DaveStevensNow

Blogging about Profitable B2B Marketing | Branding | Digital | Team-Building

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Dave is an experienced global B2B Chief Marketing Officer / Marketing Director with an established reputation for delivering commercial results in start-up, mid-tier, and blue-chip businesses across technology, and business services and professional services sectors. Dave has worked for major brands such as Telefonica O2, EY, and Barclays and held posts from Chief Marketing Officer to Director of Online, has run his own business, and managed a P&L for a major corporate. He is chair and co-founder of the Business Marketing Club (www.businessmarketingclub.org.uk) – a network of B2B marketers. In 2019, he was named one of the top 100 B2B European marketing leaders (https://www.hottopics.ht/34199/top-100-b2b-european-marketing-leaders-2019/). He is a graduate of Cambridge University, a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Chartered Marketer and holds a MBA with Imperial College, London. Dave is a keen cyclist and adventure traveller, is married, and lives in Buckinghamshire. You can read his blogs at www.DaveStevensNow.com.

What Marketing Can Offer Business – Part 3


I’ve been talking in recent posts about the first two of five steps that B2B marketers need to take to grow the link between marketing and the business leadership.

There is a real need for good marketing out there. And in my experience, it is possible to grow the link between marketing departments and the businesses they serve. It takes time, care, and proof of delivery to create trust. It requires a brilliant and dedicated team of marketers committed to the cause and it requires the preparedness of a few business executives to go on the journey to provide air cover.  I think there are five steps that B2B marketers need to take to grow the link between marketing and the business.  Time for step three!
Step three is that we need to cut out the jargon.  All of that marketing stuff we spend our formative years learning with the CIM, IDM, B2B Marketing, and many, many, many others is all very well and good, but it means not the first thing to the executive level.  Executives are interested in bookings, revenue, margin, and cash, not brand, readers, mix, and concepts. Even talk of segments, targets, and positioning can leave the C-suite cold.  So we shouldn’t talk to the business about these.   Consider the language your business is using – because what you mean to say is not always what people hear.  When I worked at PA Consulting Group, I banned the use of the word “brand” by my team.  I asked marketers for ideas about how we were going to make the business money rather than how we were going to spend the business’s money.  This is all about talking about the colour of the money not the colour of the event invite.  Step three in the re-build of trust.

So, step one is that:  marketers need to focus our work on outcomes not inputs or outputs.  And step two:  we need to work at the strategic bits of marketing.  And step three:  we need to cut out the jargon.  Next time:  step four.

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