Written By: Admire Ndumo

At times marketing professionals struggle to excel in their careers not because they lack technical knowledge in their field, but because they come short on softer skills, or that additional mile that makes or breaks careers.

There are several things that have anchored the careers of successful marketing professionals, but I would like to challenge you with a few.

1. Be a craftsman

Steve Jobs (Co-founder of Apple) said,” I recall a lesson that my father implanted deeply in me. It was important, to craft the back of cabinets, even though they were hidden. He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see.”

Throughout his career at Apple, Steve was obsessed with quality even of those things that people could not see which only technicians would see for example the phone battery, the screws, and the circuit board.

Whether it’s a small or big project or a report, we must not be content with just meeting the set deadline but producing an artefact or a craft that will cause those who have an influence on our career to remark with a wow when they receive our work.

Carry out spectacular customer events and dazzling product launches, events that become memorable many months after they have been done.

To support this, we need to work with service providers or support partners that exude this ethos, if they are mediocre, its time you perhaps searched the market for new business partners.

If there is a remote chance that you will do a mediocre project or product launch, you would rather not do it, go back to the drawing board, and produce work of art.

Work or recruit team members of distinction -these days there are several recruitment batteries we can use to ensure that we get the best people, part ways with average people and work with the best.

Utilise the power of Digital marketing to dazzle your audiences and superiors alike.

Henry Ford recounts that “Quality is doing is doing it right, when no one is watching ..”  Be a craftsman & a merchant of art in all you do.