Run Mad

How do you know someone has started running again? Don't worry, they'll tell you. That aside, maybe B2B marketers need to get a little pissed off....

The other day, a project I was working on hit a bit of a dip; the executive sponsor brief changed, and like many projects, a step or two back was needed to step forward. I was a tad frustrated, maybe a little pissed off.

I went for a run.

I am only a few months into getting back into this effort, and it’s still tough, but I did a good time compared to recent runs; as my mind raced, it seemed I was distracted from the struggle. My running app was full of praise for the Relative Effort I had put in.

So, to run fast, run mad.

But I am not a running coach; I am a marketer, so this is one of those “What marketers can learn from something entirely random” posts. It is a genre of writing that really should have a name.

It does?

Oh….

Lazy ass writing, you say?

Anyway, I think one of the solutions to the malaise of boring2boring B2B marketing could be to get mad.

I was reminded of this while chatting with my chum Robert on my podcast, who was the CMO of a content management vendor a couple of decades ago when I, too, was swimming in those same shark-invested waters.

We are talking about the dot-com boom kids, briefly a hot market that turned to bust. But boom or bust, the vendors in that category were tribal. I was at a sales kick-off during the height of the film Gladiator, where slaves were led to the stage with competitors' logos that were chainsawed in half.

The logos, not the slaves, to be clear.

Tribalism that has me marked to this day: oh, you were at Vignette, I was at Interwoven, they say, and I know we won’t be friends. For a good reason, for chrissakes, they were some glorified code deployment platform… or something heinous…. that clearly deserved having their logo sawed in half.

I should point out that my time at Vignette was not in the marketing department, but I imagine that if you are a marketing team advocating chainsaw-wielding shenanigans, this tribalism has no room for marketing by numbers.

I recall a different competitor, Broadvision (who? Yeah, exactly), picketing the train station opposite our offices handing out branded cookies because….. uuummmmm… something to do with cookies….

Years later, I met someone from their team, proud as punch of that stunt. They were definitely mad at us.

Chainsaws and cookies? Maybe not these teams' finest moments, but it was not boring.

I’m not going to advocate chainsawing logos, but having an enemy is great for a marketer.

Maybe an enemy is not another competitor, may it be “do nothing” or something else, but an enemy helps you define who you are NOT.

It also helps potential customers and the market tell the difference, something that stands out in the sea of B2Biege, or.. .well…. it usually’s blue.

To quote Mr. S. Godin, as I do most weeks, it creates a shared connection and a tribe, and that tribe is not just internally at a conference baying for blood as you wield the chainsaw but your audience of potential followers who believe in your way and the truth.

If leadership is the ability to create change your tribe believes in, and the market demands change, then the market demands leaders. - Seth Godin, Tribes

To do that, you must care about the product, category, and market, not just marketing by numbers.

Yes, and this may come as a surprise to some, marketing is a process and a discipline and it’s important we do our thing.

But we are not accountants. Our discipline does not insulate us from the business; we can’t forget why we are here:

We are on a mission to take revenue out of the market and grow this company before the market gives it to those other bastards to grow theirs.

You have to, in the potty-mouthed words of my chum Robert on the podcast this week;

“give a shit”.

I know, dreadful language.

Or maybe run mad.

Fancy a bit of that Rockstar CMO podcast? Both Cathy McKnight and Robert Rose lay into the dullness of B2B marketing - here: