Experience with a company or its products and services is what builds a winning brand, not advertising.

Content is useless unless it helps sell the prospect on moving from awareness to inquiry to consideration to purchase.

Training, while often necessary is only effective if it helps accomplish the desired result. And the result should be marketing that drives sales.

I’ve noticed an interesting pattern:

Those same B2B marketers who don’t think marketing’s primary job should be to help drive sales, and are not willing to be accountable for their contribution to that corporate goal, are often the ones who are looking for a new job after losing their last one.

the marketers who understand that marketing’s role is primarily to help the company sell something, and are willing to track and measure the impact of their marketing on sales, are most often gainfully employed, happy in their jobs, respected by senior management and well compensated for their work.

You are so right! When marketers use the same language as the folks in the C-suite, they get respect, bigger budgets and sometimes even a promotion and a raise.

I like your top three. I think the true test of marketing effectiveness is the ability to generate qualified leads for sales. This goes to your first skill (head for numbers) and also ensures that marketers have skin in the game.

Tom

Your suggestions triggered another from me: An effective marcom manager must understand the company’s products and services as they relate to solving customers’ problems or meeting their requirements. -Mac