Generating new business is a constant struggle for every B2B, mainly because (in my experience) marketing departments are intent on proving their superiority above all others, especially sales. You will understand why I say it's important to review the past to see how marketers have applied their strategies and tactics and how those decisions have affected businesses today. To do that, I want to show some content recently posted about CMOs conduct and strategies etc.
CMOs in the Spotlight
I believe there is something going on, a shift perhaps!!! I wonder why epic losses by CMOs are being exposed? Perhaps it’s because they’re driving businesses to agree to support marketing technology to achieve their KPIs, which results in virtually destroying businesses based upon pride, i.e., look at how clever we marketers all are!
Whilst the Nike example below relates to B2Cs, the same applies to B2Bs; CMOs and marketing departments, acting as the advocates of big tech, martech, convinced CEOs to invest in MarTech SaaS platforms with the inference 'if the business wanted to compete, they had no choice!' B2B boards dutifully parted with the cash, and nothing changed except the tenure of CMOs, which has now reduced to as low as nine months according to Forbes CMO, but the average is eighteen months - the bottomline, because some CEOs knew there was something wrong.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethmatlins/2022/04/04/ceos-executive-recruiters-and-the-problem-of-cmo-tenure/?sh=7cf22162d492
Businesses have continued to fail at the same, if not greater, rate they did ten years ago, SaaS companies average $90,000 ARR-FTE, which explains why they all need additional investment (of which approx. 50% is dutifully handed to MarTech on the assumption demand gen, lead gen, ABM and PPC will catapult them to unicorn status. As per usual they fail and keep recruiting BDRs because the B2B digital marketing is simply a failing black hole.
If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll appreciate that marketing is foundational to the business, but not to be misinterpreted as disproportionately ‘special’ or more important to the business than any other department!
Employing CMOs
The first CMO story is by Patrick Bet-David. The video explains a series of problems surrounding CMOs. Whilst it’s not clear, I believe he is speaking strictly bout B2C CMOs
This is interesting as back in 2022 Seth Godin did an interview with Brian Rose who said pretty much the same thing and confirmed that the tenure was eighteen months. Here’s a link to that video: https://londonreal.tv/seth-godin-this-is-marketing-how-to-find-your-viable-audience-win-trust-from-your-target-market/
Give a CMO an Inch!
The most recent story is about the CEO and CMO of Nike. This is priceless.
Read the full article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nike-epic-saga-value-destruction-massimo-giunco-llplf/
Although the post mentions Nike dropping $25bn market capitalisation in a day (June 2024), the figure is actually $70bn since the new CEO and CMO began their DTC strategy in 2020.
When so much weight is placed on MarTech because marketers believe it is measurable and therefore manageable, it fails at the most important first hurdle; do you still get to connect with your ‘tribe’.
It is unsurprising CMOs fail to follow the rules when it comes to product and prospect marketing, especially if they’re commanding high salaries. It’s easy to see why a CMO would want to say “see, see, look, I’m achieving everything I said I would”. Meanwhile salespeople are being ridiculed by marketing for failing to close fictional leads.
As you can gather from the above, all is not as it seems in the worlds of marketing and CMOs. It is important for your business to act independently of marketing trends and seek out your own strategies and tactics.
With this in mind, continue reading the rest of this article and decide for yourself what your next move will be.
Zero Click Attribution
First you must recognise the implications and impact of zero click attribution before you embark on any type of B2B journey.
Every social platform wants dwell time and are biased to keep you on their platforms. Cookie changes, privacy laws, ad blockers, multi-device journeys and apps all play a part in erasing click-through-attribution. There is also zero click consumption, because we don’t click through as search engines will deliver up the answers, now using AI.
70% of all traffic sent over the web is from search. But only 10% of time is spent on search. The rest of the time spent online is on productivity, apps, tools, video, news and so on. Therefore, trying to prove acquisition via referral data i.e., from Google, means they’ve gotcha’, because you can’t.
And just a quick shout out for those who track and plan robust HTACCESS files, weeding out the bots and making sure they don’t impact your analytics data.
For more details on this visit: https://sparktoro.com/blog/attribution-is-dying-clicks-are-dying-marketing-is-going-back-to-the-20th-century/
What will Make You Money or Cost You Money?
Starting with some familiar diagrams, first, we have Market Share and Market Growth. I am including these diagrams as I know you are familiar with them so as to put the suggested strategies into context.
Next up is the Product Lifecycle, naturally a necessary diagram when it comes to Product Marketing.
Succeed at Product Marketing First
The first critical element must start with Product Marketing. There are specific parameters for product marketing, remember the four pillars (product, price, place, promotion!!!).
As all Product Marketers know, it is essential multiple interviews take place prior to manufacturing, marketing and sales training. Naturally, no self-respecting CEO would allow any marketing team to dream up a new product and take it straight to market before first completing the required twenty interviews.
Google Search
Type into Google “How many interviews for qualitative research”
The results will show the following numbers from different articles: 12, 5 to 25, 12, 8, 9 to17 and 23 interviews. By the time you get to interview twenty participants, you will already have your answer, i.e., stay with what you’ve got or move forward.
Therefore, every business can be assured by interviewing the largest number possible, not the minimum, a qualitative decision can be made for just about anything.
Technology Adoption
The conclusion of your market actually accepting your product and the sequence by which your organisation starts making money.
Prospect Marketing Because People Buy People
With the above being the most effective and logical approach to determining if a new product should be bought to market, the same must, by definition, apply to all marketing, i.e., to communicate to an actual addressable market to ensure you maintain focus, otherwise your efforts will be completely wasted.
The zero click issue feeds into this because the only solution is to ‘hang out’ where your prospects are and in the B2B world, it means identifying your Total Addressable Market, getting the appropriate database and simply marketing direct to them.
If you’re unsure of any marketing message, ask! Ask any relevant prospect what they think of your messaging, image, colours, video, or article. It is essential you get feedback, especially if your pipeline is getting smaller, it means something is going wrong, therefore as they say in sales, “go back to basics”.
In simple terms, if a marketing message is meant for a CIO who oversees logistics. Then say so. Never assume they will find a direct meaning in your messaging unless to tell them.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug was a book I read some years ago which had a profound effect on me, because it made so much sense in a world where everyone was trying to assert themselves and show how clever they were. Not much has changed!
There is light at the end of the tunnel, but you have to read and learn how a new transformational strategy will work and not just leave it to the marketing department (they haven't read a book in years, just look at your pipeline!)
How everything salesXchange fits together to create a cohesive structured new business development strategy the does not need a CMO and follows three simple stages: -
If you want to have a chat or have a question(s), the details are below. Thanks for reading.
The author and founder of salesXchange, Nigel Maine is a B2B marketing and sales expert with a proven track record in scaling up growth for Technology, SaaS, and Professional Services organisations. With 30 years hands-on experience and unique approach, Nigel has developed an effective strategy that dramatically increases exposure and profitability for B2B organizations.
