All posts by jbheimann

Why Communication Teams Flunk Internal Communications and How to Fix it.

By John B. Heimann

The marketing organization is primarily responsible for the company’s communications. Email, PR, social, brand, collateral, newsletters – basically all internal and external communications run through marketing. Yet, when it comes to communicating within the organization, many marketing teams, well, they stink at it.

How can the team that is so deft at crafting impactful messaging be so daft when it comes to communicating across the organization? Here are three common culprits: 

1. Not Understanding Internal Partner Team Priorities 
2. Focusing on Projects vs. Focusing on the Big Picture
3. Top-Down Communication Prioritization and Follow Through

Below, I explore these challenges and the solutions to fix them.

1. Not Understanding Internal Partner Priorities 

Every marketing organization supports internal teams. Marketing is responsible for understanding their partner’s priorities and delivering on key objectives. However, marketing often fails their internal clients by either communicating the wrong things (think marketing vanity metrics that are meaningless to the company’s bottom line) or by not communicating the basics such as program release timing, external communication content or collateral status. 

FIX: Create regular meetings between marketing and internal partners. Check-ins keep marketing aligned with company/team priorities and become a forum for planning, prioritization, feedback and review of key metrics. For a deeper dive, I’ve identified 10 best practices  that will lead to better communication.

• Focusing on Projects vs. Focusing on the Big Picture

Marketing teams face intense pressure to prioritize and complete individual projects, often losing sight of the overall company mission as they quickly move from one assignment to the next. Focusing on immediate tasks can lead to missed opportunities for strategic communication. To stay aligned with the company’s mission, it’s crucial for marketing to view each project in the broader context, aligned with the brand mission, vision and values (MVV), ensuring all efforts contribute to these overarching goals and communicate the right messages.

FIX: Zoom out. The collected works of marketing should help define the company’s MVV. By understanding and focusing on the big picture, individual contributors can come to view each project not as a stand-alone assignment, but as an important piece of the larger puzzle. Having that broader vision allows team members to see what types of internal communications are critical to stakeholders and why. This understanding can have the added benefit of turning junior marketing staff into future marketing leaders.

• Top-Down Communication Prioritization and Follow Through

If marketing team members have difficulty managing communications with their internal partners, marketing leaders may be partly to blame. CMOs and marketing VPs are under pressure to manage leadership expectations and deliver on ROI, digital transformation, brand management, customer experience and more. If marketing leaders aren’t effectively conveying the big picture and articulating and prioritizing partner needs to their teams, how can the frontline contributors succeed?

FIX: Using the MVV model above, marketing leaders should frame their team’s role within the organization and define individual responsibilities as it relates to internal team collaboration and communication. 

1. Standardize communications vehicles by team. Each team marketing supports may work differently and thus needs communication tools appropriate to their way of working. Get agreement in writing from each team to ensure everyone is on the same page about communication vehicles to be used along with the types and cadence of communications required.
   1. Teamwork and collaboration. Improving communication will be an ongoing and evolutionary effort. Work with your partners to continually assess what’s working and what’s not.  Agree on the best ways to communicate, but don’t be afraid to change as shifts take place.  This feedback loop will help all stakeholders optimize the process to ensure ongoing success.

Marketing leaders must set the tone for the team’s internal communications success by first aligning marketing’s priorities with those of the of the business. Keeping the big picture in mind, marketing must prioritize internal partner needs then create communication frameworks that align with their needs. Consistency of communication and ongoing collaboration will ensure success.

With these simple tools marketing can dramatically improve internal communications and earn themselves an A+ from the organization.

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.

Marketing and sales are often at odds, each claiming unmet needs from the other. It doesn’t have to be that way. By aligning marketing and sales, B2B organizations can power up growth.

If business to business marketers are being honest, they’ll tell you that the sales teams they support don’t value brand marketing, don’t effectively communicate what’s working and what’s not and that sales does a poor job of articulating their needs or don’t provide quality feedback along the project completion path resulting in delays.

If the sale’s team is being honest, they’ll tell you that their marketing team doesn’t understand the business they support and therefore deliver materials and programs that miss the mark. They’ll accuse marketing of being more concerned about brand and creative than creating initiatives that support bottom line results.

If I’m being honest, I’ll tell you that all these things are true. 

