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Baxter Denney

Modern Marketing - Strategy, Technology, Automation, Operations, Analytics and Management

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The Power of Being Connected in Marketing

The Power of Being Connected in Marketing

March 5, 2016 By baxter

If you’ve read my post on the PHACE framework, you might recall the C stands for Connected. It also happens to be a core value at New Relic. That’s not a coincidence – I’ve seen the power of this value in action. For me, being connected isn’t the same as being extroverted. You can have introverts who are connected, and extroverts who aren’t. I look for folks that demonstrate the willingness to connect with others: certainly they need to connect with colleagues in your marketing team, and also elsewhere within your organization (Sales, Finance, IT, etc). The value in connectedness is not purely social. What being connected does is provide an amplifying effect for your employees and by extension the entire marketing team. By being able to make (and keep) connections and establish deep, mutually beneficial relationships, each employee is adding man and womanpower to their own abilities.

This isn’t limited to internal connections either. It’s important to seek out the kinds of employees that are eager to network externally and attend conferences, technology user groups, and other local events to broaden their knowledge and network. Much as Metcalfe’s Law applies to telecommunications networks, the power of any individual’s network is amplified exponentially with more connections. On the Marketing team at New Relic, there is a clear expectation that we support individuals attending external events. We only ask that folks create and present a summary afterwards to recap key takeaways of the conference and specifically how we’d apply those takeaways to New Relic. This has led to some of the most important innovations that we’ve applied on our marketing team.

Metcalfe's Law - being connected
Metcalfe’s Law

 

Think about it this way – if you’re having operational issues between Marketing and Sales systems do you want to turn to a competent, but silo-ed team member, or someone who has made meaningful connections with others in the organization (and externally)? Even the most skilled individual will hit a limit in what they can do on their own — someone less experienced but better connected will not only usually be able to make progress on the current initiative(s), but has a higher ceiling over the long haul because their skills are amplified by the power of their network. I’ve observed that high performers often seek out others proactively to help them achieve their goals, that is they value being connected intrinsically, but it’s also a trait you can encourage and develop in those who don’t do it naturally.

How to encourage being connected as a value within your team:

  • Ask employees each year to put together a prioritized wish list of events and conferences they would ideally like to attend. Have them list them out by location and date, and state the anticipated business value of attending. Support them attending as many as are reasonable – I’d say 2-3 is about right. By planning ahead it’s easier to make it happen.
  • Create a list of the people you’d ideally like to have lunch or a drink with over the next few months – people you most admire in the industry for instance, and share it with your team. As you meet those folks, make sure to share details of the conversation. Demonstrate how beneficial it can be.
  • When new employees start within Marketing, make it a habit to meet them even if they aren’t a part of your individual team. At the end of the one-on-one, give them a list of the other folks they should meet with, trying your best to think of colleagues they might not meet naturally. By doing this you give them an ‘excuse’ to meet others and make connections that could be helpful in the future. If you are starting new somewhere, make sure you ask that question of people you meet with during onboarding. Your goal should be to come out of every conversation with at least 3 other folks you need to meet.

Bottom-line: being Connected is a win-win for employee and employer. I can’t really say it better than Reid Hoffman in The Alliance: “growing their professional networks helps employees transform their career; employee networking helps the company transform itself.”

Filed Under: Hiring, Marketing

Empathy in Marketing – why your team needs it

Empathy in Marketing – why your team needs it

January 16, 2016 By baxter

If you’ve seen me talk about the PHACE talent framework or read my overview post, you know that empathy in marketing is one of the key characteristics I focus on. It’s also something that has emerged in job descriptions as smart hiring managers realize the power of having empathetic employees. The challenging part about empathy, like a lot of soft skills, is the difficulty in quantifying and evaluating it during the interview process. It’s also challenging to develop this within individuals in the work setting. In this post I’m going to dive in a bit and give my personal view of empathy in Marketing, how you can find the right folks, and develop it in employees that may not demonstrate it.

Webster’s simple definition of empathy is “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions; the ability to share someone else’s feelings.” That’s a fine definition but I like an even simpler one:

EMPATHETIC: putting yourself in others’ shoes

 

Why Empathy in Marketing is so Valuable

I strongly believe every modern marketer has to get closer to the business side of things to be successful – at a minimum they have to know how their work drives Sales, and strive to make as big an impact as possible in revenue. But as Marketers we’re also working with Product, and are probably working with some combination of Legal, Finance, and IT folks as well. But far too often I see Marketing teams that aren’t adding as much value as they could be to the business, because of strained working relationships they have not only with folks outside their department, but even the colleagues they sit next to and work with every day in Marketing.

 

When you’re evaluating candidates for Marketing positions, you can try to assess the level of empathy by asking about other jobs within your organization. For instance, “What do you think is the hardest thing about being a sales rep?” or “What do you see is your role in driving revenue?” With the former question, you’re looking to see if the candidate understands the life of a sales rep and the challenges they face, or least can picture it. In the latter case, if the candidate talks about top of funnel activities only (like leads) and doesn’t relate their work to what’s happening in Sales, they might not really understand how they need to affect the business, or may lack the right level of empathy for their colleagues in Sales.

 

Developing Empathy in Marketing Teams

The root-root cause of lack of empathy is the fundamental attribution error. We each see the world as affecting us, and it’s difficult to think about things from the other side. So how do we develop and encourage empathy in marketing teams? I believe a large part is embedded in who we are naturally as individuals, so you will find people who are somewhere on the range of “Super sensitive” to “Feelings are dumb”. But that doesn’t mean you can’t encourage more empathy in the folks on your team.

