Believers and Laggards
Every B2B organisation has two groups of people that directly influence marketing success - and they don’t work in the marketing team.
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Every B2B organisation has two groups of people that directly influence marketing success.
And the funny thing?
They don’t even work in the marketing team.
Last week I was chatting to an organisation that works in the construction space.
It has built a TikTok account with tens of thousands of followers.
Engagement is through the roof.
HR is swimming in new job applications.
And yet… people within the company are still unhappy.
“It’s a waste of time. None of our buyers are on TikTok.”
Their advice? Get back to doing what has always been done. Horribly expensive, usually result-less, big-booth trade shows.
I have a word for this group - laggards. People who fall behind because they are unable to see the writing on the wall.
B2B buying is changing.
Unfortunately, laggards are a loud bunch. One whiff of upsetting the status quo and they scream louder than a mandrake pulled up in Herbology.
“It’ll never work!”
“Stay in your lane!”
“That’s not what I’m seeing!”
And - as volume usually trumps value when influencing executive decision-making around a topic most don’t really understand (*ahem* marketing) - nothing changes.
So we keep running the same playbooks for the same diminishing returns.
But then you have a second group.
I call them the believers.
Folks who are tuned in to the cultural zeitgeist.
Who understand that complacency is the route to catastrophe.
Ready to advocate for something new and stay the course when things get choppy.
These are the best kind of people.
And growing their ranks should be a number one priority for any marketing leader.
How do you do this?
Start small. Run experimental campaigns with a select few and get some wins on the board to validate your ideas before reaching out to the masses.
Talk in numbers. Quantifying success (ideally in business metrics, like pipeline or revenue) is a quick way to persuade laggards to take notice.
Get the CEO on board. Sometimes you need a little brute force to convince others to give you a chance. Persuade the CEO and you’ll win a little runway.
Don’t let the laggards bring you down, ok?
❤️ Some articles I’ve recently read and loved:
What I Learned From Developing Branding for Airbnb, Dropbox and Thumbtack
Marketing Psychology: 10 Revealing Principles of Human Behavior
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