Transforming Marketing to Run Like a Business

One of the rallying cries that is driving the transformation in many corporate IT departments is starting to drive marketing’s transformation as well: run marketing (or IT) like a business. Fifteen months ago, SAP took a logical first step in this direction by appointing Jonathan Becher, a seasoned business executive who in the past held the CEO role at Pilot Software and Accrue Software and was CMO at NeoVista Software.

Some themes emerged from his presentation, Market Like Never Before, at ITSMA’s 2012 Marketing Leadership Forum, including a stronger focus on the actual human recipient of the SAP marketing message, more rigor in the form of carefully chosen analytics, and a reward system for the marketing organization that favors teamwork above all else. Here’s how Becher is putting these ideas into practice:

• Focus on the humans, not the companies, who buy your products and services. “Big glass buildings don’t buy software; people do,” Becher said. Individuals, with hearts and minds, are ultimately the ones who make purchase decisions. Thus, a compelling value proposition must appeal to people, not faceless companies. Becher showed SAP’s corporate advertising, Run Like Never Before, which highlights the value of its software in very human terms. The video shows that connected business managers can enjoy time with their families, pursue their passion for the outdoors, or achieve personal satisfaction as a small business entrepreneur. This attitude was also reflected in the May 14–16, 2012, SAPPHIRE NOW agenda, which featured a majority of papers authored by SAP’s own user community. In addition, all the papers selected for presentation were chosen using crowd-sourcing techniques.
• Make complex ideas more digestible. Marketers are trying to build closer relationships with clients through conversation and writing, but jargon slows a conversation and creates distance between the author and the reader. Becher challenges his team to lose the jargon, and in fact, SAP tests the readability of all its external collateral (using a tool like Flesch-Kincaid, as suggested later in the day by marketing leader panelist Fredrik Winterlind of Black & Veatch) and, if a document is ranked below a certain threshold value, it gets rewritten before release. In some cases, internally developed nomenclature, such as a business user application, is dropped in favor of industry standard terminology, such as analytics, as verified through the careful examination of Google (and other search engine optimization tools) search words.
• Define key performance indicators (KPI) that reflect business outcomes, not activity. Let’s face it: activity stats are not enough to impress senior management. For marketing to have a seat at the table, it has to show how it is affecting business outcomes. SAP Marketing does this by capturing the percentage of the future sales pipeline marketing is nurturing and the number of prospects who attend the quarterly SAPPHIRE. They also display KPIs on a single-screen, easy-to-read dashboard so compliance (or the lack thereof) is clearly visible. Now discussions with senior management about how to improve performance are quick and fact based.
• Reward marketing professionals as a team. Make the slate of marketing metrics that point to business outcomes worth something to the organization. SAP ties annual bonus payouts to meeting the KPI thresholds for that group function. But there is a catch: for one group to gain a reward for achieving their target, all groups must make their assigned target. This fosters a flexible give-and-take of budget and resources because it’s in everyone’s financial interest for each group within SAP marketing to succeed.

One Response to “Transforming Marketing to Run Like a Business”

1. Abhimanyu Nikam Says:
   July 3rd, 2012 at 12:46 AM

   Good article.

   I specially agree on using a tool like Flesch-Kincaid for external content. The tool is integrated with most of today’s word processing programs. It definitely helps in reaching out better to your audience.

   Regards,
   Abhimanyu

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.