Huddlers in the News

“Marketing used to be seen as order takers,” explained the CMO from a $190m services firm, “but after several years, we’re now seen as business drivers.” Several years! And that’s your internal audience. Imagine how long it takes to change external perceptions.

Like it or not, marketing leaders must devote time to marketing their marketing.

Not once at an “all hands” town hall. Not twice via follow-up emails. Relentlessly. Fearlessly. Consistently. Across all possible channels. Personally. And via surrogates.

Why is this so important? Marketing often gets a bad rap in the C-suite which trickles down to disrespect across the org. Disrespect that manifests as unsolicited advice on all aspects of marketing. Advice that can derail your well-conceived plan especially if it is centered on tactics.

Marketing is not a snowball fight. You can’t just gather your ammunition, and hurl it at your target one toss at a time. Well, you can try. But that approach inevitably fails to leave a lasting impression. Instead, think of marketing as the ball of snow rolling down a mountain, gathering girth and speed (i.e. force = mass x acceleration).

Marketing is the cumulative impact of all your activities over time – starting with your internal audience.

Strategies for Marketing Your Marketing Internally

Here are several sure-fire ways of marketing your marketing internally:

• Involve employees in your repositioning work
• Field and share quarterly employee surveys
  
• Own and indoctrinate BDRs
  
• Help employees build their personal brands
  
• Orchestrate innovation days
  
• Create an entertaining “this week in marketing” update
  

Involve Employees

If you expect employees to believe in the brand, make them part of the process from Day 1. Keep them updated throughout the process. Before launching publicly, create a brand certification program (easily done now with GenAI) that all employees must pass.

Quarterly Surveys

Don’t leave this to HR. Surveying is too important. Measure eNPS. Ask if they are proud to work for your company. Include at least 2 open-ended questions. [I’m happy to share a sample survey]

Indoctrinate BDRs

Half the CMOs in CMO Huddles “own” BDRs. Ensuring that Marketing delivers qualified opportunities to Sales, BDRs also become marketing evangelists once they move up and around the org.

Enable Personal Branding

Employees are “free” brand ambassadors and can be awesome advocates if properly trained. By teaching employees how to build their personal brands, you’re helping their careers and your company.

Orchestrate Innovation Days

Ask your employees to work together in small teams to develop innovative solutions to your biggest challenges in one day. Have a panel of judges. Offer prizes. Implement winning ideas. Count the smiles.

Update Weekly

A pithy yet entertaining weekly update will educate employees on how Marketing is helping to drive the business. After a few weeks, employees will look forward to your reports.

What’s your approach to marketing the marketing?

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 409: The Principles of Smart Brevity

“Even if great writing eludes you, brevity needn’t.”

This powerful principle drives Smart Brevity, the transformative communication method pioneered by the founders of Axios. Join co-author Roy Schwartz, a true brevity mastermind, reveals how to ditch corporate waffle and get to the point.

Discover strategies to distill complex ideas into impactful bites across the organization, like:

• Visualizing your audience (literally)
  
• The magic formula of “What’s New” and “Why It Matters”

• Mastering information hierarchy
  

• Crafting compelling internal updates
  

• Transforming your team into concise communicators
  

Learn why 200,000+ pros swear by Smart Brevity. Your audience (and inbox) will thank you.

What You’ll Learn 

• The core principles behind impactful writing  
• How to get good at smart brevity
• How smart brevity connects to pipeline and revenue

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

“Be careful,” warned a CMO from a $475mil SaaS brand, “Sales just doesn’t pay attention until they absolutely have to.” “Even if you involve Sales early in messaging development there will still be last-minute surprises,” they added.

Ah yes, the Marketing versus Sales conflict is alive and well again in 2024. And not just about messaging. It’s uglier than that.

Marketing vs Sales

For a few years (2021-2023), it looked like the grown-ups in both departments had worked things out. Civility ruled, or so it seemed. We spent very little time in Huddles talking about Sales dropping the ball or Sales not closing. Not anymore. The partnership, if it ever existed, is breaking down. The blame game is back.

So What’s Changed?

In the immortal words of James Carville, “It’s the economy stupid.” More specifically, the B2B economy. Our research among 121 B2B marketing leaders identifies significant economic softness. Budgets are down, sales cycles are up and 69% of those surveyed believe their industry is in a recession.

When the going gets tough, the weak blame Marketing. Or Sales.

In their hearts, CMOs know it is fruitless to blame Sales. Even if they are covering every salesperson with more than enough qualified opportunities. Even if these same salespeople revert to a pricing pitch the minute a prospect pushes back. Even if their close rate is well below the category average. Like it or not, if Sales is faltering, Marketing loses too.