 

There are a few different options to help people put themselves in others shoes — two of my favorites are setting up formalized shadowing programs or temporary job assignments. For instance, at New Relic we instituted a formal Sales Rep Shadowing program, dubbed “Rep Life” where a member of our Customer Lifecycle team recruits a number of sales reps to serve on a roster where folks in Marketing can sign-up and sit with the reps during scheduled times, listening to customer/prospect calls and seeing how reps on the floor follow-up and respond to marketing-sourced leads. That feedback is documented and at the end of each period, the Customer Lifecycle team pulls out the common themes and figures out what Marketing can do to improve the information we provide to Sales, how we alert the reps to different activities, and how we notify them about significant campaigns or marketing activities. It also builds a level of trust and helps to reduce some of the tension between the sales and marketing floor.

Another program I’ve heard other organizations do as part of Marketing onboarding is have new marketers spend a few shifts as a customer service rep. This allows them to understand what their customers’ issues are as they use the products, and help realize where there might be opportunities for marketing to add more value. Marketing might be able to create a ‘fast start’ guide for instance to help customers find value in the product easier.
building empathy in Marketing
Shadowing sales reps is a great way to build empathy in Marketing

Conclusion

However you choose to encourage empathy in Marketing it is up to you – but the key thing is that the programs you develop live on and aren’t done just one time. In your regular check-ins and conversations with team members as you see tension build between different groups, realize that usually it’s a lack of empathy for the other side that can be diffused by encouraging folks to put themselves in others’ shoes. And that attitude leads to a better working relationship that’s great for everyone in the organization.

Filed Under: Hiring, Marketing

Desperately Seeking Unicorn

Desperately Seeking Unicorn

December 20, 2015 By baxter

I was doing research for my Sirius Decisions Technology Exchange keynote session earlier this year, and came across a real job description for a Sales Operations Analyst that cracked me up. The company shall remain nameless, but needless to say, they want everything:

  • B.A. or B.S. degree or equivalent
  • 5-10 years solid sales operations experience
  • Expert in “all things” SFDC is a must
  • Experience in subscription-based and/or SaaS-based business, including quote-to-order process
  • Experience in using using Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel (Pivots, Look-Ups, Filtering) and PowerPoint, Google Apps for Business, DocuSign, WebEx, and DiscoverOrg
  • Self-starter with ability to work in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
  • Team player with strong cross group collaboration skills
  • Experience with presentations to senior executives in sales, finance and/or operations
  • Strong communication skills and management presence
  • Superior problem-solving skills. Must be able to accurately compile and synthesize quantitative and qualitative data
  • Excellent customer service attitude
  • Have empathy

Let’s break this down a bit.

5-10 years solid sales operations experience

While Sales Operations roles and CRM technologies are nothing new, most folks who have been doing this well for 5+ years are in management roles. And some of the technologies that are used most aren’t even 5 years old!

“all things” SFDC

I promise you the man or woman that knows all things Salesforce knows they are much too valuable to join your firm.

management presence

So you want them to be a technical expert and know everything, but also have an executive presence?

strong cross group collaboration skills

And also must play nicely with others.

Have empathy

This is my favorite and the one I actually think is good! In fact, it’s one of the core talent characteristics I look for when I hire marketers. Taken all together, here is what this company is basically looking for:

fire unicorn

 

Filed Under: Hiring

Framework for Hiring Growth Marketers

Framework for Hiring Growth Marketers

December 19, 2015 By baxter

My career path in Marketing is far from typical – I came in to it from a product management role at a research firm, and until for a long time was always in a technical or operations-focused marketing role. As I have matured as a marketing professional I’ve focused my career specifically on driving rapid growth at organizations. At the same time, the technology portfolio that marketers use to reach and engage the market has developed and matured. Obviously there’s been a crazy amount of technologies released to serve marketers and I believe we’ll see a lot of consolidation down the road. Regardless, the importance of hiring growth marketers who understand how to use technology has increased dramatically and there’s no reason to think marketers who can marry the creative and technical won’t be highly sought after in the future. Right now supply isn’t matching the demand when it comes to hiring growth marketers, and thus it’s exceedingly difficult to fill these roles. As a result I’ve evolved my personal philosophy in hiring, and have focused on looking for certain traits that can result in quality hires rather than focus primarily on experience.

Introducing the PHACE Framework for Hiring Growth Marketers

In a nutshell, I use a framework consisting of these talent characteristics: Proactive, Hacky, Analytical, Connected, and Empathetic. These aren’t the only things to look for of course, but I’ve found that if you are hiring growth marketing roles with candidates that rate highly on at least a few of those characteristics, they are likely to succeed. I had a chance to share this framework at the Sirius Decisions Technology Exchange in San Francisco, and the response from the audience (and follow-up conversations) was extremely positive!
Hiring Growth Marketers
Are you looking for the right characteristics when hiring growth marketers?
In future blog posts I’ll do deep dives into each of those characteristics, but suffice it say that if you can evaluate candidates and use this as a framework, it will allow you to focus on hiring growth marketers without directly engaging in the talent war. After all, experience is a lagging indicator, and I always believe in hiring for upside and potential rather than focus on deep experience (not that that’s a bad thing of course!).

Presentation from the Sirius Decisions Technology Exchange:

Hiring technical talent in Marketing from tbdenney

Filed Under: Hiring, Marketing

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