There’s an exciting trend happening in the B2B world - a little something worth celebrating amongst all the bad news. The events of this year have made businesses pause, take stock, and make sure that they’ve got customer needs at the core of everything they do. This isn’t just good news for customers, and great news for sustainability (customers increasingly want to use green businesses), it’s also incredibly good news for senior B2B marketers. You see, as businesses become less inward looking and more customer centric, it centralises the role of marketing. It also has the potential to raise the profile of the CMO - who is perfectly positioned to provide a unique perspective on the customer experience and, with the right team and support, to help shape business plans that balance commercial objectives with customer needs.
We recently conducted a survey with some of B2B marketing’s senior leaders, to find out their views on the way today’s businesses are changing and to ask what they think it will mean for their own roles. The survey results are available in our new report. Here, we take a look at the three things which our respondents identified as essential for the success of tomorrow’s CMO.
A growth mindset
More than a third (39%) of senior B2B marketers believe that the CMOs role is already expanding to include growth responsibilities. However, as an emerging role, the CMO still has to prove themselves in the c-suite. This means having a full grasp of broader business objectives and an ability to align marketing activity with the need for revenue and marketplace growth. Not only that, but tomorrow’s CMO must know how to speak the language of the c-suite; leaving marketing jargon and engagement metrics at the door in favour of straightforward explanations of how strategic activity will get the business closer to their financial goals and KPIs.
2. Empathy
Degrees, post-grad certificates and membership of professional bodies are all well and good, and experience is the thing usually respected most by colleagues and employers. But what tomorrow’s CMO really needs is empathy and compassion in large doses. Communication was voted by our respondents as the top skill for a successful future CMO, followed by problem solving, adaptability and teamwork. And in a world altered forever by Covid-19, genuine empathy and compassion becomes yet more valuable. Not only will these ‘soft-skills’ and characteristics help marketers get to the heart of their customers’ pains, they will also help businesses to attract new talent and new customers. Now more than ever, people want to work with and buy from companies that share their values.
3. Trusted partners
Carefully chosen agency partners are a CMO’s best friend for two key reasons. Firstly, they can quickly plug a skills or resource gap if one exists in your in-house team. This will become increasingly important as the role of the CMO grows and they need to work cross functionally to make strategic decisions. A multi-disciplinary agency with a specialist knowledge of your marketplace is perhaps the holy grail; they will be able to relieve time pressure and ‘hit the ground running’ to supply the core functions of PR, content creation and copywriting, design and digital marketing support. Secondly, agency partners can play a crucial role in repositioning the CMO and in raising the profile of marketing within a business. Their objective distance can lend a little extra credibility when building the business case for campaigns or projects and, crucially, they have a shared interest in positioning marketing as an essential growth function rather than an expendable cost centre. With an ally like that by their side, a CMO who has faced resistance in the boardroom, might suddenly find themselves gaining sway with the other members of the c-suite.
Today’s CMOs and senior marketers will have a crucial role to play in tomorrow’s marketing-led businesses. And, as the CMO evolves from being an expert in marketing and developing the function, towards becoming an expert in the customer and growing the company, the demands on their teams and their time will increase. Technologies like marketing automation will hold the fort to a point, but agencies will become increasingly critical, creating a new, deeper bond between tomorrow’s CMO and the agencies they trust to work alongside them.
The Marketing Pod is perfectly equipped to support CMOs as they prepare to lead. We offer a full suite of marketing services, meaning we can provide the specialist skills you need at every step; as you imagine, build and execute your B2B marketing strategy.
For a chat about your requirements, or to learn more about our ‘fast track’ services, please get in touch today - https://themarketingpod.co.uk/contact