Part 3 of 3: The Power of a Common Language

More than any other function, strategic marketers need to work cross-functionally. They shape a firm’s value proposition by creating the intersection between customer needs and their own company’s capabilities.

All too often, even strong marketing strategies fall flat due to poor execution. The culprit is typically a lack of cross-functional buy-in to the plan.

Many times, important functional team members just don’t get the marketing strategy, so they don’t know how to support it. Other times, they resent not being asked for their input.

It’s in this area of cross-functional alignment that non-traditional marketers often shine. Due to their backgrounds in areas other than marketing, Accidental Marketers are often more adept at translating key components of marketing strategy to other important functions. Additionally, their newness to marketing causes them to be open to any and all input, which also stimulates more cooperation.

Shelley explains, “As we collaborate with other functions in the organization, I find that people who are have technical backgrounds often have more confidence to ask their colleagues the hard questions and probe deeper. This is important because we need these types of discussions to do our job well.”

Julie added, “Often technical jobs require the person to shepherd things through a complex system to gain approvals. In Polly’s role previous to becoming a marketer, she had accountability over everything and authority over nothing, so she developed strong collaboration capabilities. When she came into the marketing role, she already knew how to make business a team sport.”

A good marketing process fosters this type of collaboration. It can clearly delineate the parts of a plan where the input of cross-functional team members is critical.

Often, Accidental Marketers Are The “Best Talent” Choice

Sure, it would be great to be able to hire highly-experienced marketers who also have a technical background. Unfortunately, this is extremely rare.

And there are marketers who have the ability to operate in successfully in technical environments – we’ve seen them. But they are in short supply, hence the trend of CMOs hiring more and more non-traditional marketers cited at the beginning of this article.

You can try to teach experienced marketing people technical skills, but that can be difficult, time-consuming and frustrating for marketers. The alternative route we see working best is in teaching technical people – who have a passion for marketing – marketing skills.

Tapping their fresh eyes for insights can lead to powerful new approaches. Execution risk is reduced because these non-traditional marketers often bring natural collaborative skills to their roles.

Perhaps the greatest success key is in providing Accidental Marketers with a disciplined marketing structure and process – one that helps them examine all potential angles for differentiating a product. To revisit our earlier sports analogy, this is similar to what the Pittsburgh Steelers football team does.

The Steelers have had just 3 head coaches since 1969. Their process for running their entire operation is disciplined and consistent. Like many of our clients who have structured marketing processes, participation in the Steelers system for their employees/players is not optional!

As a result, the team’s penchant for hiring (drafting) talent that succeeds in their system is legendary – and not surprising when you think about it. Each new draftee knows what they need to do to fit into the system. The team knows what types of players tend to do well with the team.

The Pittsburgh process has led to an incredibly high success rate with new players, and they often positively contribute to the team right away. The Steeler’s organization has won more Super Bowls than any other NFL team in history. They show the substantial benefits to having a stable, robust approach.

In a similar way, a disciplined marketing approach can raise success rates on new marketing hires, even with people who don’t have a marketing background. Having a defined marketing process will help you feel more comfortable in taking “the best talent available” with your next marketing hire, instead of limiting your options to people with specific marketing skills. Maybe you’ll even end up winning your own business version of the Super Bowl!

Tom Spitale and Mary Abbazia are the authors of The Accidental Marketer, Power Tools For People Who Find Themselves in Marketing Roles, to be published by Wiley in March 2014.