt satisfied with my work day and what I had accomplished.

Calm is not a state many of us are in these days. Whether you’re in a job, worried about your job, or looking for a job, these are stressful times. So what is our relationship with silence? Could examining that relationship and stepping inside of it actually bring us a bit of peace?

A lot my own noise is self-inflicted. I’m on Facebook, carry a BlackBerry and a personal cell, own an ipod, watch TV on demand, and have 2 email accounts that I check constantly. I set up a twitter account but haven’t used it yet. Sometimes the only silence I find myself in are the moments before I fall asleep. My toothbrush even makes noise.

The day I worked from home was a revelation. I got a lot done ( my boss edits this), but seriously, I was focused and efficient. I don’t want to work alone, or retreat from an active, busy life, but I do want the calm I felt at the end of that day, and I’m pretty sure it had to do with the silence I experienced for 8 hours.  As I write this in my kitchen, my husband unpacks groceries and makes sandwiches for my daughter and her friend. It’s noisy and hectic one minute and the next it’s quiet again as the girls move to another room to eat and the only sounds now are the humming of a dishwasher. Do we capture the quiet when we can? Do we add our quest for silence to an ever ending to do list like working out, and then feel guilty when we fail to be quiet? Is our technical life too hard to pull away from?

I dont’ know yet, I’m just starting to examine my relationship with silence, the only thing I’m pretty sure of is that like most meaningful relationships, you might not know what you’ve got til it’s gone.