Are You Delivering What You Say You Will? Marketing & Sales Governance
Are you a leader who is always looking forward at your ‘things to do’ list? There’s a mountain to climb, so many things to do, not enough time or people to make it happen?
You and your team may even have a plan.
You have committed to the tasks you need to do, but things keep getting in the way; things slip and another month goes by…..
Sigh
It’s a bit stressy isn’t it?
I work with leaders of growing tech / innovation companies and this is something many of them struggle with.
You can have the bestest, fabbest, most brilliant plan in the world on paper, buuuuuttt:
It needs to be executed/delivered, not gathering e-dust on your laptop
You need to understand if it is working? Don’t wait for the end of the year.
You want to iterate, improve, learn
You need agility, but don’t confuse that with being unfocused and distracted (I see you!)
I talk with organisations about ‘building a marketing machine’ that scales with them. This includes 4 key steps:
Develop a plan
Set up systems & processes
Find / allocate / understand our resource (availability & limitations): who is on the ‘marketing & sales team’
Governance and accountability
This post focuses on the 4th step - governance and accountability; for the purposes of this post - you’ve got the rest all sorted. ;)
I focus on marketing and sales growth, but often end up using these principles in broader business / strategic discussions.
Below is an approach that might help your organisation get in control and move forward effectively.
Each organisation has different needs and ways of working, so pick what works for you. You may already have established meeting cycles in place, in which case, you can align the ‘growth’ meeting with these.
1. Getting started
Schedule regular meetings now, otherwise you’ll get busy and they drift
You can always adjust and review, but give it time to bed in
Invite the right people, for the right meetings (see resource)
Ensure there is a clear agenda and responsibilities for each
Leadership - be clear who is going to lead these meetings when you are together (one person / rotation / the senior person / your marketing leader…)
Agree how meeting agendas, notes & tasks will be managed - make use of existing systems, use AI tools
2. Annual Planning (2-4 hours)
If this is the first time you have run this meeting, it may in reality take a couple of sessions to complete.
This meeting is creating your overarching plan for the whole year, so give it time
Use / create your Marketing Calendar - here’s one to use if you don’t have anything
Make sure you have:
Business Strategy
Marketing & Sales Strategy
Documented any assumptions you are making eg who your target audience is, where to find them, your position in the market
Check out the Marketing Audit here which will help you get everyone on the same page, identify priorities and give you an action plan
This meeting is about:
Reviewing what you have done in the previous year (assuming you have already done this exercise and set a plan!)
See Quarterly Meeting for an example agenda
Agreeing your objectives
Link your business objectives to your marketing and sales activity eg we want to grow by $6m turnover: how; what do you need to do?
Be specific & break it down to milestones eg quarterly (don’t wait until the end of the year to find out if you are on track)
Identifying your key ‘big rocks’ for the year
What tactical activity you are going to be doing (at a top level, eg 4 events, 6 webinars, weekly social media….)
What your priorities are to 'build your marketing machine' eg we don’t have a CRM, we need sales collateral for a new product set, we don’t have a clue what we’d talk about if we were creating content
What do you already know / have planned
Often you already have some things in the calendar, such as events & conferences
Mark down things that influence your sales eg end of financial year for clients
Acknowledge where there are slow times / lack of resources eg you are all on a sales trip offshore in June, so be kind to yourself about what you can achieve here
3. Weekly Standups (15-30 mins)
This is not about governance per se, but I’ve left in here as it is a great discipline to use
Many of you will be familiar with the approach from the software development side of things, so this is an extension for sales & marketing
This is a pacy session - detailed discussions can be taken directly offline
What are we working on this week
Are there any blockers?
Who needs help?
Has anything changed
Download weekly standup agenda here
4. Monthly Marketing Planning (1 hour)
This meeting is about tactical activity, keeping you moving & checking if things need adjusting
Use your marketing calendar / activity plan
What's coming up this month that we need to do?
Tweak any final messaging, priorities etc
Ensure you are maximising all activity - for example if you have a blog post, how are you sharing it through your social media, on your website, could it be a webinar etc
Take a look ahead for the rolling 13 weeks, as there may be things you need to start working on
Download monthly marketing agenda here
5. Quarterly Planning & Review (2 hours)
This meeting should identify your key ‘big rocks’, tactics and the 'build the machine' activity
Review
What have we achieved against the plan?
Metrics review - don’t drown in data, but pick the key marketing & sales metrics which are right for your business right now
What went well last quarter?
What didn't go so well?
What can we learn?
What should we change or do differently?
What are we going to celebrate? Remember to share good news stories with your wider team
Planning
What are our priorities for the next quarter: big rocks & content themes
Agree any changes to the original plan
STOP: before agreeing to change your focus, discuss whether this is supporting your strategy, or if you are just following the latest shiny thing
Use this session to deep dive into topics the team needs to review / focus on, eg upskilling on social media, a review of the website, discussion on metrics
Download quarterly planning & review agenda here
Get all three agendas (weekly, monthly and quarterly) here
I’m not covering this here, but aligning with this cycle of activity, also consider:
Reporting
Are there shareholders / stakeholders that might need a summary of the meetings, especially the annual and quarterly reviews / plans
Internal comms
Who should we be sharing information with?
What do we want them to do (information only / take action?)
I’ll be honest, sometimes people groan at the suggestion of this meeting cycle, but then once we’re going, they appreciate it!
“She struck the perfect balance of being friendly yet challenging, assisting us in developing an effective marketing approach,” Doug Maarschalk, Director, AGLX
I work with scaling B2B tech & innovation companies, just like YOU! I will hold you and your team to account and keep you moving forward. Oh - and also recognising how far you have come👏👏👏- often a really satisfying moment for CEOs and GMs from their review sessions!
Feel free to adapt this approach for your business, or hit me up for a chat if you want help.
Get In Touch
I provide leadership, support and direction for growing Kiwi tech and innovation companies as a ‘virtual’ (remotely) or 'fractional' (part-time) Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) - an affordable way to get senior thinking and direction for businesses.
If you could do with some help to grow your business, get in touch
Helen Shorthouse
Virtual / Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)