They say that knowledge is power. I'm going to go ahead and disagree with this idea.
by Jim Steiger
Let's walk through this shall we?
First lets agree that knowledge is the result of acquiring information and developing and understanding about something. (Here is what Wikipedia has to say about knowledge). For centuries the average individual has had access to untold stores of information about every conceivable subject known to man. I submit that gaining knowledge is and has always been very accessible.
Now I will freely admit that for a long time information was very tightly controlled by a very small and intimidating cast of people. This elite group of people who controlled all of the information known to man should have been in control of all of our lives if knowledge was truly equal to power. Now you may ask who this nefarious bunch of people who quite literally controlled all of the available information might be?
Until the mid 1990's "The controllers" of all worldly knowledge were known as librarians.
Yet all we had to do was walk ourselves into a library and ask "The Controller" on duty where we could find a book on a certain subject. In most cases this information was free of charge and readily available. For centuries the average person has had access to as much knowledge as they could shovel into their brains. I don't think that you would disagree with me when I say that "The Controllers" of this knowledge, also known as librarians, have never been considered as having even a smidgen of "power". I mean when you think of powerful people librarians are kind of on the other end of the spectrum. (Not that there's anything wrong with that).
I also mentioned that "The Controllers" had all of the knowledge until the mid 1990's and as you have no doubt guessed that is when we all started to find information on-line Today you can find information in seconds about nearly anything there is to know. And unlike the olden days, say before 2007, we now have smart-phones that will spew out information while the question is fresh in our minds. We no longer need to try and remember our questions until we get in front of a computer. Today we carry all of the knowledge in all the world around in our pockets. Any fact, any opinion, any time!
And yet just like librarians, we don't have the power, even though we now have all of the information. What gives? It turns out that knowing when Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies was born, or reading about string theory doesn't get us any closer to a position of power. Well you say that who cares about Jethro, and nobody really understand string theory, so those don't count.
Well how about knowing the voting record of everyone in your town? Would that give a candidate for mayor any power? Would it give a political consultant any power? Would a written description of the planned IT expenditures for a large public company over the next 12 months give an IT vendor any power? Only if they take that knowledge and apply it effectively to their respective missions.
Jethro and string theory are of course the easy bits of knowledge to acquire. They are general in nature. Specific information, say what causes 83% of your prospects to buy from you and not your competition is much tougher. This specific data, by itself, still does little for you.
The point is that knowledge is only one third of the equation. You need to know how to utilize that knowledge and then you need to apply that understanding in an intelligent manner.
Knowledge + an understanding of how to use it + application of these two = Power.
That's why librarians don't have the power. They collect knowledge, they organize it and they help you find it. but they don't apply their vast wealth of knowledge.
So what's this got to do with sales and marketing? I'm glad you asked. I think that it's fairly obvious that effective sales and marketing plans require activity, the third component of the power equation. But activity by it self is a bigger waste of time than stopping at the gaining knowledge step. All three are equally necessary.
As an organization you need to have a wealth of knowledge about your customer, your product/service and your competition. You also need to know how to take full advantage of this information effectively and efficiently. And finally, you actually need to put this understanding into action and stick to it. You need to continually acquire knowledge about your market, continually adjust your understanding on how to use your knowledge and of course keep up the activity.