For many CEOs, marketing is too often an afterthought. Many a marketing leader will agree their department is all too often undervalued and misunderstood, and many will recognise the struggle of getting their voice heard in the business, all the while challenging the traditional perception that marketing is not a cost centre, but a growth centre.
But misconceptions about marketing tend to come right from the top: if your CEO doesn’t truly understand what marketing can bring to the business, how can the rest of the c-suite – let alone the rest of the company – understand marketing, and support it to succeed?
The CEOs we spoke to admitted they’ve come to appreciate the value of marketing over time, and hadn’t always been fully cognizant of what it can bring to the business. But for marketing to truly secure respect at board level, CEOs will have to start paying marketing the attention it deserves and realise it’s pretty hard to succeed – let alone fuel growth – without marketing.
“When we started the company, our go-to-market strategy was based on direct sales. We thought we could just invest in salespeople, and go after one-to-one customers. But this doesn’t scale very well. So we realised – probably a little late – that we’d have to focus on marketing to grow the business”
“I’ve become more and more aware of the importance of marketing over time. I think this is something a lot of CEOs have started to appreciate. Marketing can’t just be put in a box, like you would with some other departments. Marketing is important across the whole organisation”
The rest of the business doesn’t understand what marketing can bring to the table
Marketing’s relationship with other departments across the business can, at times, be tumultuous – and we’re not just talking about the never-ending sales and marketing love story. A key part of the struggle facing marketing leaders is the fact the rest of the business often misunderstands why marketing exists, coupled with marketing’s own reliance on so many other departments to succeed. This was reflected in our conversations, which highlighted where key areas of tension exist and why.
In fact, beyond the basic idea that other parts of the business fail to understand why marketing exists, there’s often a misunderstanding of marketing on a deeper level; even if there is a basic appreciation of what it contributes to the company, there’s often little awareness of the detail behind how marketing produces the results it does, and the amount of work that goes into successful marketing strategies and campaigns.
Part of the problem is that marketing no longer plays the (relatively basic) role it used to, and the rest of the business hasn’t kept up since marketing made the shift from ‘art’ to ‘science’. Marketing is still locked away in a dark room – now playing with tech instead of crayons – and this hasn’t done much to dispel the misconceptions.
“I would be willing to bet that in more than half of organisations, other departments don’t understand what marketing does at the real granular level. Marketers are seen as the party planners – the ones who make sure articles are published, organise events or make sure the right orange is used on t-shirts. I don’t think people realise there’s as much science as there is”
“Marketing’s role within the organisation has evolved over time, and it’s become more important as our customers have become more interested in how we can solve their specific use cases. Marketing is no longer marketing the features of the product, they’re marketing the solutions” Gary Barnett, SVP and general manager, Engagement Solutions, Avaya
The board doesn’t know how to spot a great marketer
Many of our interviewees recognised how hard it can be to recruit the right person to lead marketing within the organisation, and finding someone with the perfect balance of technical skills and creativity can prove a challenge. But we’d contend many board members actually don’t recognise a fantastic marketing leader when there’s one in front of them – potentially because there are still so few CEOs who are ex-marketers.
We also know, thanks to recent research by Korn Ferry, that marketing leaders have the shortest average tenure of the whole c-suite (just over four years, compared to eight years for CEOs and five years for CFOs). This illustrates just how hard it can be for organisations to find the right person to take the marketing reins.
The key area of debate here is the balance between creativity and science – both are important, but which should prevail? While many may argue it’s all about the numbers once you get to the top – and that’s true, to an extent – a few of the business leaders we spoke to highlighted the fact it’s a creative mindset that sets marketers apart from the rest of the organisation. However, it’s also often assumed that a creative mindset automatically means a sacrifice in terms of a numbers-oriented one – no doubt a myth that many a marketing leader is keen to dispel.
“I feel you need a blend of creative and technical skills in a marketer. I think the most frustrating thing about marketers is sometimes a lack of commerciality, although, it can also be the best thing – they don’t necessarily look at something and think ‘Will one and one make two?"
“You need the data and tech skills but you also need the creative to catch hearts and minds – you need the complete mixture of both. It’s got to be that deep mix of art and science”
The CMO isn’t directly accountable for revenue
An issue that links all of the above together is the fact marketing leaders often aren’t made accountable for revenue (or pipeline) within their organisations, which directly impacts the respect they receive at board level. In fact, opinion was divided among the c-suite members we spoke to on this issue, demonstrating how little agreement there is on this subject.
While the view that revenue is not something that should be part of a marketing leader’s KPIs is starting to dwindle, it’s still uncommon to see board-level marketers with direct responsibility for revenue within their organisations. This is most likely down to the ‘traditional’ view that sales is the only department truly capable of bringing home the bacon, and it highlights just how much of a shift in mindset is required for marketing to truly receive the respect it deserves.
We believe the rise of approaches such as account-based marketing (ABM) means marketers will be increasingly accountable in the boardroom, and this can only be a good thing. In future, we expect marketing departments that are solely responsible for generating leads to be a thing of the past.
“Marketing should not be responsible for sales, in my opinion. Marketing is accountable for lead generation but it’s the sales function that converts leads into sales”
“In principal, I support the basic idea that a marketing director should be accountable for revenue. However, this accountability should only come under the circumstances that they can influence the revenue through certain marketing measures”
“Marketing should definitely be accountable for revenue. A great marketing team should be responsible for the entire customer journey, from prospect to renewal and advocacy”
