What keeps a CEO up at night? What about a CMO? Each C level executive must deal with his or her own set of challenges and roadblocks.
Rollover each C level position to see the Big Five marketing issues each of them face.
CEO/COO
CMO
CSO
CIO
CFO
- Wall Street — growth story, believable story/strategy, too many questions, Board, Sarbanes Oxley, short-term players
- People — no bench, under prepared, team, resource strained — no depth in people can be counted on
- Time — too many meetings, email hell, no time for friends and family, stay prepared/stay ahead/stay on top of present situations/change
- Maintain vs. Change for the Better — continuous outside analysis/opinions (Wall St., legal, government, stakeholders, board, etc.) inhibit the risk in addressing change
- Growth — do we really understand our markets? How to develop/keep competitive advantage? What is our competitive advantage? Leadership needs, resource needs, “we are too cumbersome”, technology — partner or black hole.
Swat will: Help Senior Marketing leadership be a Big Five thought-leader and contributor whom the CEO/COOs can turn to and trust.
- The CMO dilemma—high premium on short-term results with a long-term responsibility for right strategies. No control of destiny.
- Time—too many meetings
- Not on top of market changes/information or understanding of complete tool set—especially technology and new mediums
- Resources—leaders, skills, expertise, ability to execute
- Conflicting needs—strategists, sales support, communication, measurement, drive vs. support
Swat will: Prioritize/implement against key initiatives for CMO—with measurement and success.
- Sales! Sales! Sales! - daily, weekly, monthly—non stop—results, analysis, information, reporting—not in control
- People—right people, trained, with skills, motivation, consultative
- Marketing—drive new prospects, find new prospects, support sales process better—NEED BETTER LEAD GENERATION
- Use technology better—or not
- Time—with customers, with organization, meetings outside of direct responsibility/focus
Swat will: Help Senior Marketing Leadership build strong collaborative bridges between Marketing and Sales Priorities.
- Priorities—CEO, CFO, Sales and Marketing, Ops—nobody happy
- Risk—IBM vs. alternatives, + outsource and more
- People—skill sets for all that is new, database is less/no experience
- ROI—can new initiatives support this?
- Legacy/integration/implementation issues + ongoing support and costs + new generation changes
Swat will: Create processes, measurement guides and relationships so marketing and technology can and will work together.
- Wall St.
- Board + stockholders + legal
- Marketing—cost vs. benefits
- Investments—priorities + where is technology for marketing
- ROI culture—how to align marketing and sales
Swat will: Help Senior Marketing Leadership build the marketing business cases to get the investments and resources to grow the business and brands.
