Does this issue affect the Web Analytics Maturity Model?
A conference call with a Potential Client last week jogged my memory on a couple of events that happened during the flurry of Web Analytics conferences this Spring. Here’s a portion of the call…
PC: “We’ve tried proving the profitability of our Marketing efforts and can’t seem to get the numbers working correctly. So Jim, what we’d like you to do is take all this data we have, and justify the Marketing decisions we’ve made by proving out the ROI.”
Jim: “I’m sorry, did you say justify? To me, justify means “find a way to prove it works”. Is that what you are asking me to do? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to analyze the results, and then optimize your Marketing based on these results?”
PC: “Jim, around here we’re pretty clear our Marketing works, and Management knows this. But Finance is asking for some backup, some numbers to justify the spend, not to analyze it. We don’t need analysis, we need your ‘expert credibility’ to help us out with this.”
Jim: “I see,” thinking this is not a job I’m going to enjoy. It’s the old ‘buy an outside expert’ routine, which I detest.
PC: “Jim, the team is united behind this mission, are you on board?”
Jim: “Well, perhaps I could be on board, as long as what you want is an analysis, which may also justify the decisions you have made. But it might not, so I just want to be clear on what…”
PC: “You know what Jim? I don’t feel we’re going to have a fit here, I’m getting you’re not a team player. Thanks for your time”. CLICK
Sigh. I’m actually grateful they hung up, I really dislike explaining to people why I won’t work with them.