Featured Research: Marketing Needs to Be the Change It Wants to See

Changing perceptions isn’t easy, but it could be one of the most important things marketers do. To change perceptions, though, marketing itself may have to change.

The problem is that two-thirds of senior management currently perceive marketing as a tactical function, compared to the one-third who see it as a strategic one, according to ITSMA’s 2012 Marketing Transformation survey.

How can marketing change the way it is perceived? By adopting the three characteristics of a strategic marketing organization:

• Insight-led. Marketing is the voice of the customer, bringing insight into the company to shape strategy and help develop new offerings. Strategic marketers use customer, competitor, and market insight to segment, target, and identify opportunities for growth.
• Sales-aligned. Marketing works with sales not only to fill the pipeline, but also to build and nurture relationships with customers through an end-to-end process. Marketing and sales share the same goals and metrics.
• Data-driven. Marketing uses data and predictive analytics to make decisions and plan marketing investments to maximize business results. These results are reported up the chain of command using the language and format that is relevant to senior management.

As marketing’s responsibilities change, the challenge will be to balance the tactical and strategic. Marketing has to be good at both, because only when marketing can prove itself tactically will it be able to make a credible contribution strategically.

For more information, read ITSMA Online Survey: Marketing Transformation: Are we there yet?, The New Skills Crisis in Marketing: Why Your Next Marketers Won’t Come from Marketing, and ITSMA Abbreviated Summary: Marketing Transformation: Are we there yet?

2 Responses to “Featured Research: Marketing Needs to Be the Change It Wants to See”

1. Richard Hatheway Says:
   August 14th, 2012 at 12:44 PM

   This article identifies one of the main challenges that professional marketers must deal with on a regular basis – not having a seat at the table. Too often, marketing is considered nothing more than a source of funds (or a “wallet”) to pay for sales activities (tactical), but is not consulted on how they can provide anything of strategic value to the organization. In addition, many marketing organizations often reinforce this perception by effectively developing campaigns, programs, activities, etc. in a vacuum, without seeking input, feedback or buy-in from sales, so that when they do roll something out, it is not accepted by sales, it does not hit the sweet spot, it is not what sales is currently focused on, etc. Because of this, they are not engaged/included at the beginning. By adopting techniques like the ones listed above, marketing can show that they are able to provide relevant information that will help, rather than hinder, the company and over time will become an asset to the company and will earn a seat at the table.

2. Dianne Kim Says:
   August 20th, 2012 at 4:51 PM

   Richard, you bring up an excellent point about sales and marketing alignment. All too often, there is a huge discrepancy between marketing’s activities and sales objectives due to a lack of communication and collaboration in the earlier planning stages and in many cases, completely different metrics and goals. By the time marketing throws something “over the wall” it’s irrelevant and too little too late. In our 2012 Sales Enablement Survey, survey participants said only 52% of content/tools that their organization produces for sales enablement is actually used by sales. This means that marketing organizations are not doing a good job of focusing their efforts on what sales actually needs to succeed. As the voice of the customer, marketing is in a unique position to provide an outside-in perspective. Especially in today’s era of marketing automation, data analytics and the ever-growing importance of social media (it’s here to stay!), marketing will be expected to bring strategic insight to the table. However, marketing will not be seen as a strategic partner until it can prove itself as a credible and valuable contributor to the Sales organization, as well as demonstrate its contribution to the business as a whole.

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, Mumbai, and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.