When a descending tide lowers all the boats, the crafty prevail.

5 Strategies

Here are 5 crafty strategies for B2B CMOs to eliminate the blame game and beat the tide:

• Joint metrics reporting: Eliminate any “marketing-sourced” metrics from your reports. Issue one metrics report from Sales & Marketing to demonstrate your united effort to drive pipeline and close deals. Present reports together
• Align staff: Everyone in Marketing should have at least 1 “buddy” in Sales with whom they meet regularly. Someone from Marketing should attend every Sales meeting and vice versa. The days of a “hand-off” are over
  
• Deal rooms: To concentrate attention on the big deals, create a physical or virtual “war room.” The room should house competitive intel, in-depth profiles of the buying committee, timetables, contact assignments, sales enablement tools like a how-we-beat-each-competitor matrix, etc.
• Go on sales calls: Sure you can listen to calls via tools like Gong but that’s not the same as experiencing the actual challenge of selling. Walk a mile or two in sales’ shoes and good things happen. More respect from Sales. More empathy for salespeople. And more insight into the messaging challenges you’re uniquely equipped to solve
• Test a big bet: A tweak here or there to your messaging won’t fight the tide. Pick a vertical market and disrupt it with an outrageous added-value offer. Something irresistible. Something that accelerates the “speed to hero” for the buyer
  

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 408: The ROI Roadmap: Decoding B2B Marketing Success Metrics

How are top marketers leveraging data to drive business growth and make smarter decisions? From demand creation to lead conversion, this episode explores the metrics that truly matter in today’s B2B landscape.

Host Drew Neisser welcomes a stellar panel of veteran CMOs to dive deep into the data-driven world of modern marketing: Jamie Gier of Dexcare, Grant Johnson (previously Billtrust), and Julia Goebel of Komodo Health.

Tune in for their expertise on:

• Pipeline contribution and revenue forecasting
• Brand health measurement 
• Aligning marketing with sales through analytics
• Proving marketing ROI to the C-suite
  

This episode is packed with actionable insights for metrics maestros and analytics novices alike. Don’t miss it!

What You’ll Learn

• What’s on 3 B2B CMO dashboards

• How to balance leading and lagging indicators

• SDR ownership, brand health metrics, & MarTech tools

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

“Everybody is a marketer,” chimed a CMO from a $95mil SaaS company, “no matter their background or expertise.” This generated a chorus of “amens” and a thoughtful discussion on leading through this challenge.

This huddle of CMOs was way past lamentation. Even though it would be inconceivable for the CRO to offer financial advice to the CFO or the HR leader to drop security tips on the CISO, no such boundaries exist around Marketing.

Marketing is Fair Game and Everyone Wants to Play

Rather than fight this truth, many B2B CMOs are finding strength in acceptance and turning what could be a negative into an opportunity. Think of this as leadership jujitsu. It’s using an opponent's momentum to your advantage. Not that your fellow C-Suite members are opponents, it just seems that way sometimes.

As one CMO shared, “Since they were going to weigh in anyway, I now involve my peers in all key marketing decisions.” “The remarkable part is that we now share responsibility in the outcomes, we all have skin in the game and it's not just on me,” this CMO added.

Sorting Through CEO Suggestions

The most problematic source of marketing ideas is your CEO. First-time CEOs often suffer from rapid-idea syndrome. Everything they read, every event they attend, every conversation they have results in “fresh” input for their CMO (and the rest of the leadership team). And, first-time CMOs rarely have the confidence or experience to handle these barrages. Chaos ensues.

Veteran CMOs deploy a variety of approaches. One 3x CMO noted, “My rule is 50% of what they suggest I can ignore (bad idea and they forget it anyway), 40% are good ideas but not relevant at present so I park for later, 10% are smart ideas or passion projects that need to be acted on immediately.” “Amazingly, I have seen this ratio apply to my last 3 CEOs,” the CMO added.

Training a Meddlesome CEO

In an ideal world, every CEO would be great at their job. They would know how to be a leader. They would understand their three fundamental roles:

• Set a clear vision
• Hire a team that can fulfill the vision
  
• Allocate resources to turn the vision into a reality

Because it’s not an ideal world, many CEOs are micromanagers. Their insecurities drive them into the weeds and drive their direct reports crazy. These CEOs can’t help themselves. But CMOs can – by learning how to coach and lead their CEOs by example. So, yes, I’m adding coaching expertise to the long list of must-have skills for CMOs.

