Choose your own Adventure(s): Executing a Customer-led Marketing Strategy – SECURE SUPPORT
February 14, 2023
SECURE SUPPORT
Confession: I don’t like Valentine’s Day – it stems from 6th grade; if anyone wants to hear the heartbreaking story, message me. That said, I like what it represents: acknowledging special people in our lives and thanking them for their support.
So today it’s fitting I acknowledge the support I have from my senior leadership team. Russell, Amanda, Doni, Jeff – your faith in me is humbling, but even more impressive is how clearly you see the impact of customer-led marketing and growth. You not only support me, but you’re working alongside me to drive this strategy and take risks along the way to showcase its value AND results.
We talk a lot in marketing about securing executive buy-in. And it’s critical to garnering support, budget, and resources. A few critical points to help you on this part of the adventure:
💙 Review the goals – Determine the OKRs/MBOs/KPIs at the organizational level – the ones your c-suite is focused on and believe are key to success. If you don’t know how to find them, ask!
❤️ Understand the goals – Make sure you understand what the goals mean. Sometimes they’re a bit “open to interpretation” (e.g., create an exceptional customer experience). But what does that mean to your leadership team? Improve support ticket support? Hire more CSMs? Host a customer conference?
💚 Align with the goals – You won’t (and shouldn’t) support all the goals – but take care in identifying the ones you can directly impact. If “creating an exceptional customer experience” is an organizational goal, make a list of the ways you can help achieve it.
💛 Present the shared goals – Make sure you aren’t creating your to-do list in a vacuum; get your boss on board and then advocate for yourself to present this information, or have it shared at a leadership meeting.
🧡 Get buy-in/commitment – Adjust as needed based on feedback from leadership. Take this as your blueprint for driving strategy and creating action items…also extremely helpful when you’re asked to do 50 other things; Ask: “Well, what should I take off my list based on these agreed upon goals?”
And remember, I’m proof you can sit in a position to drive marketing strategy with an entirely customer-led focus. There’s hope, people! Hope, the best Valentine’s Day gift I can offer.
Want to keep following the journey? Follow me on LinkedIn for all kinds of information, resources, and observations around customer-led marketing (and the occasional pet, kid, or vacation photo): https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-a-bukowski
Note: Today’s adventure photo is of me taking an obligatory tourist photo on my recent visit to Tel Aviv – and yes, I selected it for Valentine’s Day; I’m not totally heartless.