However, if corporate budgets are being slashed, guess which one of these two organizations will be targeted first? It’s marketing and it’s because marketing often fails to demonstrate a positive return on investment. 

A Hard Truth

Budgets for marketing in B2B organizations are funded, directly or indirectly, by sales revenue. Therefore, it’s incumbent on marketing teams to demonstrate that they’re returning to the organization the substantial investment placed in them. It starts with understanding measures that matter to sales and leadership.

Many B2B marketing teams have their own set of KPI’s that don’t align with sales’ needs or numbers. Marketing will often talk about the volume of materials they’ve churned out for sales and the number of work hours their team has contributed. They’ll wax on about KPI’s they exceeded for digital ads, social engagement, media impressions, etc. What marketing teams often aren’t talking about enough, and what they should be focused on, is the bottom-line impact of every dollar invested on behalf of the sales organization. 

Here’s an example from a company at which I was employed:

Marketing had been given a $100k budget to help increase ancillary product membership within one of our segments. The campaign concluded and marketing was ready to share the results with segment leadership. The marketing team was clearly elated as they presented their numbers for reach, engagement and conversion, all of which exceeded standard KPI’s. They concluded with a summary of new members achieved through the campaign. 

I then asked what the value of each new member was to the company. Marketing didn’t know. Of course, segment leadership knew. We went through some quick calculations, adding up the value of each new member and average contract term. The value of all the new members acquired during campaign equaled approximately 15% of the marketing budget spent. In other words, marketing’s “successful” campaign – at least in terms of KPI’s – LOST the company $85,000.

The Path to Marketing and Sales Alignment

For marketing to win the heart of the sales organization, it needs to start by investing in the sales team’s goals, strategy and value messaging. It must deeply understand the target audiences and how they make purchase decisions. Marketing must know the products or services the company sells at a granular level. And they must know the value of a sale (whether that be a product, service, member or what-have-you) in order to interpret return on investment. 

Take a sales rep out for drinks, schedule a one-hour lunch and learn, attend sales meetings, read existing product brochures, anything to get to know the inner workings of sales.

Armed with this knowledge, marketing is more likely to recommend and develop meaningful initiatives that will improve the condition of the sales organization. Knowing the net operating gain of a sale will ensure that metrics related to marketing programs for sales will reflect the true ROI (net sales gain minus marketing cost). 

Then, schedule regular meetings to make sure initiatives and sales goals remain aligned. I’d recommend separate meetings for bigger projects to make sure everyone is singing from the same song sheet.

In turn, sales need to step up their engagement with marketing. Throwing an idea over the transom and expecting miracles is unrealistic. I don’t know how many times I’ve fielded a sales request for a marketing deliverable that seemed crystal clear until it wasn’t. “I need a box,” says sales. “Here’s your box,” says marketing. “No, no! Not that kind of box!!” A silly example, but hopefully you get my point. Marketing has to go back to the drawing board and everyone is frustrated. By taking the time to meet with marketing and allow an open exchange of ideas, the end product is bound to be superior. And sales need to stay engaged. Slow down and take the time to review marketing plans instead of waiting for the first design draft to focus.

Overwhelming marketing with requests is another area that does damage. Often, sales team members have a go-to contact in marketing. Sales reps and account managers tend to have many client-specific requests and when you multiply the number of requests it can really bog down the flow of work. Worse, that flyer or email may have a one-time need that the rest of sales doesn’t need. But, with a few tweaks, that same flyer could work for the requesting rep and everyone else on the team. Is there a better way to manage these requests?

Sales can also work on understanding and appreciating the value of brand. Because branding doesn’t always support lead generation for B2B organizations, there’s a tendency for sales to view brand as a bunch of external noise that doesn’t generate leads. Brand has a tangible impact on reputation and trust, perceived value, differentiation and customer loyalty. Brand is a huge asset during times of crisis. And brand supports all marketing efforts. Use it, reference it, include it in presentations. You’d be surprised what your clients and partners are taking in.

By aligning marketing and sales goals, businesses can create a more cohesive and effective revenue generation funnel. A willingness to collaborate and open communication will lead to a fruitful and less frustrating partnership.

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Winning marketing plans must articulate a situational understanding, include goals, strategy, tactics, an implementation plan and include measures that define success and return on investment. Here’s a simple guide to building powerful marketing plans.

