How to Talk to the C-Level About
Marketing and Walk Away with
More Budget and Respect
Cheryl Strege| The Partner Marketing Group
Cheryl@ThePartnerMarketingGroup.com
Introductions
• Cheryl (Wilson) Strege
• 25 years of ERP & CRM marketing
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Great Plains
Microsoft Dynamics
The Partner Marketing Group
• Microsoft Programs
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Turnkey Marketing Programs
Butterfly Publisher
R2R Marketing Plan Reviews
R2R Integrated Marketing & Sales Workshops
Intros & Objectives
• Who are you?
• Why are you here?
Session Format
• Agenda
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Leadership’s view
Marketing’s view
What needs to change?
Must do’s
• When you get back to the office…
What happens to marketing when…?
• Revenues come up short?
• Need to show a short-term
profit on P&L?
• Cash flow is squeezed?
• Publisher is reducing margins?
• Competition is eating away at
profitability?
Why?
• Viewed as tactical vs. strategic
• Lack of “outputs”
• Lack of quantitative results
– Sales = short term (‘present’)
– Marketing = long term (‘future’)
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of respect
What Does Leadership Want?
• Increased sales > more gross revenue
• Get more customers than the competition
• Retain existing customer base > upsell/
cross-sell revenues
• Greater profitability
Marketing Often Delivers…”Stuff”
• Activities
– Inbound: website, blogging, social, content
development, content updates, 3rd party sites (Pinpoint)
– Outbound: nurture campaigns, installed base marketing,
communications with prospects and customers, events,
promotions, tradeshows…
– Sales resources: videos, demos, free trials, and more…
Marketing Often Delivers…
• Measurement
– X# delivered, click-throughs, opens, downloads,
visits, time on site, pages viewed, blog posts written,
likes, shares, follows, comments, etc.
• Unrelated to leadership’s list of wants
Leadership Often Thinks…
• Marketing is a line-item expense, should be cut when
needed to show a profit
• To generate more revenue, hire more salespeople
• Unquantifiable, can’t show ROI/ROA
• Not related to corporate strategy & KPIs, simply tactical
• Attracts odd “creative types”
Gaps
• Marketing responsible for…
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New customer acquisition
Existing customer retention
Identifying new customer segments
Introduce new products, upgrades, service revenue
5 steps to position marketing as a leader
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Tie marketing > cash flow
Communicate outcomes
Speak the language of business
Develop systematic, repeatable processes
Understand who your (internal) customers are
Remember, the CEO/CFO is your #1 customer!
1. Marketing > cash flow
• Two “outputs”
1. Identify sources of cash flow
• Market segmentation
• Sync to the buying process
2. Produce cash flow
• Add new customers, increase
revenue from current customers
Sales sells, R&D invents, finance
funds, marketing produces cash!
2. Communicate outcomes, not activities
• Direct correlation between marketing and cash
– Future sources of cash flow
– Cash! (Customer purchases)
• Must know KPIs
– Grow gross revenues by 20%?
– Add 25 new customers?
– Increase installed base revenue by 30%?
Communication – you excel at it!
3. Language of business
• Marketing
– Activities, likes, shares, blog posts, opens, downloads…
• C-Level
– Profitability, growth, ROI, assets (tangible & intangible),
return on assets (ROA)
Example: Return on assets
• Cross-selling and up-selling
– Assets? Your company’s customers
– Return? Installed base revenue
• Result?
– Leadership sees connection between
marketing, ROA, and a KPI!
EXERCISE: In the elevator…
With the CFO, what 2
things would you say to
position marketing (and
yourself) as a leader?
4. Repeatable processes
• Unlike accounting processes (debit/credit)…
• Perception = qualitative, not quantitative
• Demonstrate systematic processes such as…
• Installed base sales
• Campaigns
• Social
4. The metrics that matter
• Metrics: efficiency &
effectiveness
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Efficiency? Leads generated
Effectiveness? Leads closed
• Metrics: past & future
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Past? # of leads closed
Future? Results of today’s
activities produce future
cash flow
• Metrics tied to KPIs
• Involve stakeholders
(CFO) in defining the
metrics
• Set realistic expectations
• Be careful what you
measure – why?
5. Internal customers
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Identify their needs/pain
Tell a good story
Communicate well and frequently
Nurture relationships
Four Outcomes
1. Position your marketing dept. as a leader
2. Pitch great marketing ideas and get support
• Short and long term results
• Dollar figure on future opportunities
3. Make marketing a long-term investment at your
company via the language of business
4. Ask for (more) budget, respect & a raise!
Ask for more budget
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Facts & metrics (language of business)
+ your passion
+ augment with a story
> leads to a transparent, repeatable process
= more budget
Ask for more budget – 4 steps
Metrics/
Facts
More
budget!
Repeatable
process
Your
passion!
Augment
w/story
What,
How,
Why
TOFU,
MOFU,
BOFU
‘Back at the office’ exercise
• Market yourself
– (Internal) market
segmentation
– Determine your unique
value to each segment
– Which segments are
opportunities, which are
dead ends?
• Prioritize highest cash
flow activities
• Find a mentor
– EX: Need help with ROA,
velocity, leverage, ROI and
other business metrics?
• Complete SWOT
EXERCISE: Your Personal SWOT
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
EXERCISE: Your Personal SWOT
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
Communication – good or needs
improvement?
Have repeatable processes – checklists for
projects and metrics exist, good at
tracking results.
Good communication to prospects, weak
internally.
The language of business – need some
help with financial terms, identification of
cash flow, & KPIs.
Need marketing automation software.
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
New markets:
- Opportunity with cloud-based software.
- Opportunity to introduce packaged
solutions.
Competition?
SUMMARY: 5 steps to position marketing as a leader
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Tie marketing > cash flow
Communicate outcomes
Speak the language of business
Develop systematic, repeatable processes
Understand who your (internal) customers are
Remember, the CEO/CFO is your #1 customer!
What landed today?
Resources
• LinkedIn Groups:
– The Partner Marketing Group (400+ fellow Dynamics
marketers!)
– Inbound Marketers
• Marketing Champions by Young, Weiss and Stewart
• MarketingProfs
About The Partner Marketing Group
• Experience-backed guidance
combined with high-quality
content to fuel your inbound &
outbound marketing
campaigns.
Cheryl@ThePartnerMarketingGroup.com
• Marketing planning and strategy
• Virtual Marketing Director
• Content development:
– Website
– Blog posts
– Social
– Campaigns
– Microsoft Pinpoint, bios, ‘About’
THANK YOU
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