While I can’t possibly cover coaching in this post, here are three suggestions from executive coach Susan Gurnik:

• Build trust by listening deeply to the CEO. You need to understand how they communicate. If they see the big picture or are more likely to focus on tasks and duties
• Help the CEO to listen deeply to you. Learn to ask questions in a non-threatening manner. Be vulnerable. By asking them how you can listen better to them, you are coaching the CEO on how to work with you
  
• Create a common language that fosters trust and understanding. You need to reach an agreement on vision, priorities, marketing’s role, metrics, and how you’ll collaborate

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 407: The New B2B SEO Trifecta: Blogging, Tools, and Segmentation

What’s working today in SEO for B2B SaaS brands?

In this data-packed episode, digital marketing expert Tom Shapiro, CEO of Stratabeat, unveils the answers, drawing from an extensive study of 250 B2B SaaS websites. Prepare to challenge your assumptions and discover actionable strategies that can dramatically improve your search rankings and organic traffic.

Key findings include:

• Blogging 5-8x per month increases Google top 10 keywords by 47.9%, compared to just 10% for 1-4 posts
• Websites offering online tools saw a 40.8% boost in top 10 keyword rankings   
• Original research boosted top 10 keyword rankings by 36% on average
• Audience segmentation led to a 31.7% increase in Google top 10 rankings, vs. 12.4% for non-segmented sites

Discover why blogging frequency is the low-hanging fruit you can’t afford to ignore, learn how online tools can unexpectedly boost your SEO, and find out why audience segmentation might be your secret weapon. This data-driven deep dive challenges conventional wisdom and provides a roadmap for dominating search results in today’s hyper-competitive landscape. Tune in!

[The B2B SaaS SEO Performance Study is brought to you by Stratabeat and CMO Huddles]

What You’ll Learn

• Why blogging frequency matters
• The power of online tools and long-form content   
• Why audience segmentation works

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

“Thank goodness events are working again,” shared a relieved CMO from a $60 million software company. Then other CMOs in the huddle offered variations on this theme. The collective relief was palpable. Several important insights emerged.

B2B CMOs' Collective Anxiety

I’ll get to the event-related insights shortly. But there’s a bigger fish to fry first. And that’s the general unease that exists among B2B CMOs right now. The demand generation playbooks that many relied upon for the last 5 years have hit a wall. CMOs are grumbling about the costs of once-vaunted ABM tools relative to the value delivered. In reality, macroeconomic factors like higher interest rates have lowered the purchasing tide for most marketing boats.

Whether or not you blame the economy or the playbooks (the same ones that were killing it two years ago), B2B CMOs are in a bit of a funk. And that’s a problem too. CMOs, like preachers, need to project confidence. Given the typical lag time between action and impact, great marketing requires a leap of faith. And before the attribution junkies get out your darts, allow me to explain.

Great Marketers Driving Change

Great marketers transform businesses.

They uncover the insights that drive the ideas that differentiate the brand inside and out. They fix broken go-to-market strategies. They tell the stories that motivate employees and rally customers. They fix dysfunctional cultures. They build the tools that make it easier for prospects to justify the purchase. They bring focus. And yes, they drive pipeline and revenue. But not without a significant lag time between these actions and their related impact.

Events Fueling Revenue Growth

Okay, pep talk over.

Back to events. For the relieved software CMO, the (“surprisingly effective”) events were not trade shows or fancy executive dinners. They weren’t even intended to drive net new revenue. Instead, this company was hosting seminars at the offices of their largest customers to help them get the most out of their software. Like many software providers, they knew their customers weren’t always using their product to its fullest potential. Fixing this would increase customer satisfaction and lower churn.

Surprising Wins and Shared Insights

But a funny thing happened along the way.

Other employees showed up at these seminars. And, when they felt their peers' excitement about the software, they requested licenses too. Suddenly a retention effort became an acquisition campaign. “These events have become our most effective revenue drivers,” exclaimed the CMO, “which is huge since doing these events is not cheap!”

Other CMOs noted that events were similarly working for them. “We’ve been doing roadshows in our largest markets,” shared a CMO from a $750 million cybersecurity company. “Most of the attendees are our customers and they do all of the selling to the prospects who join us,” the CMO declared. Part of the story is that work-from-home execs crave in-person contact with peers. But the bigger message is that investments in retention can double as acquisition vehicles.

Final Thoughts

Marketing is rarely a straight line from action to intended impact. But then again, neither are most B2B purchase journeys. You can do no wrong by doing right by your customers. They will sustain you during challenging economic times.

In the meantime, keep the faith.

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 406: Building High-Performance Marketing Teams

When CMOs invest in growing their people, they grow their impact. And with the right coaching strategies in place, they ensure their teams not only keep pace with industry changes, but also drive innovation and set new standards.

In this illuminating episode, join host Drew Neisser as he welcomes three exceptional CMOs to share their insights on nurturing high-performing teams:

• Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek of IDG (previously CMO of Skillsoft)
• Katie McAdams of Basis Technologies  
• Marni Carmichael of Image Source, Inc.