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I’ve worked as a marketer for two Fortune 500 companies, several large corporations and a couple of start-ups. I’ve yet to see a business to business marketing plan written by anyone other than myself that effectively articulates a comprehensive approach to the assignment. I’m not bragging, this is the reality I’ve witnessed over and over. In part, this reflects marketing’s inability to think strategically and apply appropriate tactics that met the complex needs of the B2B organization. It’s also a by-product of marketing’s internal process which is disconnected from sales.

Generally, marketing will do a brief rather than an in-depth plan. The breif is inclined to include simple, high-level information like “what” (a campaign, a finalist presentation, etc.), “deliverables” (a flyer, a PowerPoint deck, a direct response piece), “when” (when is it due) and a vague “purpose” (to create awareness or win business).

Well-designed marketing plans go into great detail, articulating the finest points of the initiative. Extending beyond just creative deliverables, the plan should include all teams and resources needed to achieve success. Comprehensive marketing plans that demonstrate a deep understanding of the business and how to improve the condition of the sales organization will gain the trust and buy-in from leadership. Best of all, they provide a roadmap to winning. 

Here is a simple guide to building powerful marketing plans that get results.

1. Situation Overview/Executive Summary. Either of these terms work as they serve the same purpose: What is the situation we find ourselves in that necessitates a marketing effort? This section should set the stage for the rest of the plan. What environment are we in? What market conditions exist that necessitate our action? What are impacts to the company, customers and partners that call for action? What are our competitors doing? Lastly, what is the current state of our company, its performance, opportunities, threats, competitive advantages and disadvantages, etc. 
2. Goal. This one is simple, but is often overlooked or is vaguely defined. Goals need to be very specific and should include both KPI’s and operational goals. By that I mean that marketing should measure response rates, engagement, clicks, etc., but must include goals for things like products sold, membership gained, customers retained, measurable achievement of a strategy priority, etc. There are real dollar values associated with achieving these goals that can be quantified. Operational goals will tell us the revenue gained and can then be compared to the marketing cost (see measures below for more). This is where most teams fall down. Whether that’s because marketing doesn’t want to be held accountable if their efforts fall short (I’ve seen this) or just aren’t comfortable guessing. It shouldn’t be a guess. By aligning with sales, marketing can get great information on the value of acquired business, understand common close ratios and have confidence in setting a goal that will achieve a positive ROI.
3. Strategy. Ask 10 marketing people to define strategy and you’ll get 10 different answers. The word “strategy” comes from the Greek strategia which means generalship. Compare that to the word “tactics” which has its origin in the Greek word tactica meaning arranged. Hence, our strategy should be the master plan, while the tactics are arranged to support the strategy. Most marketing teams are happier swimming around in tactics, which allows them to be creative and deliver materials that support the strategy that’s been defined by sales or someone else. Marketing must own the strategy along with sales. Strategy should include the following components:
   1. Target Market
      1. Identifying the target audience for the product/service offering is critical in that it defines what value-based need the customer has that the company aims to fill. Where in the customer journey do we plan to meet-up? Are we targeting a certain demographic, geographic, company size or business vertical of our total market pool?
      1. In addition to customer targeting, many B2B organizations have strategic partners who must be considered. For example, health insurance companies may offer a wide range of plans to the consumer, but almost all sales go through broker partners. It’s critical to include a unique marketing approach for these partners.
   1. Value Proposition
      1. How do our products or services create unique and superior value for our customers, collaborators and our own company? Define value not just in terms of features and benefits, but rather how those features and benefits create an offering for that specific customer that stands out from what the competition offers.
4. Tactics. Tactics should be selected and arranged to give us the greatest opportunity to reach our intended audience with a unique message that will resonate with them and help us achieve our goal.
   1. Product/Service. What are we selling? Include all aspects of the product or service that create value in the mind of the buyer. 
   1. Service. Separate from service as a primary sales offering, we have service as a benefit of the purchase. This could be post-sale support, warrantees, etc. 
   1. Brand. Include brand elements such as name, logos, packaging proposals, etc., but also brand associations, if appropriate. If your brand can claim social or emotional benefits to the buyer, leverage away. Things like stability, company history/years in business, prestige may matter to your buyers.
   1. Price. Price may or may not be included in B2B marketing plans. Many B2B organizations customize pricing so highly that it makes inclusion impractical within marketing deliverables. If price is a motivating factor or if the marketing effort is client-specific, it should be included and leveraged to full effect in the marketing of the product or service.
   1. Incentives. Any incentives for the customer or channel partners should be included. For customers, this may include things like discounts, rebates, rewards, etc. For channel partners, this may include bonuses, contests, advertising support, etc.
   1. Communications. Couple all the details above with the range of communications that will reach the target audience and make sure they’re measurable and you have a real winner.
   1. Distribution. Through what channels will the product or service be available?
5. Implementation of the Plan. Pulling the trigger on marketing deliverables does not constitute a robust implementation plan. Are there physical systems that need to be in place before launching a marketing effort? What about internal, organizational dynamics? Do teams need to be mobilized for the effort? The entire end-to-end process of executing any program must be detailed. 
6. Measures and Return on Investment. This is a critical step that both defines the success or failure of the current initiative, but also identifies performance gaps that must be closed for any future programs. As mentioned above, marketing should focus on KPI’s relative to the types of deliverables. In other words, if you’re doing programmatic you’ll want impressions, clicks, conversions, costs and reach. But you’ll also want to measure the value of the conversions which is the return on ad spend. In my book, nothing else matters. I could deliver marketing KPI’s that exceed all standard metrics by 20%, but if the marketing campaign loses money, what’s the point? Not every program will be a winner, but I shoot for 100-300% or better ROI. And don’t forget, there are often opportunities to course correct during a campaign. Plan check-ins on performance and make those changes to improve your chances of success. That could mean refining existing tactics, updating messaging or re-thinking the entire marketing mix.

