Your sales team is doing its job, but you have yet to land the whale that will take your profits to the next level. Higher level communications tend to get big projects done with less bureaucracy. Here are 5 steps you can take to maximize communications between your Chief Marketing Office (CMO) and the customers that really matter.
1. Staying Agile
Strategic leaders within a company have the ability to look beyond immediate targets and short-term objectives. You can land the whale by simply staying on your toes in terms of industry trends. Instead of responding to hot RFPs for companies that are high in demand, you can do business with a strategic partner who will provide you profits far down the line. You spend less because you are doing your deals in the off-season, and your partner is validated because you recognized long-term potential instead of following short-term trends.
2. Continuous Relationship Building
Your sales team should have no problem initiating contact with their counterparts across companies if the C-Suite has already made an acquaintance. In contrast with a low-level salesperson, a CMO taking a potential partner executive out for a round of golf creates relationships throughout the entire chain of command. In effect, the CMO becomes the lead salesperson rather than the “man behind the curtain.”
3. Creating a Humanized Entity
You can save tens of thousands of dollars in marketing spend by creating a humanized relationship across companies through your CMO. The decision makers from other companies will not have to view your high quality advertisements in order to understand what your company is about. They got that information firsthand from your CMO during the trade show mixer.
If there are no industry events that give you an excuse to put a human face on your operations, make one. CMO is also head of PR, even if you have outsourced PR to a third-party specialist. Get in their business to make business.
4. Becoming the Organizational Storyteller
As the CMO, you have license to talk to people about your company in a way that no one else does. You can look at the Chief Marketing Officer as the Head Storytelling Officer if you have trouble remembering exactly what you are supposed to be doing out in the field. Your future partners want to understand how your company connects the dots internally and as it moves into its partnerships. As the CMO, you are the link between R&D, marketing, distribution and IT that can explain all of these connections with a human touch.
5. Challenge Your Industry
No one knows better than you what your company can accomplish. If you extend your position as leader of the company into your industry, you can set the challenges that potential vendors and partners respond to. In essence, you are creating a problem that you are the best company to solve.
Speaking engagements at industry events are always a great way to direct the trends of your industry culture in an advantageous direction. However, you can also do this on an individual basis, because you have access to all of the decision-makers in your industry. Do not waste your time with them, but let them know about how your company is moving your industry forward and why they need to get on board today. Once you have set this tone, your salespeople can work out the details later.
No less than Xerox CMO John Kennedy has stated on record that B2B marketing is more about personality than ever. Use the above tips to arm your CMO for the front lines, because the C-suite has to lead from the front in this business generation!
