In all of the confusion of what the role of the CMO is, we seem to have forgotten the one thing marketing is supposed to do; shift boxes.

There’s a lot of navel-gazing being done in the marketing industry about what exactly IS a CMO?

Just when we all thought we had a firm grasp of the new, digitally-enhanced, omnichannel lead marketing role, the powers that be decide to switch it all around again like some crazy 1970’s kids TV quiz show.

Now we hear that giant consumer brand owners like Coca-Cola, Unilever and Mars are redefining the role of a Chief Marketing Officer, to include oversight of content and messaging. And that’s just one example. Coca-Cola scrapped its global CMO role late last year and Johnson & Johnson’s first-ever global CMO Alison Lewis departed last month, as the company retired the position.

In a world dominated by TV, CMOs were necessary for fine-tuning a message through certain media channels, but the role has become less top-down, more flat, involving content distributions that touch upon a variety of different departments in any organization. The role today is more empowered for analytics and feedback.

So I’d like to propose another responsibility that seems to have been neglected in recent times; sales.

As a CMO, how often do you listen to the feedback from the sales channel and if you do, does it ever influence the campaigns?

The old role of Sales & Marketing Director was designed to have a balance of, well, sales and marketing. But can a sales & marketing director, sit with, under or alongside a CMO?  I doubt there are many companies that can afford that kind of bandwidth, so most will just settle for a CMO at the top because it sounds better.

Even Unilever admits that they are suffering from fatigue when it comes to the marketer’s description of ‘Brand Purpose’ and it all seems – to under-informed people like me – that marketing is talking itself into a tailspin – Green-washing, purpose-washing, cause-washing, woke-washing et al.

Marketing has gotten a bit too up itself and that’s where brand experts like Martin Galton, Greg Jordan and Tim Hollins come in. These three chaps form The Beehive, which they stress in not an advertising agency but more of a creative hive. They’ve just begun publishing a book called ‘How to avoid brand bullshit’, which gives lead marketers and CMOs nuggets of advice that they may have forgotten in all the rush to be liked or socially correct.

A couple of their mantras are particularly relevant here: “Dog food is for Dog Owners – make sure you really know who you want to talk to and why,” is one example and “If your category doesn’t make sense to ordinary folk, it’s crap; no matter how smart you are,” is another.

Sometimes with marketing the more you think about it, the harder it gets. So do the simple things first.

Most of the time, the simple things involve analysing the sales channel; looking at what makes the product sell and what will make it sell better.

Great marketing involves listening to the sales feedback and adjusting the pitch, tone or proposition accordingly.

Take a case in point from the masters of long distance selling – Canon. There sits a company with a highly extended sales channel, involving a myriad of different vendors and third parties. Among its most successful vendors is Creative Systems which provides best-of-breed imaging products and service solutions to businesses.

Matt Wingham, a director of the business also takes responsibility for heading up the sales. Has done for years and he’s well known in the industry for plain speaking, no-nonsense client communications; it’s what makes him special. He recalls Canon presenting him with a product called the Image Press – a fancy piece of kit, pitched at print shops and high volume users for books and brochures. “It was a great product but it was competing against a Xerox product that was less than half the price, consequently, sales were almost non-existent,” he said.

“We went back to Canon and told them that if they sold the system without all the ‘added-value’ accessories, cut the price and aimed it at advertising agencies and high quality studios instead, it will sell. So they did. And it did; it flew off the shelves.”

I’m not advocating for all CMOs to start interfering in the sales channel but it’s important to remember that the folks in the field are often the best form of a marketing antenna you can get.

Without that valuable, free feedback, most CMOs will be forced into making assumptions or to cherry-pick data to fit the narrative, but the best, most assured way of staying a CMO is by making sure that your product sells.

Keith can often be found making trouble on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ukkeithjsmith/ )

Business Development. It’s a job description that appears to have multiple definitions.

Back in the 70s and 80s even into the 90s, a sales job title conjured up images of smooth-talking jack-the-lads who could charm people into buying things they didn’t want; those who “had the gift of the gab”.

In the last decade, UK sales positions have been rebranded to make them more palatable to the more sensitive souls in the business world. A quick peruse of LinkedIn’s job board will reveal some interesting non-sales-sounding sales positions.

The Business Development job title is often used as a synonym for sales but the role of business development can sometimes have a perplexing number of applications.

Business development is a skill that blends creativity, new business sales, client development, brand marketing and account management. The weighting of each discipline can vary, depending on a number of factors, an obvious one being whether it is a board level or middle management-level responsibility (see diagram).

The responsibilities of the role encompass new and existing business. In general, business development executives have the ability to create new outreach strategies and ideas, and execute on them. At the same time they can work with a company’s existing client base’s marketing team to recommend and implement successful new strategies and plans to help develop brands and increase the individual worth of each client to the agency.

A business development director will tend to have a lot more responsibility for the direction of a new business campaign and plans for client strategies, while business development managers tend to look after the implementation and execution of them. Referring to the diagram, the ‘Business Development’ circle can move vertically and horizontally within an organization, depending on the strategy.

