Cultivating the Business Perspective

7 June 2005—Todays marketers are stuck between the frying pan and the fire. Faced at every turn with demands to set the company up for long-term success while delivering just as many tactical programs to drive short-term results, services marketers are tired. They’re looking for a better way to do business.

At ITSMA’s Annual European Forum in May, we took a close look at how to balance the strategic and tactical demands of the job. Since this is an area where so many marketers struggle, those who are able to achieve the right balance will reap great rewards. Forum presenters explored a number of ways to strike this balance, with several of the speakers stressing that marketing can learn a lot about how to prioritize from people outside the department. Two key takeaways include:

1. Measure, measure, measure! And do it in a way that makes sense to the business folks.
2. Expand marketing’s role to include everything you do to go to market, focusing especially on the customer as you go along.

To kick off the Forum, Peter Fisk of Brand Finance stressed the importance of innovation in marketing and underscored the fact that revolutionary thinking is born of seeing a problem from multiple angles. We all know that sitting in the same marketing seat in the same organization for too long will leave us with a “groupthink” mentality, making it harder for us to tackle challenges in a fresh way. But how many of us would have advocated for getting out of marketing altogether so that we could cultivate an appreciation for the business side of things and how that side of the house views the marketing function?

ITSMA’s Philip Oliver suggested that marketers gain more of that business view by working with a business mentor or even strategically planning their careers so that they spend some time outside of marketing. Steria’s Lynda Chambers, in fact, learned some valuable lessons when she moved from the company’s marketing department to become the head of its private sector business. As a result of her career move, Lynda has become much more careful about investing in marketing, choosing to invest only when there is a clear and measurable benefit for the business. She recommends that marketers rethink traditional metrics such as awareness and interest and find a way to tie them directly to corporate performance metrics and financial results. In the long term, this approach will strengthen relationships with business executives and position marketing as a more strategic endeavor. In the short term, outlining the concrete business benefits will help marketers secure resources.

From the delivery perspective, Bill Davidson, HP’s director of total customer experience & quality, stressed that marketing has a vital role to play in building the customer loyalty that drives long-term growth and short-term profits. Every organization, he said, should strive to provide a consistently positive customer experience across all touch points. Marketing is in the optimal position to ensure that this happens, and it should support the customer experience by:

• Providing ongoing customer insight for the entire organization to act on—especially development, sales, and delivery
• Collaborating with teams across the enterprise on establishing priorities for improvement
• Developing messages and campaigns that reinforce the customer experience

At a time when buyers are skeptical of any and all marketing claims, the proof is in the positive customer experience. Marketers who aren’t ensuring that the enterprise is delivering on their promises from the customer perspective aren’t doing their jobs.

By keeping the customer at the center of all your efforts—strategic or tactical—you’ll have a better chance to set your company up for long-term success. By measuring how well marketing is doing at achieving that goal, you’ll set yourself up for the same!

—6, info@itsma.com

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ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.