RIT Professor Eugene Fram to Discuss ‘Balancing Startup Marketing and Sales’

Entrepreneurs with start-up companies become so enmeshed with beginning operations, attracting angel investors and making their first-year profits, they tend to focus on their sales departments to generate revenues and often delay building their marketing operations.

“The relationship between marketing and sales in a startup should be seamless and balanced, with an emphasis on balance,” says Eugene Fram, J. Warren McClure Research Professor of Marketing in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology.

“Clearly, allocating budgets for the marketing component of a startup is a mission-critical management decision. Too small a budget will starve the effort. Too big a budget might starve the ongoing sales effort.”

Fram will discuss “Balancing Startup Marketing and Sales—Why It’s a Tough Management Call” during the ninth biennial J. Warren McClure Lecture at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12, in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Auditorium on RIT’s Henrietta campus.

“Hiring the initial marketing professional (or professionals) is as critical a move for a startup as hiring its first chief financial officer,” notes Fram. “The marketing sales conflict is a tough issue and one remedy is to hire someone who has the leadership skills to motivate subordinates to resolve conflicts with sales and to build a marketing culture.”

Following the presentation, two guest respondents will address marketing and sales issues before opening the floor to the audience. They are Suzanne Clarridge, president and CEO, My Brands Inc., and Michael Stone, president and CEO, Brand Orchard.

A reception will immediately follow the discussions, and the event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Donna Slavin at (585) 475-2199 or dslavin@cob.rit.edu.

The J. Warren McClure Research Professorship of Marketing was established in 1979 through a generous gift from Mr. McClure (1919-2004), then president of McClure Media Marketing Motivation Company. He previously worked at Gannett as vice president of marketing and later served on the Gannett board for 14 years. He was also an RIT emeritus trustee and an emeritus director of US Airways. The McClure professorship provides release time and financial support for a Rochester Institute of Technology professor in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business to conduct research projects on marketing and other business topics.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An advanced copy of Eugene Fram’s manuscript “Balancing Startup Marketing and Sales—Why It’s a Tough Management Call” will be available on Dec. 3.