This is why many companies prefer to outsource the role to business development agencies and consultants. Finding people with the right mix of talents can be time-consuming, costly and – let’s be honest here – there isn’t always a permanent need for it; like accountants or managing directors because it’s not always a fixed, definitive job description. So the role is often an interim or semi-permanent position. Business development agencies have the ability to work at the board strategic level or at the coal-face, implementing and executing strategies that have already been agreed upon.

Where many companies fall short in the outsourcing route is by not taking the counsel of these seasoned business developers. Bringing them in at the very start of the process allows them to guide the plan, make recommendations and suggest ideas that they believe are achievable.

A good business development agency or consultant will insist upon a consultation and ‘warming up’ process before the strategy launches. This time is best used laying out plans, agreeing milestones and making sure that all the required resources are ready. Therefore, the marketing and brand teams need sufficient heads up, as well as the sales and leadership teams. If client development is included in the brief, then introductions will need to be made, to avoid confusion.

Once the blueprint is agreed, it is simply a case of letting the business developer loose and carefully managing the roll-out of the plan.

From this, we can see that the role of business development can encompass many different skills and influence multiple departments of a company. It is a highly creative role (from a business knowledge perspective) and it can also require fundamental sales techniques. Above all, whether it is an in-house role or outsourced, a good business developer can become an integral synapse between important nerves of your organization, allowing insight and intelligence to feed and help grow your company.

Article co-authored by Keith Smith, MD of The Advertist and Jon Cunningham, CEO of Prospeus. Prospeus provides advice, consultancy, coaching and training to help agencies develop effective business development, lead generation + cold calling strategies.

Every so often, The Advertist’s The Hub will be interviewing leading lights in the world of British new business development, to give readers a back-channel viewpoint of the business and a whiff of the heady aroma of success.

This time around, Mr Henry Oliver steps into the limelight to share some of his observations, feelings and opinions in a segment we like to call Q10, because it’s a bunch of questions and there are ten of them. Take it away, Henry..

Name: Henry Oliver

Job title: Business Analyst at Lansons Public Relations and Communications

What inspires you to go to work every day?

The best thing about working in a new business role is the variety of projects you find yourself working on across a wide spectrum of industries. It’s really exciting to constantly be able to stretch yourself and better understand potential clients’ needs and what matters to their businesses.

What has been the most pleasant surprise you found once you started working at Lansons?

Lansons is an incredible company that is hugely supportive of its staff which in turn creates a wonderful culture to work within. I was surprised at just how accommodating the company was when it came to giving me fantastic opportunities to grow here. Initially, I started on reception and was given the chance to move up and gather new skills within the organisation at every stage of my five years here.

How does your ideal day at work go?

New business is a fast-paced role in any industry but when combined with the fast-paced industry of communications no day tends to be the same so it’s a tough question. However, ideally I like to start the day by reading up on what’s gone on in the financial markets and any regulatory updates from the morning. I then check the Advertist for any tenders, people moves and industry updates that are relevant.

A good day from then on would involve a nice mix of briefing meetings with prospective clients, helping pitch teams create proposals and ensuring the process as a whole for our staff runs as smoothly as possible.

What channels do you really love working in and why?

I’m a fan of the media as I think journalists are genuinely fascinating people who are highly informed and having the opportunity to interact with them on a regular basis is a great way to learn more about particular subjects.

This is not to say other channels aren’t interesting. We’ve rapidly grown our content marketing offering which has been a great learning experience. Direct advertising has always been interesting to me as well, particularly the planning stage.   

If you had one piece of advice to give someone thinking of getting into the world of new business, what would it be?

Asking subtle and thoughtful questions at the right time can be just as impressive to a prospective client as a massive deck with a load of creative pitch ideas in it.

What do you to do switch off from work?

I’m a big cricket fan and honestly sometimes feel that the only time I truly switch off is when I’m either playing or watching it. The number of variables that can happen with each ball and the strategic thinking that goes into the game is fascinating. I’ve always described it as the physical version of chess.

Who inspires you?

My background is in politics, in particular working for the Lib Dems, and Paddy Ashdown was a big inspiration of mine. He was incredibly charismatic both in person and in the media. He made Liberal politics a force to be reckoned with again and is sorely missed.  

You’ve got to take a brand new prospect to lunch anywhere in the UK. Where would you go and why?

If I could completely get away with it? Probably Little Nan’s Fitzrovia Kitchen & Bar. It’s a Pat Butcher themed restaurant/bar that is brilliant entertainment and the people that run it are very friendly.

On a more serious note, we’re lucky enough to have loads of nice restaurants near our office in Farringdon.

What has been your proudest moment so far working at Lansons?

We recently won an industry award for our strong ethical work within the agency which was inspirational to many staff and personally reinforced my views on why I’ve been at Lansons for so long.

Where do you want to be in ten years time?

Never been an ‘in XX years time’ type of person as have always taken things day by day. If I’m in a job with the variety I have now that would great. Suppose a dog would be nice too.

---

If you would like to be the subject of an intense grilling of these proportions and you think you can stand up to the scrutiny, then please let us know by emailing us and submitting your details. We’ll be in touch soon.