Why B2B Marketers Need to Stop Talking Marketing and Start Talking Business to Become a Commerical Marketer
We’ve partnered with Propolis – the global community for B2B marketers – on an upcoming virtual event, the Propolis Marketing Leaders Series. At one of the Series sessions, we’ll be revealing what finance and sales really think about B2B marketers. How strategic do they think marketers are? How focused on long-term growth are marketers perceived to be? And how much faith do other departments have in marketers’ ability to speak the language of business?
This, and lots more, will be revealed in our live session on February 26th with Paul Mattioli, EVP of Endeavor B2B, and Kavita Singh, Senior Editor at Propolis. You can register for the Series here to access all the virtual sessions (running from February 5th – 26th).
Fortunately, the team at Propolis has been undertaking their own research to reveal just how B2B marketers can build trust and influence at the top table. The answer? Become a ‘commercial marketer.’ In this article, Propolis’ Head of Product, David Rowlands, outlines the work that’s been done to date, what we mean by the words ‘commercial marketer,’ and why it matters.
Why B2B marketers need to stop talking about marketing and start talking business
Get a room full of B2B marketers together, and you’ll notice a trend. No, it’s not a passion for AI – it’s a sense of frustration that we don’t always get the respect and appreciation of the C-Suite and our fellow departments. Not to paint all marketers like moody teenagers – as this is far from the case – but the sentiment often boils down to this: “They just don’t get marketing!”
The frustration, no doubt, stems from the fact that we know we can provide huge amounts of value to our businesses. If used correctly, marketing can be the main growth engine for a business, especially in a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on digital customer journeys and where salespeople often don’t get involved until a decision has already been made.
So, why doesn’t marketing get the respect it deserves, and, more importantly, what do we need to do differently to get it? Well, we asked our community of B2B marketers one tricky question: “How can marketing leaders build trust and influence with fellow members of the C-suite to enhance marketing’s strategic and commercial impact?” The solution that emerged was we must become commercial marketers.
What is commercial marketing?
We defined a commercial marketer as “a marketer whose primary skillset and value is in their ability to think strategically and drive measurable business growth through marketing.” A commercial marketer thinks about the wider business objectives first and foremost, as well as marketing tactics and specialisms. By comparison, a commercial marketer is not a marketer who is primarily occupied with achieving tactical wins or results in one isolated metric.
In becoming commercial marketers, we can prove the tangible impact we’re having as marketers to our CEOs and CFOs. No more conversations about impressions and questions of ‘what does this really mean?’ – just real, commercial conversations centered on the impact we can drive as B2B marketers. By extension, this will help us build trust and influence with fellow members of the C-Suite.
What is a commercial marketing strategy?
Unfortunately, there is no one way to build a B2B marketing strategy that drives commercial success. Ultimately, there are just too many factors (i.e., product type, business model, industry, etc) to make that possible.
However, a strong commercial marketing strategy will always focus on the overall business objectives first and foremost, with marketing used to drive that forward. The important thing to consider here is that there are not different types of commercial marketing. Fundamentally, this is an approach to the entire profession of marketing.
How do I become a commercial marketer?
Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another. With that in mind, here are five key areas that a B2B marketer must be close to and focused on to qualify as a commercial marketer:
- Business strategy (why you’re selling)
- Product and portfolio (what you’re selling).
- Customers, community, and team (who you’re serving).
- Market, industry, and profession (where you’re trading).
- Brand, campaigns, and channels (how you’re trading)
If marketers can get more involved in each of these areas, they can start to look outside of marketing and become more well-rounded commercial leaders. Ultimately, this is as much about a mindset shift as it is anything else. That said, we have also identified six key skills that a B2B marketer must have to become a commercial marketer:
- Insight skills: Understanding how your market works and staying informed about industry trends and influences, whether those are regulatory, economic, social, technological, cultural, or geographic.
- Analytical skills: The ability to understand and interpret data to make commercially sensible decisions.
- Financial acumen: In other words, understanding the language of the finance team and having enough knowledge to have conversations about marketing’s commercial impact in their terms.
- Strategic skills: The ability to lift your head above the parapet, outside of marketing, looking at what your business wants to achieve overall and thinking about how you can support that through marketing.
- Agile decision-making skills: Leveraging real-time analytics and the latest market insights to make immediate adjustments and improvements where and when needed.
- Communication and collaboration skills: Being able to build sustainable relationships with both your internal and external stakeholders, having the ability to communicate complex ideas in easy-to-understand ways, and spending time listening to key stakeholders and sharing ideas with them.
What happens if I don’t become a commercial marketer?
As we defined in the Propolis marketing community, a commercial marketer is: “A marketer whose primary skillset and value is in their ability to think strategically and drive measurable business growth through marketing. A commercial marketer thinks about the wider business objectives first and foremost, and marketing tactics and specialisms second.”
Fundamentally, that means that a non-commercial marketer is a marketer who is focused on tactical campaigns and isolated marketing metrics rather than on commercial marketing strategies. Ultimately, marketers who continue down that road will face the challenge we discussed with our Propolis members: having difficulty building trust and influence with fellow members of the C-suite to enhance marketing’s strategic and commercial impact.
What’s next?
Marketing has always had the great advantage of being close to the customer, and therefore, being in a strong position to help lead not just B2B marketing strategy but the entire business strategy. However, as our various activities in Propolis on this theme revealed, many B2B marketers aren’t all that close to those areas we identified earlier in this blog (in particular, product and portfolio – one of the four Ps!). In fact, in some cases, B2B marketers have even been reduced to focusing exclusively on communications and cannot provide input on wider strategic issues whatsoever.
Fortunately, as the world becomes increasingly digital, B2B marketers are now there alongside their buyers for every step of the buying journey. This is fantastic news. It means we can now play a greater role in driving revenue (and demonstrably so) than ever before. The key is to ensure you’re one of the marketers who can play this role and not one of those left out in the cold.
If you want to join us at The Propolis Marketing Leaders Series throughout February to dive further into the key skills you need to become a commercial marketer, apply to attend the event here.
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