25.9
35
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43.4
M
1
$
Sales is my most important relationship
%
59.4
Marketing director The Crown Estate
Karen Baines
Close alignment with the C-suite and senior management is also vital for the marketing team for countless reasons – strategic alignment, commercialisation, reputation management, adaptation and innovation.
CMO StackAdapt
Ryan Nelsen
I try to make our chief revenue officer my first customer. If you’re the most successful person in the company that means revenue is crushing it and so I try to make them look really good. Naturally, the CEO then sees the revenue numbers.
CMO
Recurly
Lina Tonk
When you have a CEO that believes in the marketing function, believes in that commercial side to drive the growth of the company not only externally, but internally, it is probably the most important relationship of all.
9. Managing key stakeholders
Sales is the most important relationship for B2B marketers outside their own function, almost twice as important as the bond formed with finance.
Nurturing relationships with colleagues is critical, especially for marketing given its position at the intersection of many strands within business. The relationship with the chief sales officer/head of sales is deemed the most important for marketers, reflecting the dominance of the sales function within some B2B brands.
The data also suggests there could be a blindspot when it comes to forging tight bonds with the finance team. Less than a third of respondents say the CFO/finance director is their most important relationship within the organisation. While this relationship is improving for just over a quarter of marketers, the data suggests forging a tight bond with finance is not given the same level of priority.
However, almost half (45.5%) of the sample find making the case for marketing investment either ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’. When asked what would make the case for investment easier, more than a third (34.4%) say if the CEO and CFO had a better understanding of marketing.
• Building a closer working relationship with finance starts with deepening their understanding of the role of marketing. It has been said before, but using data to demonstrate marketing’s impact and expressing this in terms that matter to finance is crucial. If marketing is thriving, the finance team will be too. This won’t go unnoticed by the CEO.
57
%
30.7
%
CEO is my most important relationship
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CFO is my most important relationship
Lessons
%
My relationship with sales is closer than 12 months ago
%
My relationship with the CEO is closer than 12 months ago
%
My relationship with the CFO is closer than 12 months ago
• Having a closer relationship with finance doesn’t eliminate friction entirely, but building up a healthy respect makes these conversations easier and helps marketing in those difficult conversations around investment.
• Having a CEO who believes in marketing makes a massive difference and sets the tone for the wider business. Indeed, having the CEO on your side can only help strengthen the connections with sales and finance, as well as other departments.
• While the relationship with sales is clearly a priority, marketers should be clear this is a conversation between equal, strategic partners and reject the notion that marketing exists to serve the sales function.
Marketers on stakeholder engagement