Discover how these leaders foster a culture of continuous learning, provide meaningful feedback, and adapt to the challenges of remote work. From creating individualized career paths to measuring employee satisfaction, our guests reveal their strategies for unlocking team potential and driving innovation.

Key topics include:

• Building a feedback-rich environment
• Balancing hard skills with essential ‘power skills’   
• Adapting coaching methods for the hybrid workplace
• Incorporating learning and development into recruiting strategies
  
• Measuring the impact of talent development initiatives
  

By championing continuous improvement, CMOs lay the groundwork for dynamic and forward-thinking teams. Tune in for a masterclass in talent development from some of B2B marketing’s brightest minds! 

What You’ll Learn

• How 3 CMOs coach and develop talent
• How to create a feedback-rich environment  
• How to foster a culture of learning

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/

“AI won’t replace me” declared a CMO from a global consulting firm, “but it will replace those who don’t embrace these tools.” The Brxnd.ai conference audience nodded in wishful agreement. Of course, these were the early adopters. The ones who are not just creating words and pictures faster. These folks are making stuff, crazy-imaginative, differentiating stuff. They will be fine. But what about everyone else?

The Harsh Reality

Allow me to get bleak for a sentence or two. Marketing jobs will be lost, from bottom to top. If you are a mediocre writer, designer, BDR, strategist, data analyst or you name it, there’s a person-aided-bot gunning for your job. Either you figure out how to leverage these tools to improve your skills and accelerate your output, or you’ll be like the proverbial frog in the gradually warming water.

Even CMOs are at risk. We’ve already seen a couple hundred B2B CMO roles eliminated in tech land as PE firms slash budgets in search of short-term EBIDTA bumps. In many of these cases, a VP of DemandGen assumed the top marketing job. Was GenAI connected? Not directly but there’s little doubt that investors are banking on increases in efficiency from marketing departments – and there’s an unstated hope that GenAI will be part of the solution.

The Opportunity for CMOs

Here’s the irony. CMOs are perfectly positioned to realize the true potential of GenAI and lead the GenAI transformation [that I see as inevitable]. CMOs already have the largest tech budgets and are used to assessing, acquiring, and deploying tech. They also have the broadest perspective on all the stakeholders including employees, customers, prospects, and partners. And they have one more characteristic that is dearly lacking in other departments–imagination. Great CMOs understand the power of well-executed big ideas. They have the curiosity to seek the answer behind the answer behind the answer. They live in a world fueled by ANDs, not ORs. Brand AND Demand. Creativity AND LLMs. Humans AND Machines. They connect dots that others simply can’t for lack of imagination.

The Impact of Gen AI

Here’s how I imagine GenAI making its biggest impact: Helping imaginative CMOs differentiate their companies by building target-delighting stuff around one big idea. Stuff they didn’t have the time, budget, or know how to create in the PG (pre-GenAI) epoch.

Sure, they’ll also use these tools to personalize at scale, to localize at scale, and to find THE insight from thousands of hours of interviews in minutes. And they’ll accelerate the testing of every little thing. Lots of optimization will happen. But the gold?

That will be found in imaginative tools that capture mind space. Like the stuff Jenny Nicholson (see QueenOfWords.co) creates week after week at her kitchen table. She’s not a developer. Or coder. But she’s cracked the code of GenAI.

Her advice to CMOs? You’re the artist. GenAI is just the paintbrush. Paint the future.

Written by Drew Neisser

Listen Here | From Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 405: Never Split the Difference: CMO Edition

What if the secret to becoming an influential CMO lies in the tactics used by FBI hostage negotiators?

In this essential episode, Drew Neisser welcomes Chris Voss, former FBI hostage negotiator and author of “Never Split the Difference,” to share game-changing conflict resolution and negotiation strategies for B2B marketing leaders.

By listening, you’ll learn how to:

• Turn potential conflicts into collaborative problem-solving sessions
  

• Use tactical empathy to align with stakeholders

• Adapt your negotiation style to different personality types
  

• Increase your emotional intelligence for more effective leadership
  

• Techniques for managing stress and conflict in high-stake situations
  

Voss reveals counterintuitive approaches to help CMOs transform the most challenging C-Suite conversations into collaborative wins. Whether you’re advocating for your marketing budget, aligning with sales on lead goals, or negotiating with external agencies, this episode offers invaluable lessons from one of the world’s top negotiation experts.

Tune in!

What You’ll Learn 

• How to turn conflict into a collaborative problem-solving session  
• Why tactical empathy is so important for conflict resolution
• How to adapt your negotiation style to different personality types

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcast/