Think Like the Business – 5 Lessons for Marketing

Think Like the Business: 5 Lessons to Make B2B Marketers Better Partners with Sales

Some years ago, I transitioned from a highly sophisticated, biotech marketing organization that operated with military precision to a healthcare marketing team that was in total chaos. Mind you, both companies were and still are Fortune 500 firms. 

The healthcare marketing team was a group of order takers who waited around for sales to ask them to make something. Sales wrote all the copy because they had zero confidence in marketing’s ability to do anything more than make collateral “look pretty.” In fact, “pretty it up” would have been the largest term in a Word Cloud of sale’s requests of marketing if we’d had such a thing. Marketing seemed perfectly content with this dynamic.

I, on the other hand, was curious. How had this situation come to be?

Most marketer’s grow up in a world that rewards creativity. In the corporate world, their “business” is funded, directly or indirectly, by sales so they don’t have to worry about P&L, only to manage to a set annual budget. They have a guaranteed customer base with a built-in monopoly, so they don’t have to worry about acquisition or retention. Their “customers” are stuck with their products no matter how good or bad they are. Measures of success tend to align with marketing vanity metrics vs. business objectives. 

In other words, the situation had come to be because corporations have allowed marketing to live in its own silo. Walled off from the realities of sales where growth is the priority, marketing plays by a different set of rules. As a result, they’re disconnected from what really matters in business: The bottom line.

I love the creative process and watching minds more talented than mine at work, but for marketing teams to deliver for their company, they need to understand how their business operates at both fundamental and granular levels. 

5 Lessons to Help B2B Marketer’s Think Like a Business and Align with Sales

These five lessons helped me be a better marketer and they will help you and your team marry creative strengths with the needs of the organization and make you heroes in the eyes of your sale’s team.

1. Lesson #1: Ask Questions. “You don’t know what you don’t know” was a quote my dad often repeated, and it was one of my favorites. There’s no shame in not knowing, but shame on you if you don’t have the curiosity to learn and the guts to ask. Seek out the most successful leaders in your organization and learn from them. Don’t be afraid of being embarrassed by your lack of knowledge. Rather than being annoyed, I think you’ll find, as I did when I started asking questions, that these leaders will be thrilled that you want to learn and flattered that you picked them to learn from. But come prepared. Have questions ready that get at the heart of the way the business runs. What’s important to the sales team and what is important to their customers? Where is marketing falling short and how can marketing do a better job of supporting? If you’re looking to climb the corporate ladder, being a friend to sales is a good way to get there.

• Lesson #2: Read, Read, Read. Marketing creates a lot of materials, and they probably don’t understand half of what they produce. When it comes to product guides, often it is the product team that writes all the copy. Read those. Are they boring? Hell yes! Read them anyway. Sale’s story decks are typically written by sales. Read those. RFP and finalist presentations? Read. It may take time to understand the context and the team is likely to use terms you won’t understand. If you’re not clear on the meanings, see lesson #1. Beyond your internal resources, read business books. Read industry related books and media. Read what your customers are reading. It’ll form a foundation to build upon.

• Lesson #3: Be a Partner with Sales. Given the siloed nature of corporate structures, it’s easy to get sucked into the day-to-day routine of the job and politics of your marketing organization and its priorities. Brand, look and feel, style guides, etc. are all important, but they must share the front seat with sales’ needs. In addition to asking questions and reading, make a habit of scheduling regular meetings with sales to get updates on priorities. Where you can, attend sales meetings and events where you’ll learn their language and understand their needs. Better yet, go on a couple of sales calls. Partner with sales throughout the year and create deliverables that help them win. You’ll start to see more clearly how marketing can support.

• Lesson #4: Align your Marketing Goals and Measures with Sales. The marketing organization at one former employer would annually wrap up its yearly plan a good three months before the sales team completed theirs. Huh? As I began to see it all play out, it was clear marketing had its own goals and that sales were only being supported in the broadest sense. Sure, sales would get whatever collateral they needed, and marketing would scramble when sales said “jump,” but there was next to no alignment of priorities. Make sure you are in lockstep with sales when it comes to planning. If their priority is growing by 10% through new customer acquisition, your priority should be to own some percentage of that goal. There should be a detailed plan around how marketing will support. This guide to marketing planning will help get you started.

• Lesson #5: Deliver Creative with a Purpose. Creativity that wins industry awards or accolades from fellow marketers is good. Creativity that helps achieve business goals is why you’re there. There’s no reason you can’t do both. The first four lessons guide you to knowledge that will allow you to unleash creative with a purpose for the business you serve, rather than just being clever. 

Implement these five lessons and you’ll be helping your company succeed in achieving its goals. Facilitating measurable growth will not only help the company win but will create demand for marketing. The result? Increased marketing budgets, more resource allocation, and the ability to implement broader marketing strategies.