Getting Back into the Game

For almost exactly two years, I've been working as a marketing consultant, providing advice, strategy and planning help to technology companies, primarily in the Bay Area, but also in Boston, Austin and Toronto.   

When I started as a marketing consultant, I didn't know what to expect.  I knew what I did NOT want to become -- an agency, with all of their carrying costs of undertrained designers and SEO experts, all of whom needed to work on projects to justify their existence.  I have seen otherwise moral and rational agency owners pretend to clients that they had expertise in areas they had no business promoting.

So I thought I'd try my hand at becoming the kind of consultant I'd want to work with when I was a marketing leader. 

During my consulting work, I learned that technology is the least important aspect of a successful marketing function.  My opening thesis as a consultant was that as long as companies had a solid process in place, they could make a demand generation project successful.  

But I was wrong.

Without the proper people in place with the proper mindset, any initiative to create substantive change within your organization is doomed to defeat.   As my consultancy matured over the years, I learned the most important thing was to spend time with individuals inside the firm -- heads of sales, VPs of Marketing, CEOs, chief financial officers, to make sure that expectations were reasonable, timelines were attainable, and that credibility was established and maintained between marketing and the rest of the firm.  I also learned how to move sales and marketing into more collaborative forms of organizing their work together. 

I learned that "sales enablement" is a pejorative term.   Sales people don't need to be "enabled."  They are highly skilled, professionals, and will do their job regardless of whether marketing "enables" them.   The term I use now for marketing helping sales do their jobs better is "sales advancement."

I've loved these years of teaching, both with my wonderful clients and prospects, and also the many people I've interacted with since Shawn and I started DemandCon (which will continue -- you should sign up now for this year's event in San Francisco) and in my interactions with the Marketing Automation Institute (take the Fundamentals class.  I helped develop the course). 

I believe that demand generation is a discipline that needs to be taught and mastered in order to help drive economic success in this country.    And universities and colleges don't teach it yet, so you have to get your education and training from other sources.

I enjoyed creating DemandCon this year, going from no money, no brand, no marketing and no attendees to a strong show in May and buyout offers following the event.  I loved hearing from attendees about how they took the ideas we taught at the show and brought them back to their companies.  It was fun hearing how people got promotions once they brought ideas about demand gen back to their firms.

But I'm a practitioner at heart.   There are so many great opportunities out there to join a great firm, build the team, establish thought leadership, raise the banner and advance the cause of the company.   And I've been a consultant and "thought leader" long enough for now.  It's time to get back into the game and start literally practicing what I've been preaching over the past two years.

So look for a new perspective from me in 2012, as I re-enter the world of corporate marketing and share perspectives as a practitioner, a leader within a small, growing  marketing department and our adventures in building out a world-class organization.

Thanks so much for following my adventures over the years.   Happy New Year to you and I look forward to sharing insights on marketing innovation in 2012.

All the best,

Steve