The Growth Challenges for B2B Marketing Leaders
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are all about identifying key opportunities to grow their organisations. But with the increasing complexity of marketing (take the growing number of martech stack tools alone) it can be challenging for CMOs to navigate their way through this "mist" to identify what will truly make a difference. Compounded with the ever constant pressures B2B marketing leaders are under to prioritise growth and deliver results, it’s never been so challenging to identify and focus on the right opportunities for sustained growth. Of course once CMOs pinpoint what does need to be done, they then face the challenge of delivering it.
For marketers the promise that tech would simplify things appears to be heading in the opposite direction. More than 60% of B2B marketers say their martech is too complex and one in five say it’s “more complex than a black hole,” according to Anteriad’s 2022 Outlook on Data and Technology. Scary stuff. And this is before we layer in the doubtless benefits of AI into the mix. To make matters worse, it’s against a background of lengthening not shortening sales cycles, increasing by 3.8 weeks for all companies, according to Capchase’s 2023 Sales Environment Report. So not only is B2B marketing more complex, it isn’t necessarily always delivering more. When it comes to managing complexity in B2B, CMOs have their work cut out.
So how can CMOs focus on the right growth opportunities? In a nutshell by making it their mission to simplify the complex. Be aware of key issues and patterns but not overwhelmed by them and the nitty-gritty of our tech, tools and data. It’s time to climb out of our rabbit holes! That’s easier said than done, but seeing things afresh from an outsider-in perspective is a great place to start. It helps you focus on joining up the dots of things from your customer’s perspective. Often the more complex nature of marketing has unintentionally resulted in more fragmented and poorer customer experiences by adding in unnecessary friction to their buying journeys. By focusing on what we must do to make a difference (in this case to remove the friction) instead of all the things we can do with the tools at our disposal will pull sharp focus on what really needs to be done to drive sustained growth. It’s back to that old phrase less is more. In our more complex worlds it’s easy to lose sight of this powerful growth marketing mantra. It’s stood the test of time, because it works.
Once CMOs have that clarity on what needs to be done to drive growth, many fail to realise the full potential of their ambitions. Not aligning their growth goals with stakeholders is a key factor preventing them from doing so, while many others straight-jacket themselves in inflexible growth plans.
The key relationship for CMOs is with their boss, unfortunately alignment between CMOs and the CEOs is often poor. It’s never been more important to rewire this. From both sides. Indeed according to McKinsey’s The Power of Partnership: How the CEO–CMO Relationship Can Drive Outsize Growth, ‘CEOs who place marketing at the core of their growth strategy are twice as likely to have greater than 5 percent annual growth compared with their peers’. It’s a two way thing. CEOs need to focus on aligning with their CMOs and vice-versa. CEOs and marketers need each other to fully realise their organisations true value and growth potential. It’s up to both of them to invest in this critical growth relationship from the get go, to align, check back and consistently realign moving forward ironing out the kinks as they go.
One final note of caution. It’s right now, when businesses are formulating their marketing plans for the year ahead, that many marketers fall into another growth reduction trap. Long story short, we risk becoming constrained by our own organisations, sacrificing agility and growth for annual planning and budgeting processes. It’s hard to break free sometimes. But that’s what we marketers are all about, cutting through to stand out from the crowd. Embrace it. After all, we no longer launch campaigns that are 100% perfect (as if they ever were) we're happy with a much less perfect 70% or lower and use data to optimise as we go. By adopting a more optimise as we go approach in our marketing planning makes smart use of today’s tech, enables marketers to consistently enhance the buying experience and not drop the ball on unforeseen opportunities that arise later down the line. With this more flexible test to growth outlook and using tools like the lean canvas to make the most of such opportunities in real time, CMOs are more likely to surge ahead with their growth marketing goals.
Summing up, it's all about simplicity, alignment and agility. Have these front of mind and you’ve rocket fuel in your growth prospects. What’s more you’ll frankly bring a huge dose of fun back into marketing which for many is sinking in its complexity and business processes, holding it back from achieving its full glorious potential.
