How to promote Marketing to Senior Managers
Andrew Sanderson
B2B Marketing Consultant ? Creating better Processes to "get B2B Marketing done" ? Shares Tools & Methods, automates Processes
When B2B Marketers talk to Managers of other departments, their eyes glaze over because they don't understand Marketing jargon. Don’t worry – here’s a simple three-step path to effective communication.
Experience plus seniority brings wider horizons
As their careers progress, B2B Marketers spend increasing amounts of time collaborating with people from other departments. On the one hand this brings the satisfaction of working on ‘multi-disciplinary projects’. On the other hand, this also means we must bend and fit in with different priorities. And that’s OK, because its how we learn to find win-win solutions and develop skills like diplomacy.
Frequently though, the path to effective collaboration is hindered by communications difficulties. It’s not just that the folks in the other Team think differently. All too often they don’t seem to appreciate the importance of what we’re trying to tell them. They just don’t get it.
But wait - a moment’s reflection reveals that the most common cause is jargon. Marketers talk a language that other managers genuinely don’t understand. If we’re honest, most of it is techno-babble. And then, for added confusion, we abbreviate it to TLAs (three-letter acronyms). For example:
The reaction we hope for is an admiring “OMG!” But in practice, its more likely to be a baffled “WTF?”
[ How many do you recognise? Check your score at the bottom of the article. ]
How to communicate with other departments?
Which leads us to the obvious question: how can Marketers communicate effectively with Managers of other departments? To understand the other person’s perspective, it helps to reflect on how they got to their current role.
Let’s take the CEO as an example. CEOs typically have a background in Business Development, Sales, Engineering, or Information Technology. (See this article.) Relatively few come from a background in Marketing, so its dangerous to assume they understand how it functions.
As a result, most CEOs – indeed, most non-marketing managers – think of the marketing function marketing as a black box. You put inputs in, you get outputs out. What happens inside the black box? They don’t know. How does marketing work? They don’t need to know. That’s what the Marketing Director is there for.
And so the responsibility for communicating exactly ‘what makes Marketing brilliant’ and ‘how it contributes to the long-term well-being of the organisation’ lies with ourselves. But how? We need to use plain words in short sentences. No jargon. It's easy to say, but harder to do.
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Why’s it so hard to communicate about Marketing?
The real problem is that we need to get the ideas straight in our own heads first. So what is it exactly that Marketers do? It’s all too tempting to list the disciplines or functional teams within marketing: website, content, events, lead generation, eshop, advertising, PR, etc. But this is the path to professional jargon, which leads directly to audience boredom.
Let’s try another approach: a functional description, one that even teenagers and grandparents can understand. At any point in time, each marketing activity can be bucketed into one of two phases: it belongs either in the ‘design and build phase’ or in the ‘execute and measure’ phase. These are iterative, of course. The process of measuring generates insights that we use to design innovations for the next build phase.
Using this approach offers several opportunities: First, it sets everything we do in a context of ‘Continuous Improvement’. It also explains why we are working on ‘non-operational stuff’. And it clearly identifies that the non-operational ‘design and build’ phase is not slack time that can be cut out of the budget. Quite the opposite. Design and build is an investment of time, effort and resources. Once complete, it will result in more efficient operations and thus represents a source of ROI.
Best of all, these ideas are nothing new. Manufacturing organisations have been using concepts like these for decades, so senior managers across all departments quickly recognise and understand them.
How to keep the message simple
Imagine that we’ve just stepped into a meeting room; the head of another department is there, but the other participants haven’t arrived yet. There’s just time for three sentences …
Rather than begin with a bald statement like: “Marketing is brilliant because …”, we need a gentle introduction. Phrasing an idea as a question demonstrates Emotional Intelligence and invites our audience to get involved.
??????????? Hallo - have I told you what Marketing is doing to (grow the business)?
The ‘grow the business’ is a placeholder. This where you improvise around the corporate mission statement, to indicate that everything that follows is aligned to strategic priorities. The aim of the question is to trigger interest so we can tell more.
Tell the limbic system HOW and WHY first
When looking for a way to structure concise messages, Simon Sineks ‘Golden Circle’ provides a tried and tested model. The human brain is programmed to respond well to the three-step sequence “why, how, what”, says Sinek. Apparently, it’s all to do with the way the neocortex and limbic systems work. (See the classic TED video here.)
Just in case the room fills up quickly, our second sentence delivers the WHY and HOW in one compact package. The first part of the sentence addresses the WHY? part of the Golden Circle. It describes a motivation or reason for action. The second part explains HOW we’re going to achieve that objective. The sentence takes the form “This is our objective and here’s how we’re doing it”.
