Marketers you need to start standing up for yourselves if you want to succeed and be taken seriously.
Too many marketers are setting themselves up to fail by agreeing to requests from the business without acquiring additional support. If the business is asking you to change what you deliver, you need to ensure you have the right knowledge, capabilities and tools in place.
When you are in your next meeting with the FD and he asks for better visibility and ROI, don’t just nod your head and then turn up at a conference with other marketers to complain about how hard and unreasonable it all is, use the meeting as a chance to get what you want. If the FD wants better reporting you might need better tools, if the FD wants ROI you need sales to report back to you, if The FD wants better financial reporting you might need him/her to give you a lesson
I was talking to a conference delegate last week and he complained the marketing skills he hired last year are now 60% irrelevant to what he needs now, to cut a long chat short we concluded he had not hired ponies and they have the ability to learn.
The companies and markets we work in change, so marketing departments need to make sure they have the resources that allow them to keep their knowledge up to date and to continually develop their skills and capabilities.
For example, a current trend in marketing departments is the need to be more analytical, and turn data in to insight – but has the person given this responsibility been trained in analytics? Do they know what they are looking for and what to do when they find it?
I understand that marketing is under scrutiny from a budget perspective but this does not mean that as a marketer you should be hiding under your desk,. You need to understand the business plan and then say what tools and skills you need to deliver your part. And if the business is not willing to invest, you must work on a compromise of what can be delivered.
So I recommend that you take the business priorities and map them against your department’s current capabilities. You can then have a serious conversation with the business on where time and investment are required.
Don’t be scared to say “With what I have I can deliver X” – and if an honest evaluation of your department reveals an obvious skills gap, then look internally and externally for resources that can help you fill those gaps
If you have any war stories please do share and I leave you with thoughts from a great philosopher.
“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!” Dr. Seuss
