Gary Vaynerchuk has never been one for dancing around the issue, particularly when it comes to branding, modern marketing, and sales.
He was recently asked a question:
“What are the smart question that a CEO with no marketing background ought to be asking their marketing team?”.
It’s a great question.
Not every CEO is trained or vastly experienced in Marketing.
The majority rely on their trained specialists to lead the way and deliver results.
But we are now at a precarious point in B2B Marketing history. The pace of change, the modes of change and the technics of change are, to many, overwhelming.
Gary’s answer:
“I think CEOs need to ask their CMO, Hey can you please help me fully be able to feel comfortable that this extraordinary amount of money we are allocating is actually driving our business”.
An adult conversation and an open book…
Whether its 10k, 100k or more, every Dollar, Pound or Euro that is spent on marketing must be attributable to real, definable business.
Gary goes on to say:
“There is no reason on earth that marketing can’t do that, whether its leads or direct sales on your own DTC, so many things from a business stance that it can show”.
With every business we meet, no matter what sector they trade in, no matter how diverse their product and service suite, no matter where they are…they are all looking for the same things..👇
👉To truly understand their markets: Where they need to be and how those markets work.
👉To have access to those markets: You know where you need to be but are you there…?
👉To have credibility in those markets: Does this entire market know you are a serious player?
👉To have deep and commercially meaningful connection in those markets: Real, eye to eye connection and understanding.
👉And an efficient and effective mechanism to turn all of this into sustainable and scalable revenue.
I discuss this in more detail on a recent edition of The Digtial Download business Live Stream.
In 2023 its impossible to assess these topics and not include Digital.
In fact, these days, Digital is now front and centre.
The time has passed for the business growth plan to have a 1 liner on Social Media…this level of analysis, coupled with the commercial disruption we are seeing in the world today, requires an intelligent and all-encompassing Digital strategy.
Business truths…
***Are we where we need to be Digitally, in the numbers we need to be in, at the correct volume, doing the right things in the right places, with the content we need out there working for us….and is it delivering?***
We often find \marketing teams have become lost in the weeds.
What was once the driving engine of B2B commerce, now reduced to ‘doing stuff for visibility’.
We hear it all the time, we ask…why is it you do what you do in Marketing?
Often we hear “it’s good for visibility…”.
There was a time when mere visibility was good enough, but things have changed.
Back to Gary V’s answer:
“I think CEOs need to ask their CMO, Hey can you please help me fully be able to feel comfortable that this extraordinary amount of money we are allocating is driving our business”.
Branding is important, brands stick and mean something but, as Gary goes on to say…
“Brand is the most important thing in the world, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of business movement within the year”.
We are in the midst of the most critical point of change in B2B Commerce since the turn of the Industrial revolution, the Digital Transformation. Add in what some call a ‘Polycrisis’ (the simultaneous occurrence of several catastrophic events) such as Pandemic effects, Energy security, cost of living increases, civil unrest…and we have the perfect storm.
So, do we give up…no, not at all.
But we need to be smart. Smart from the very start of our commercial cycle all the way through to delivery and beyond.
As leaders we need to be asking the right questions and looking for business truths.
Gary summed it up well:
“Let the CMO show you without a shadow of a doubt, not based on reports, but based on business truths that the marketing is driving business, but give her or him the full year to show it to you”.
We are Digital Commercial Advisors and we are here to help.
Eric Doyle F.ISP
Live Digital '23
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