When I started Concep 5 years ago we decided to target Marketing Directors within B2B, if we ever heard the words “IT Director” it would send shivers down our spines and a common question to us would be: “Can we avoid IT?”.

Is this still the case?

Like Marketing Directors, historically IT Directors and CIOs were not strategic roles within the corporate structure and neither were involved in developing the organizations business strategy.  However, it does seem that this is where both their roles are heading as they strive for their seats on the board.

One of the most insightful comments from a fortune 100 CIO I met recently was his encouragement to colleagues “not to fall in love with the technology”. He was talking about individuals who fought any new ideas because they had signed off on technology, which had now become outdated and no longer delivered the functionality that the business needed. Consequently, there is a fear of a black mark against someone’s name and rather than look at new technologies, they fight for reasons to keep the current solutions in place. More often than not this scenario exists where something was developed internally so the emotional tie-in is even stronger.

The IT Directors role is admittedly being made more difficult by the masses of legislations which are being forced on organisations and IT are being seen as the guardians, or dare I say, watch dogs, to ensure this legislation is being implemented in an automated way. This, however, needs to be balanced with how marketing want to deliver their business goals.

Personally and from experience, when Marketing and IT are collaborating at the beginning of a project, projects tend to run smoother and get implemented quicker.  When IT and Marketing don’t get along we continue to see projects being snuck through the back door and/or delays on critical marketing opportunities.

So there I was attempting to enjoy a cappuccinolattemoccacoffee at the Landmark in Marylebone. I say ‘attempting’ because the ordering process was a little arduous and left me somewhat flustered. The Landmark is a great venue for off-site casual business meetings and the breakfast and mezzanine areas were being used extensively for exactly that purpose when I arrived to meet clients. The waitress arrived promptly and I asked for coffee. Not unreasonable, surely? I’m in business. I’m having a business meeting with other business people to talk about business things in a businesslike manner so I’d like some business coffee. Please. Well, no. There followed an elaborate and extensive coffee selection process that left me confused and feeling a bit like an arse in front of clients who were smiling smugly as they had clearly just been through the same ordeal prior to my arrival. I explained that I didn’t speak Starbucks and could I please just have some coffee?

I can’t even begin to describe the horror of the cappuccinolattemoccacoffee that arrived just as I was launching into the crux of the meeting subject. I like to think I’m in touch with my feminine side in a sensitive caring way, but this coffee was gay. No offence intended – but there’s no other adequate word. It was presented in a fluted pilsner-type glass with a wire frame and impossible to hold handle. The whole world could see the two-thirds milky coffee topped with one-third whippofroth and sprinkled with chocolate hundreds and thousands. If they’d stuck a bleedin’ parasol in it I’d have stood up and left. Coffee – in a glass. With sprinkles.

I scanned the room in alarm to see who might be watching and realised that there was a room full of business people all struggling to come to terms with the same refreshment dilemma – drink it and look like a twat, or pretend it isn’t yours.

The Landmark was trying to be different. It succeeded. But perhaps it had lost sight of the needs of its business audience. Differentiation can be good – but context is everything. Learning when to step over the line and how far are salutary lessons. He said as he lifted his glass, stuck out his little pinkie and wiped the chocolate froth from his chin. 

Can it be true what the title beholds? Do sales people really know more than marketers about marketing? Well, obviously I don’t think so, but I met a couple of regional sales reps yesterday, on the Piccadilly Line, that truly did.

I guess the most frightening admission was that I approached two strangers on the tube and started talking to them. Yes, I must have looked like a lunatic. I felt like one.

In short, I was on the Piccadilly Line, late morning, on my way to a client meeting. During one unscheduled stop [in a tunnel], I overheard two people having a good stab at their [IT] marketing department, with lines like “I have no idea what they [marketing department] are doing down there with their glossy leaflets”, “They are a waste of resources”, “they just need to do some TV advertising” and “They have the cheek to send direct mail to my clients”… and so on. They were on a roll.

I do not think of myself as the ‘marketer’s freedom fighter’, but their blatant disregard for marketing got me going. Hence, I spoke out. This is the bit where I felt like a lunatic. However, I kept it quick and tried to make light of my impromptu comments.

I told them who I was [naturally they were unimpressed] and asked them why they thought their marketing department was so bad. There was a load of hyperbole based on pure prejudice towards marketing. So much so, as I quickly found out that they had never met a marketer in their company. They also had no real idea what the marketing department’s plans were. Hence, their own marketing ideas must have felt like pure original-thinking genius. It was then the tube door opened; I got off, and ran.

Not much of a story really. However, it truly got me thinking about the conundrum. Marketing should be an essential and must be executed to the benefit of all business; but they, the salesmen, had a point. Not as if they knew what it was, but a point none-the-less:

With so much time and energy spent on client facing marketing strategies, some marketers score an own goal. They forget to market themselves internally and forget to inform and engage with the rest of the business. No wonder sales people think that marketers are rubbish if they never meet them and cannot see or feel the benefits of the marketing effort.

So much has moved forward in the world of B2B marketing, yet some departments stay clear of engaging directly with the sales department. It could be because there is no encouragement, or that there is no perceived need, or that they have tried and have received a tepid response. Either way, engagement with the wider business, and especially sales, is essential.

So what can we take from this? (a) It is still best not to talk to strangers on the tube and (b) that the irony is still alive, where some marketers, so adept at promoting their business, are terrible at promoting themselves!

I had hoped to write a few words about the IDM B2B Marketing Conference 2008 the day after the event [8 April 2008]. However, my hangover did not permit it – post event drinks are a must! Now it is Monday, I am feeling fresh and ready to share my thoughts…

We are big fans of the IDM. Over the past few years, they have made a great effort to cater for the needs of the B2B marketer. Not only do they run specific B2B marketing courses, but they also run this quality annual B2B Marketing conference.