Follow these steps to creating a marketing plan and you’ll be well on your way to delivering initiatives that will delight sales and get the kinds of bottom-line results that you can brag about.

Aligning the goals of sales and marketing is crucial to business growth. By taking steps to share objectives, understand the customer journey, agree on measures of success and continually communicate about what success means to the organization, sales and marketing can improve the overall process.

Here are 10 steps to better marketing and sales alignment:

1. Open Communication. Encourage open and frequent communication between marketing and sales teams. Schedule regular meetings to discuss upcoming needs, ongoing campaigns, lead quality, customer and partner feedback, and any challenges faced by either team. This helps build rapport and fosters a collaborative environment.
2. Joint Strategy and Planning Sessions. Closely tied to the above, strategy and planning sessions should involve both the marketing and sales teams, but be focus on near and long term objectives that will impact the business. These meetings may include discussions around upcoming product launches, a shift in market dynamics, new competition, geographic or demographic opportunities, etc.
3. Agree on Lead Definitions. Clearly define what constitutes a market qualified lead (MQL – someone interested in your product/solution) and sales qualified lead (SQL – someone who intends to buy) and ensure both teams agree on these definitions. This alignment prevents any confusion and ensures a smooth handoff of leads from marketing to sales.
4. Create Service Level Agreements. Develop service level agreements (SLAs) between marketing and sales. For instance, marketing might commit to delivering a certain number of leads each month, while sales commits to following up on those leads within a specified timeframe.
5. Share and Agree Upon Customer Personas and Their Journeys. Develop customer personas and journey maps collaboratively. Understanding the types of buyers, their needs, pain points, and behavior helps both teams create targeted campaigns and personalized sales approaches. How those buyers find your products/services and make purchase decisions will further define your marketing approach.
6. Leverage Marketing Automation. Implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and marketing automation platform that both teams can access. This centralizes data and allows for better lead tracking, lead scoring, and customer engagement.
7. Agree on Measures. Define shared objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) that both marketing and sales teams can work towards. Pay special attention to the return on marketing investment (ROI). The amount of sales revenue generated from marketing spend is critical to determining bottom line success. Big ROI should earn marketing bigger budgets.
8. Create a Feedback System. Create a closed-loop feedback system where sales provides feedback to marketing about the lead quality and customer interactions. This feedback loop helps marketing fine-tune their strategies and content to better meet the needs of potential customers.
9. Cross-Train Your Teams. Arrange training sessions and workshops that allow team members from both marketing and sales to understand each other’s roles, challenges, and best practices. This builds empathy and enhances cooperation.
10. Celebrate! When marketing and sales achieve shared goals together, celebrate the success as a united team. Recognize and reward individuals from both departments who contribute to the overall success.

With a willingness to collaborate and create a shared model of success, sales and marketing can both take credit for organizational growth.