Name: Mark Elkins
Job title: Strategy manager
Company: SAS
B2B audience: Financial services
Education: BA (Hons) Public Administration at Leicester University; MBA at Southampton University Management School
What was your first job in marketing: Marketing manager at Telewest
How did you get to where you are now? Perseverance, tenacity and enthusiasm. I started in debt collection in the banking sector, which led to running my own branch five years later. I went on to complete an MBA in the technology sector with a number of national and international appointments, where I was responsible for ‘go to market’ strategies targeting the financial services sector.
What’s different about B2B? You need to comprehend the customer’s prospect market, position your offer in a compelling way and demonstrate the value and impact the offer delivers to the business.
What’s the best bit about your job? Variety, pressure, tight deadlines and involvement in the full gamit of the marketing mix. The financial services sector is dynamic and more receptive to innovation than some might think.
Which B2B brand do you most admire? Blackberry. It’s ubiquitous and does what it says on the tin. I resisted all temptation at first, and then the proposition became too compelling.
Whose job would you like most? My bosses’ boss or Jeremy Clarkson’s.
What is your proudest achievement? Delivery of four solutions complete with all collaterals, press articles and white papers, within six months and six months ahead of schedule!
What was Your lowest ebb? Being moved on from the role one month later, unable to follow it through even though it was a bigger and better role.
To succeed a B2B marketer must… Understand the key drivers, issues and challenges faced by their target market, and their targets’ target to leverage their deliverable technology to best effect.
Our jobs would be easier if… Companies focused on the needs of their target markets and not on creating solutions/products that companies may want.
What is your favourite B2B ad campaign? O2 for SMEs. It leveraged the core branding and really had a compelling offer surrounding free local calls to/from SMEs in an STD code area.
Is B2B marketing getting sexier? Yes, though I have yet to use my job as a chat up line! Increasingly, we are treating customers as individuals and not a homogenous group, therefore getting to the detail, just as the B2C folks have been doing for years.
Briefly describe your work station: One laptop, three phones (one personal mobile, one Blackberry) an overflowing in-tray, a fan, and various newspapers and financial sector journals to read.
What are the most important traits in a B2B marketer? Tenacity, resilience and self-belief with empathy and understanding of both the target sector and your own salesforce. Preferably marketers should spend some time in sales.
who do you most admire in B2B marketing? The CMO of O2 who three years ago embarked on sector marketing, recognising the need for sector knowledge and applying that sector knowledge to solution creation and delivering appropriate messages to that market.
What are the traits you most & least admire in yourself? Impatience!
What is your biggest extravagance? Cars – I have had 15 in the past 10 years, I just get bored of them and enjoy the change.
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