It all starts with the pipeline

and ends with Revenue.

In 2015 I got my first VP of Marketing role.

At the time I was moving from leading Growth and Demand Gen at Booker (later acquired by Mind Body) into a VP role at a series A start-up.

My Dad gave me a gift.

It was something he had hanging in his office for years.

One the back he wrote a message to me.

Wise words that served me well.

At every company I have ever worked at, the most valuable people and teams had a direct impact on revenue. As a marketer working with a sales team, your impact to revenue is helping generate pipeline. Nothing else really matters.

The best content, PR or Brand strategy in the world will end up on the chopping block eventually if it isn’t impacting one thing - Revenue.

I’ve been lucky enough in my career to have led marketing teams at some amazing companies - G2, Thryv, Help Scout and others. And now help start-ups all like Spot AI, TestBox, Letterdrop and Bonsai. 

4 core marketing principles that have helped me guide the growth at all of those companies: 

1. The marketing teams turn speed and focus into a competitive advantage. We only do things which will move the goals we are after and we do them with speed. Embracing speed allows us to try things at a faster pace - shipping campaigns, testing marketing channels, testing messaging variations, designs etc. The faster we can get to answers, even when the answer is failure, the closer we are to finding success. To finding the big opportunities for the business. 
   

2. We understand Demand Capture vs Brand Building and the importance of both in order to scale. 95% of buyers aren’t looking for your solution, how you market to them is as equally important as how you market the 5% who are.
   

3. We created brands and campaigns that cut through all of the noise. Markets are crowded. Everyone is doing paid, creating content, posting on social, podcasting, sending emails etc. If we sell a marketing automation solution we aren’t competing with the other 300 companies selling the same thing, we are actually competing with all 12,000 martech solutions going after the same buyers. The easiest path to success isn’t to try and be better at running paid social than 7,999 other companies. The easiest path is to do it differently. That could mean our creative, our offer - really anything. And that’s the fun part - figuring out what can set us apart. 
   

4. We built a team culture focused obsessed with hitting our goals and being fearless in trying out new things to do so and having fun while we did it. This means being okay with failure. If companies are operating at a high speed, rapid failure is going to happen. And that is a good thing if you are learning from those failures. They should be celebrated and help you find you wins faster.

Hope that helps.

“Remember, it all starts with the pipeline”

Happy Fathers Day!