During our mentoring wrap-up call last week, I asked Zeus for some feedback.

I wanted to know what I might’ve done better or differently during our time together — something that could’ve possibly made a bigger difference to him and his marketing efforts.

One of the things he mentioned was the need to see and understand the big picture from the get-go — how marketing is supposed to fit into overall business efforts — so he could pinpoint where he needed to focus his efforts going forward. And that sparked a discussion about what marketing really is.

Most people usually think of “marketing” as simply those things you do to promote a product, a service or a company/brand. But as a marketing coach, I understand that it’s SO much more.

Sure, I may be biased, but I believe marketing (or the efforts we expend doing marketing things) make up nearly our entire business — from conception to implementation, how we operate impacts every bit of our success.

Even in business school, one of the first things we learn is the Marketing Mix (or, the 4 Ps of marketing): Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Beyond that, we now recognize that Passion, Purpose and People are also integral to our business processes (i.e. our marketing processes).

When you decide to work with a marketing coach or consultant, you want to be sure they understand marketing in the bigger picture of how it impacts business operations. If they don’t have a complete understanding, you may simply be getting advice only on the Promotion part.

And that will not serve your long-term efforts. Here’s the sketch I made to explain things to Zeus. I’d love to hear whether it helps you as well.

Of course, I’ll be making more sketches to explain each of the individual bits, but until then, let’s chat about the big picture of your business.

Where do you feel you could use some additional help?