Marketing is Everything

 Stay cutting edge—take a class.

            We live and work in a changing world. In previous generations, employees may have held one job their entire career. Now, people change jobs and ever careers several times during their working years. Continuing education is important in this shifting job market. A worker needs saleable skills. But what course of study?

            There are some things in life that you know even as you are learning them that you’ll never need again. And it’s true, aside from my children’s homework; I’ve never needed to know about integrals or the atomic mass of barium. Most people don’t need to be able to pick out the dependant clause in a sentence or know when we landed on the moon (July 21, 1969), but marketing isn’t one of those things. Wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you are, someday you are going to need marketing. Why? Because marketing is selling.

            You can say to yourself, “I’m never going into sales.”

            Maybe, but even if you don’t, sometime during your life you will probably be asked to collect money for a worthy cause, sell your used car, set up a display at the fair, run for the school board, try to convince someone to change their opinion or do something they don’t want to? Are you going to apply and interview for a job? Are you going to run for an office? All these things have one common element—sales.

            I thought I was pretty safe, I’d taught high school and then I was going to be an author—no marketing there. You just write the book, send it into a publishing house and “BAM!” you’re rich and famous. Don't I wish. Even writing is all about marketing. It’s about sales copy, press releases, and marketing plans. It’s about building your contact list and peddling yourself, your vision, and even your ability to sell far more than it is about your book.

            It isn’t just individuals that need marketing skills. Look at any local government. One of the necessary qualities of our elected officials should be their marketing skills. Can they sell themselves and by extension their ideas and the benefits of our home town? If a local government wants to attract business they need to sell their town. What services will they provide prospective business? Can they showcase what their city or town is doing great? Do they have written five and ten year plans for what they’ll do to make it even better? How well they sell the quality of life in their town makes the difference between a business moving in or moving on.

            On personal, business, and governmental levels, it’s all about marketing. Check with your local technical college or study at home using with one of the multiple online courses. No matter where you look, the message is clear. To be competitive, you need to keep your skills sharp. Take a marketing class.