There’s no question that before his passing in late 2005, Peter Drucker was among the most notable business thinkers of our time. A master at simplifying complex business ideas, he strongly believed there are only two primary business functions that are critical to a company’s success – marketing and innovation.

In thriving technology companies, expert product marketers are at the forefront of the innovation process, working closely with customers and prospects to develop marketing requirements documents – MRDs – for innovative new products and/or services.

Marketing certainly isn’t the only driver of innovation in an organization, however. In most successful tech companies, there is a widespread culture of innovation that touches every department: R&D, IT, Customer Service & Support, Sales and even Finance and Admin.

Innovation is critical, but innovation cannot stand on its own. In most industries, the best product doesn’t always win; the best marketing does. That especially holds true in technology. The sides of the tech highway are littered with the carcasses of innovation leaders who didn’t understand or believe that marketing was a priority.

So let’s talk shop for a minute. Imagine you, Drucker, and me sitting in his office for a coffee chat, discussing the ideal function of marketing. He’d tell us matter-of-factly in his Austrian accent, “The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.” We’d smile at each other wide eyed, because that’s a pretty noble goal. And certainly one that’s worth aiming for.

Where do we start? By making it a priority to get extremely close to the customer, to really understand him inside and out, to communicate effectively with him at the right times, using his language, and to extend the best offers. When we offer a scratch at the point of an itch, it’s almost always well received. Ultimately, it’s marketing’s role to make the customer feel so well understood and informed that he’ll make his own decision to buy.

Can we completely make selling superfluous as Drucker suggests? Not likely. Rather, Marketing can pave a smooth road for Sales by creating high levels of awareness and delivering warm, qualified leads that are easier to convert.

Hang with me just a few minutes longer and answer these four questions thoughtfully and honestly:

1. Does your company’s leadership view marketing as a cost center or as a critical business enabler?
   
   
2. What percentage of your company’s revenue is invested in marketing? Is this amount robust enough to represent one of the top two business functions?
   
   
3. Is your company’s revenue performance positive or lackluster?
   
   
4. Do you have the right marketing resources? What were your selection criteria (talent and ability – I hope so; cheap rates – I hope not; or another rationale)? More importantly, are your resources delivering the right results for you?

I don’t need to rate the answers and give you a score. You knew as you answered whether red flags surfaced that need addressing or better yet, green lights indicating “full speed ahead.”

Whether your company is in great shape today and your goals are to optimize market share further or it’s underperforming and you’re intent on turning that around, keep your focus squarely on marketing and innovation. Because according to Drucker, they are the only two basic business enterprise functions – and everything else is cost.

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