It is hard work putting together an event programme, which is relevant to the wider B2B marketing audience – as the profession is huge and demands and needs vary massively. This year, the IDM managed to arrange an appealing and diverse mix of material, from covering an award winning campaign from the B2B Marketing Awards to Web 2.0 tactics and social media. The content was very well selected, with each area being current and poignant.

In short, great event IDM and B2B Marketing is very proud to be a media partner and we look forward to watching its success in the future.

It seems that I am regressing back to the beginnings of time asking what is B2B marketing all about, or more precisely what is a B2B marketer all about? I have my own views, but more importantly, do practitioners actually see themselves as B2B Marketers in the first place and are there any benefit to it at all?

I am in a fortunate position, as publisher of B2B Marketing, to meet many marketing practitioners each year and invariably ask the question. Many say that B2B marketing is a collective term of all those working in marketing with either a complete, or core focus, towards marketing directly to businesses. They also see a huge benefit in learning across other verticals and overlaying successes and initiatives to their own marketing efforts (and not just exclusively creatively) – where relevant.

However, there are a number who do not see any real relevance to the term B2B [Business-to-business]. They think only by vertical i.e. “I work in manufacturing therefore I am a specialist manufacturing marketer”. They seem only interested in what their sector is doing [in marketing] and all other verticals are too far removed to them to have any relevance or bearing on their working lives. It is these people that I think are missing a huge opportunity.

Why? Well first off (and I am only using manufacturing as a working example), what has the marketing of manufacturing of high performance valves got to do with the marketing of manufactured fleet cars? Not a great deal. There are synergies between the actual process of producing the different products from HR, Health and Safety, material sourcing, design and efficiencies of production, but not a great deal when it comes to marketing, and incidentally sales.

High performance valves are a high-ticket product, sold in low quantities, to a limited audience of very specialist engineers. The marketing of fleet cars is a game of high volume sales, with a mid-ticket price, selling to procurement departments. I could go on for more time, but I'm sure you getting my point.

I would argue that there are many more synergies between marketing company wide mobile contacts and fleet car contracts – that is manufacturing learning from the telecoms space, or visa-versa. In this instance, both product life cycles are the same, buying patterns are similar and the market is equally competitive. Likewise, marketing valves is similar to that of IT servers. Both products are sold to specialist professionals, in small quantities, but at a high unit ticket value, where detailed specifications and service is key to the proposition. This is manufacturing relating to the tech space.

There are loads of other examples and permutations, but the point I make is that just taking inspiration from your vertical can be misleading and also you miss opportunities of utilising ideas from other relevant markets.

Layered on that, being a specialist B2B marketer gives you more weight in the employment market. Why would you want to pigeonhole yourself to just one vertical? Why be a one-trick-pony? Defining yourself as a marketer, by focusing on your sector, does not give you great reach. Being a successful B2B marketer means you can demonstrate an ongoing understanding of market forces and how to develop that into a successful marketing strategy, whatever the vertical. Marketing tools are the same wherever you go, it is the variance in application which is the key differentiator.

For all those people who are already with me, I apologise for going over old ground, however, for those of you stuck in the 20^th century, I hope I have made a good argument, which might help you in the long run. Exposing yourself to ideas outside your vertical market will pay back with dividends. And for those of you who say that you do not have time to swat up on your own industry let alone others hear this… a new phrase I have heard from industry leaders is that marketers are beginning to de-skill. Marketing is changing at such a pace, that marketers need to evolve with a more rapidly than ever before. Just relying on your own potentially dated sector ideas, to furnish you with all the mental enrichment you need, is not enough anymore.

I believe that those professionals who embrace my philosophy and put it into practice are setting themselves up for a successful and prosperous future, the others will just have to ‘use the force’ to guide them!

We’ve just started 2008, so what does it have instore for the earnest marketer? What channels will the market be investing in and what will suffer. I’m going to have a quick stab at a couple of forecasts… prepare yourself to be shouted down Farmer!

Up to this point, email marketing has never been utilised so much as an immediate and cost effective tool in lead generation and direct sales. However, I see the worm turning in 08. Not that all email marketing will end, or should, but with everybody on the bandwagon, email is becoming swamped! Marketing emails from legitimate companies now feel like spam. I now only read emails from media sources and companies I already do business with. It is not that the other emails are necessary bad, it is just I do not have time to read each one. I am not the only person suffering. This is a real shame, as email is a great medium and has it place. But the volume of email is staring to grate, even with spam filters working overtime!

With companies seeing their open rates dip, opt-out lists grow and response rates slip, I believe they will only look to broadcast their own emails to clients and pre-validated prospects, using quality tools from suppliers to produce them. For new prospects, companies will piggyback on email distributions from respected media sources, associations etc, for assured quality and exposure. Without this change, companies risk doing more damage than good. No one wants to be associated with spam.

What will be a winner in 2008? My money is on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Whoever has set up a SEO specialist outfit should do well this year! A staggering 70-80% of traffic on search engines is generated via natural search (left side). Get your SEO sorted and the volume of traffic to your site should fly. Easier said than done, and it costs. Everybody wants to be number one on a search. However, the most competitive space is now in sponsored search (right side). Hence greater investment in natural search has got to make good marketing sense, especially as sponsored search has become more expensive.  It sounds a little old hat, but it is amazing how many firms have still to embrace this.

Each sector has it’s own issues in 2008. One rule does not fit all. However, I think that 2008 will be a more proactive year for marketers. Strategy and planning has been all the rage, but only action produces results. The sense I get from the market is that more focus will be on running the ‘integrated marketing campaign’ with less time just talking about it.