Sales & Marketing Pros Might Love Their iPads A Little Too Much…
I’ve been sitting for a while on the results of a study, sponsored by Brainshark, that asked 1,300 iPad users to share their thoughts about life with – and without – everybody’s favorite tablet.
We should have blogged this sooner, because it’s a fun, interesting and slightly unsettling piece of research.
Here’s the executive summary: Some of you, actually a lot of you, would rather suffer some pretty nasty stuff than lose your iPad.
For example:
- 40% of you would rather get into a minor car accident. (Presumably, some percentage of these people would be OK with a major car accident, too.)
- 32% would rather have a root canal.
- 16% would rather break their nose.
- 10% would rather get fired.
The nice folks at Brainshark also sent us a press release with some specific numbers for marketing and sales professionals. Some highlights:
- 28% of the marketers surveyed and 38% of the salespeople would rather have their iPads than a more senior title;
- About half of both groups would “rather forget birth control” than forget their iPad. (Just what are you people doing on your “business trips,” anyway?)
- A scary-big percentage of sales and marketing pros would rather go without meals or bathroom breaks during a one-day business trip than go without their iPads. (I’m not sure how this relates to the fact that most of you use your iPads while you’re on the toilet.)
Fascinated? Horrified? Too busy flushing right now to decide? Here’s a link to more gory details.
-Matthew McKenzie
A packed house - at least 200 people - at a #DF12 session on sales-marketing alignment. Clearly, this isnt’t just an issue that resonates with analysts and vendors - it’s in the business mainstream, and it’s a big deal.
Strategizing Your Marketing Organization Design: Tips To Accelerate 5 Changing Roles
Today’s B2B personnel wear so many hats — from content to social media optimization — there are a variety of operations that require an “all hands on deck” approach.
This morning at the SiriusDecisions Summit, John Neeson and Marilyn Reap highlighted the current marketing structure, and how it’s changing as a result of market factors and increased sales requirement.
As a result, today’s marketing disciplines cannot be confined to individual marketing functions; instead, they are required in various phases.
So what’s going on? Market changes are impacting and challenging the CMO, as well as the traditional marketing structure. And what should we do about it? We need to assess our team’s marketing skills and determine the most appropriate development to align the organization and drive efficiency.
Marketing roles are emerging due to changing buyer journey and sales needs, so it’s time to plan for these new roles and skills:
1. Social Media- product marketers, demand gen professionals need social media skills; those communication skills need to be embedded in the company culture.
2. Customer Marketing- the customer experience begins before they are an actual customer, and kicks into high gear once they become one.
3. Marketing Technology- marketers need technology to optimize their processes and operations, and this requires an investment in marketing technology, as well as a new skill set to leverage its full potential.
4. Content Marketing- the buyer calls the shots, and content is an integral part of the purchase process. Organizations need to empower personnel to understand target buyers and the most appropriate content offers across different phases and interactions.
5. Digital Marketing- as noted previously, technology and content is driving the change in the organization-wide approach to digital marketing. Companies need to understand how to leverage digital marketing in conjunction with other operations.
Most CMOs, the speakers noted, comment that some roles are being reversed, while others are changing in scope. For example:
· Event marketing is integrated with the program manager;
· The Marcomm manager now has an increased use of marketing agencies;
· Big ad agencies are out, while small, boutique agencies are in;
· Corporate communications overlaps with content strategy and social operations with a greater focus on the entire enterprise;
· Web marketing is now a centralized strategy executed regionally, while it used to be contained to one team; and
· Campaign managers now have a broader role that’s more strategic as an integrated journey manager.
If you were given 10% more budget, where would you spend it?
While marketing dominates, branding is often viewed as a luxury and is becoming more integrated into traditional marketing. In a SiriusDecisions survey, 35% of respondents said they’d take their extra budget and optimize demand creation while 17% said branding. A smaller percentage (13%) said content, as the high volume of it still needs to be more current and aligned to buyer’s journey.
Today the CMO faces pressures around measuring ROI
CMOs commented that most marketing discipline are going through change; the following 3 are priorities:
1. Demand creation- Changing from outbound campaigns and direct response — to inbound campaigns, outbound campaigns, sales-driven campaigns, demand centers and web resource federations. This model must be accelerated for success.
2. Sales enablement- Changing from sales role, part of sales operations, part time marketing role — to specific sales role, new marketing role, product marketing capability, which is becoming a more specific role than marketing.
3. Customer Marketing- Changing from part time role to a customer experience and service-exclusive role, including a product marketing capability. It’s also becoming more of an exclusive role reporting directly to the CMO.
SiriusDecisions Key Takeaways:
1. Start with the buyers journey
2. It’s not what’s in each marketing box, it’s about how they collectively operate in the ecosystem
3. Some roles are enablers
4. Others are disciplines
5. Technology and content are needed throughout the ecosystem