We’ll begin by identifying that the objective is important to our listener:
??????????? Marketing is working to help you …
… and then we ensure that our message will resonate by using the handy WHY Cheat Sheet below to pick an idea that is relevant for our colleague:
To create a credible HOW section for the sentence, we need ideas that combine precision (because details are convincing) with strong action verbs (because they’re powerful). Then we deliver the whole thing using simple language, to ensure instant understanding.
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The HOW Cheat Sheet is structured using two dimensions. The four columns represent the four stages of Deming’s PDCA cycle, and they map easily onto the two phases of ‘design & build’ and ‘execute & measure’. The right-hand column shows the labels for the six rows that describe the Resources that any Manager will recognise and understand.
With a current Marketing project in mind, identify the resource that fits best; then pick the power verb which describes the stage of the project.
??????????? …? by (power verb)-ing our (resource).
An example:
Marketing is helping Business Development build partnerships with Customers by the way we’re allocating our staff resources.
Please read that sentence out loud. Does it sound incomplete to you? Good – that’s exactly what we want. It’s a cliff-hanger. A teaser. It sounds like there’s more information on the way. And here it comes …
Then tell the neocortex about the WHAT
The third sentence of the Golden Circle summarises WHAT marketing has been / is doing. Here we can allow ourselves some Marketing-specific language. But even so, it’s best to use simple, full-length descriptions rather than abbreviations or insider slang.
Here’s one more idea you may like to try in the WHAT sentence. The format is “from past to present”. The language sounds something like: “we’ve done that …” and is followed by “and now we do this …”. This identifies cause and effect; one thing leads to another. But it not only identifies the roots of a current ongoing action – it also says “watch this space”, “stay tuned”, “come back for more exciting news”.
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Putting it all together
Now let’s test the hypothesis to see it in practice. Let’s imagine a conversation with the CEO:
Hallo - have I told you what Marketing is doing to grow the business? We’re working to help win and retain good customers by analysing (CRM) data. We’ve done a Recency-Frequency-Monetary analysis and now we’re using the results to create target groups for outbound Retention and Account-Based Marketing campaigns.
The result sounds credible and is (relatively) jargon-free. Note that we inserted the source of the data for accuracy. The sequence of ideas works well, though. It ‘feels right’, too. Thanks again, Simon Sinek, for those insights on ‘gut instincts’.
Customising the message to the audience
In practice, the start point for the communication is probably a project that’s already running. Let’s take the annual Trade Show as an example. What can we say about that? Well, it all depends on who we’re talking to:
Business Development
Hallo - have I told you what Marketing is doing to grow the business? Marketing is helping Business Development build partnerships with Customers by the way we allocate our staff resources. We reviewed last year’s Trade Show and decided we should have dedicated people to support Key Account meetings at the booth.
HR
Hallo - have I told you what Marketing is doing to grow the business? We’re helping HR promote employee engagement by re-designing our processes. After looking at past methods, we’ve come up with ideas for involving other teams more closely in preparation for major Trade Shows.
Sales
Hallo - have I told you what Marketing is doing to grow the business? We’re helping Sales achieve targets by re-thinking our approach to managing collaborative projects. Right now we’re examining Trade Shows, and it it would be good to get your thoughts and ideas.
And of course, you can extend the suggested list of Resources with other concepts. Here’s an example of a new HOW message, that introduces Content:
Product Management
Hallo - have I told you what Marketing is doing to grow the business? We’re improving product positioning by updating our Content. We’ve mapped our existing Content against the media that customers prefer, and now we’re working through a prioritised list to fill major gaps in time for the Trade Show.
Last but not least
The examples in the Cheat Sheets are illustrative and definitely not complete. Think of this as a baseline for your own creativity. Cut out what doesn’t work; add-in the company specific factors that matter most. Above all, have fun and don’t take it too seriously. IMO, the best thing about a Marketing team is the sense of humour.
Twelve (plus two) TLAs – how well did you score?
How many did you get right?
Senior Marketing Automation Specialist | Marketing Consultant | ???????? ???????? ???? ?????????????? ???
1 年Couldn't agree more! Simplifying complex marketing concepts is key for effective communication.
Couldn't agree more! Simple and concise messaging is key to reach non-marketers.
Andrew Sanderson Absolutely! Bridging the gap between marketing and non-marketing managers is key. It's all about demystifying that 'Black Box.' This article offers valuable insights on how B2B marketers can effectively communicate with plain language and simplicity. A must-read for breaking down barriers!