B2B Marketing: the hard life

So, there you are, seasoned B2B marketer, carrying the scars of all the turf battles with the sales teams, your skin has thickened and you have grown insensitive to cynical remarks about “marketing ROI”. Your experience has grown as fast as your budgets have shrunken over the past years, you are now used to doing without the free advice of your strategic agency because it’s not free anymore, and finally you have come to terms with the fact that your (newest) boss doesn’t understand you. And still, everyday your life becomes more difficult…
You are increasingly aware that only one thing remains for you to control: your Own Performance, and it is slipping away. Why is this? You’re still putting in the effort and the hours, your commitment hasn’t diminished and you’re still good looking too!

I don’t have the answer, but I do have a theory: it is your ability to learn and grow that, by no fault of your own, has been compromised.

Over the past years marketers have been flooded by an every increasing swell of new possibilities, tools, opinions, books, blogs and (not in the least) unprompted advice – all coming from the online world, also known as the internet, interweb, web, social web and walhalla. It only takes one look at e.g. http://mashable.com/business to get a sneak preview of utter confusion. The abundance of choice has caused an enormous inflation of the Marketers Universe and at the same time left many in dismay, reverting back to what they know, back to what they can prove and back to what they are good at. It has also led to numerous erratic experiments in (e.g.) the social space and early, often misguided, conclusions and advice about what works and what doesn’t.
And to make things worse, all the channels, tools and devices you use spit out an endless stream of data, which you need to be able to digest, understand, compare, analyze and integrate in comprehensive reports, designed to convince your boss, who by definition is more critical and ignorant than you are.

In a sense there is a striking similarity with the world of the athlete. The art of improving performance when everyone and his dog is giving free advice about what (not) to eat and when, how to lose weight, how to maximize training output, what kind of training works best, which exercises to do, how to plan, how to peak, how to get sponsors, how to win, need I go on? Here too is a constant information stream about new developments, tools, kit, nutritional supplements, training programs, the good, the bad and the ugly guru’s etc. And the ones who call the shots, the bosses – the sponsors and the public – are demanding better performance all the time without any understanding of the day to day challenges. No wonder so many give up or crack at key moments. But others seems to be able to deal with this and succeed brilliantly. What makes the difference?

I’m sure there is an element of talent involved, but as an enthusiast and not so talented (tri)athlete I have come to rely on these few principles, which I mostly had to learn the hard way:
1. There is no holy grail or magic bullet, be critical, always;
2. Get a coach, he/she will shield you from the confusion and if it doesn’t work you can always get another one;
3. Don’t draw conclusions on single performances, there are too many variables and assumptions; be patient and not afraid to fail; keep your eyes on the horizon;
4. Do things that are FUN to do, it will keep you motivated to push on when it gets hard;
5. Set up a system of goals and measurement that works for YOU, not others; your ability to learn, grow and improve depends on it.

In fact, I don’t see why this couldn’t work for you too, B2B marketer. I’m not saying it will make life less hard, but it will put YOU back in control.