Unanswered questions

Updated June 8, 2018: Added to the Sales & Marketing section.

Some things take time to answer, but it doesn’t stop them from being asked. This is a on-going list of these linger questions I want to explore further; no particular order.

Sales & Marketing

• When does marketing end and sales begin?
• How do we build relationships using internet technology? (i.e. techniques, tools)
• How is the strength of a relationship measured?
• I have heard people speak of high-tech vs. high-touch, does such a dichotomy exist? If we are organizationally incompetent when it comes to technology (e.g. implementation, process integration) does this mean we down play the use of it in our work?
• What is the right time to introduce tools, like CRM, to your sales process within a startup or early-stage company? Do you always need to invest in these tools upfront, or is it something you ease into? (Prices of various tools and systems are not necessarily cheap, and learning them is sometimes better said than done.)
• Why is there so much more literature on marketing than sales? (It is said, of our scientific knowledge and understanding, that we know 90% of physics, but only 10% of biology. Is it similar with sales and marketing, respectively?)
• Can the importance of marketing be explained by an increased reliance on branding as a result of e-commerce?
• What role does ethics play in marketing today?
• Do those disclaimers on the bottoms of emails (e.g. “The information contained in this electronic communication is confidential. It is intended only for the use of the recipient…”) really do anything? Should we all be using those? Is it necessary to explicitly state that a message I send a coworker was only intended for that audience of one?
• When we say diversity matters to an organization, what does diversity mean? Racial diversity? Gender diversity? Diversity in life experiences?
• How do we create personalized or progressive pricing? What data or information would we need to consider when establishing a price? Do we price low to a risk-averse person while pricing higher to a risk-prone or early-adopter type? Or is it based on income only?
• What role so consent play when contacting prospective clients/customers?
• How do companies build trust with customers? How is this impacted in retail and in online experiences?

Membership & Recruitment

• Can we recruit quality and quantity? (Tackle the case of quality vs. quantity, as I believe it to be false.)

Fundraising

• Is email dead when it comes to fundraising?
• Why has recurring gifts not picked up within higher education fundraising efforts?
• What is the balance between high-tech and high-touch when it comes to fundraising? (e.g. Major gift, annual)
• Why do we still have annual giving? (Why aren’t all fundraisers major gift fundraisers?)

Political

• Why do people who hate regulation struggle to name a single regulation they wish to repeal?
• When we talk about Google or Facebook controlling demand, what happens when that is an entire government? Is this what being a competitive country will mean for the 21st century? [view post]