I have learned this lesson the hard way. Being "good at marketing" doesn't make you a great marketing leader. Your success as a marketing leader (if you want to be one) will come down to your relationships inside the company: You don't get to decide what's on the menu. You don't get to choose the ingredients and shop for the groceries. You don't get to cook the meal. But guess what: you have to make sure people eat it 🙂 This is why so much of your success as a marketer comes down to your relationship inside the company.
- How do you work with the CEO?
- How do you work with the product team?
- How do you work with the VP of Sales?
- How do you work with Customer Success?
- How do you work with the CFO?
- How well do you manage your team? Set goals? Set expectations? Have hard conversations?
Those are the keys to being successful (and doing good marketing) and they have nothing to do with coming up with creative ideas, developing strategies, campaigns, and "doing" the marketing. You have to be a change maker and influencer inside of your organization. You have to be the resource people *want* to bring into conversations. Is the VP of Product running out of a meeting with Engineering because she's excited to tell you about the new thing that's coming soon and wants Marketing to have a seat at the table and help bring this thing to life? Or are they shutting you out, defensive, don't want marketing involved ... I can tell you which company is going to be more successful with marketing. - Dave P.S. Since this is my first email back, can you reply and let me know if you read it? Or just to say hello. Or that you didn’t like this email. Or that you loved it. Or that you like my hair (I’m bald). Just reply and say hey. |
