Annika Tikanoja
In our first Executive Roundtable of 2024, senior marketing executives from complex B2B organizations got together to discuss how to communicate the value of marketing. The main perspectives in the discussions were what is the typical role of marketing and how to enhance the recognition and perceived value of marketing in the organization.
In this blog I’ll share the main insights from the once again inspiring discussions.
Executive roundtable gathers B2B marketing leaders around the same table
The Executive Roundtable concept was born in 2022 out of the need for marketing leaders to share experiences and lessons learned from transforming marketing from a cost center to a profit center in a complex sales environment. We provide an exclusive forum where marketing leaders can share key learnings and insights, think through their main challenges and learn from their peers.
Themes for each event are built around marketing leadership in many ways. Some of the past events have focused on the business impact of marketing in complex B2B as well as going through the main findings of our B2B Buyer Study.
This time the subject was communicating marketing value in complex B2B — focusing particularly on marketing’s business impact and commercial outcomes.
Why is communicating the value of marketing so difficult?
“Why do we even have to talk about this?” is a relevant question for CMOs, and it was once again asked in the last roundtable. I doubt that many sales leaders or R&D directors have to think about his or her function’s relevance and justify the value the same way to the business stakeholders. Still, many marketing leaders in complex B2B recognize the situation where the management team or board doesn’t get the marketing numbers or they ignore the ROI and ROM calculations marketing has put a lot of effort into producing.
Based on our experience and research, only about 25-50% of the total marketing value can be identified and communicated in complex B2B organizations. The main reason is that the results are reported on a too tactical level and marketing operating models, metrics and reporting itself need improvement. How to tackle this?
Marketing value consists of four dimensions
Let’s take a closer look on how is marketing value born – the value consists of the four dimensions:
- the role of marketing
- goals and objectives
- measurement
- storytelling
Mavenfirst: The Four Dimensions of Proving Marketing Value in Complex B2B Industries
The role of marketing refers to the business's expectations for marketing investment. What is the strategic role of marketing? What is expected of marketing from a business perspective? Typically, the challenge is that expectations are not defined at a strategic level, or if they are, the expectations are not reflected in the marketing objectives.
Tip for the CMO: You can also start building the role of marketing in your organization in a marketing-driven way among your own team. Good guiding questions could be, for example: What position should marketing have in our organization in 3-5 years? How do we want to be seen in the eyes of the business? What do we need to do to achieve this goal? I remember an example from one marketing leader in the roundtable about how she and her team had built the position of marketing in their organization and what it had required.
Marketing goals guide towards the desired impact and outcome. They also help with prioritization. For example, it is easier for the team to focus on what really makes an impact.
It is easy to stumble in setting goals when it is done either without stakeholders or the stakeholders' expectations are taken literally without daring or knowing how to challenge them. The business's or sales' view of expectations for marketing might be "more leads," but the real need might be to open up a dialogue with the decision-making group of selected organizations. In this example, the value of marketing is justified by leads that ultimately have no business significance.
Marketing metrics are crucial for illustrating goal achievement. In complex B2B environments, identifying appropriate metrics can be challenging, as simply tracking revenue and the sales pipeline doesn't fully capture marketing's role in supporting lengthy and complex sales cycles.
The Roundtable discussion highlighted the distinction between direct and indirect marketing value. While direct value, such as leads, is easily measurable, the true value often lies in indirect contributions to business results, like pipeline efficiency and improved closing rates. Unfortunately, these indirect measures are frequently overlooked in marketing goal setting.
To address this, I recommend utilizing the OOR model™, which you can explore further below.
Mavenfirst: OOR model™ and framework to measure program effectiveness
With these metrics in place, the next key step is effectively communicating the value they represent. This brings us to the final dimension: how the value of marketing is justified. Ultimately, it's about storytelling using reports and analysis. Reports are just one aspect of communicating value. It's crucial to craft a narrative based on results and factual data about marketing's impact, clearly explaining both positive and negative outcomes to stakeholders in an accessible manner.
Typically, one challenge is that marketing results are communicated with a huge amount of numbers, from which it is difficult to assess whether the result is good or bad, and what affected what. So, do you know what kind of reports your team delivers to different stakeholders?
We help you identify and communicate the value of marketing
We help you in the following ways, for example:
- linking marketing and business goals together and strengthening the role of marketing in the organization.
- creating effective processes and operating models for setting goals.
- increasing your expertise and supporting the implementation of change. Check out our advisory service tailored on communicating the value of marketing.
Read a concrete case example, how we helped our IT professional services client increase their marketing value communication from 30% to 85% and strengthen their position among leadership stakeholders.
