Today’s guest dropped some AMAZING actionable tips to level up in your Marketing career.
Marketing Bestie, meet Kyle Lacy.
Currently the CMO at Jellyfish, Kyle has experience leading teams of over 200 people, and knows how to help Marketers like you to get what you WANT.
Let’s see what Kyle had to say on The Marketing Millennials Podcast (in his own liiiightly edited words).
1. A Must-Do to Progress in Your Career:
“Show impact.
Show the impact you’re having on business line objectives. Set goals that align to the business, not just Marketing metrics (THIS).
That could be identifying how your content is driving revenue. Or showing how the event and community strategy you launched, affected customer retention.
Then consistently communicate that impact. Do that via email, one-on-ones, or Slack (be persistent).
You almost want to be annoying with the amount of impact that you’re having as a Marketer.
A CMO should never walk in the room without knowing the impact you’re having.
2. Align Marketing to This:
Align Marketing to revenue. 🤷♂️
If you don’t align Marketing to revenue, especially in a high growth SaaS environment, you’re second tier to sales and customer service.
(Marketing Bestie, we work TOO hard to be second tier.)
And when budgeting or resource allocation discussions are had, Marketing will be an afterthought because you didn’t align objectives.
Show how Marketing is driving and influencing revenue creation.
3. How Marketing and Sales Should Collab:
If a sales rep is touching a lead that Marketing gave them, that lead should be ready to at least have a conversation.
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They requested a demo, went through a product tour, or they’re using a free trial. If Marketing’s not doing that, then you’re not Marketing correctly (mic drop).
Udi Ledergor from Gong is known for saying “it’s Marketing’s job to make sales easier.”
(I will quote him all day long on that.) It’s true, especially in a sales-led org product. The thing Marketers get wrong is that they think a regurgitation of a metrics report is what you should show your Sales team. WRONG.
Tell a story to sales and put it in their vernacular. Tell the story how they want it told and they’re going to remember it.
Show the impact you had on your reps meeting quota (if you do this, you will have a new BFF).
If sales isn’t doing what you want them to do, it’s because you’re doing a sh*tty job telling the story of what you’re doing (retweet).
If you’re doing the right thing, they’re going to want it and they won’t leave you alone. It will get annoying about how much they want to work with you.
4. Avoiding Burnout:
You first have to ask yourself a question: Am I prioritizing my time and my team’s time appropriately?
Too often Marketers feel they have to get a lot done to feel accomplished.
They need to feel busy. There’s dopamine everywhere, check the box. It doesn’t matter what it is, you’re doing everything and making an impact everywhere. Dopamine hits all over the place.
(Sounds like 23 year old me trying to figure out the Marketing world – LOL.)
That’s the quickest way to burn out. THEN you say, I need more resources.
But the reality was, you weren’t prioritizing what you should have been working on to begin with. 👀
That also could mean that your marketing leader is prioritizing your time inappropriately.
Let’s say you are prioritizing your time appropriately and need more resources.
Here’s what to do: Can you show business impact and do you have a business case for the resources you need?
Business case means here’s the object, here’s how it’s going to improve what we’re doing from a business perspective, and here’s the investment that I need.
(Absolutely love this clarity.)
If your reasoning is that your team’s too busy, that’s not a business case. Stop doing half of what you’re doing and reprioritize tasks.”
5. Quick Interview Tip:
Let’s say I’m a brand Marketer applying for new roles, throughout the interview process I would be asking how Marketing is tied to pipeline or revenue creation at each company I interview with.
If it’s really hard for the leader to answer that question, I would be hesitant to take that role. If Marketing is not clearly tied to revenue, everything the Marketing team does will be under a magnifying glass. (THIS THIS THIS.)
And that’s a highway to stunt creativity.
6. Do This to Get Promoted:
The best piece of advice that I ever received was making sure that the promotion is in place. Get agreement with your leader on what you need to do to get your promotion.
Have an agreement upfront and the conversations at the beginning of the year.
If you’re a Marketer who wants to become a manager, wants more responsibility, or a raise, listen up. Go to the VP of Marketing/your boss and ask if what you desire is possible. If they say it is, clarify what you need to do over the next 12 months to get there.
Then check in after the 12 months and get the agreement.
A lot of times Marketers won’t ask upfront about upward mobility and the opportunity for a raise.
There’s a lot of “I’ve done a lot of work. I feel like I deserve it”, but there was no agreement upfront with the leader, so your chances of getting what you feel you deserve are smaller. (And we DON’T want this.)
7. Marketing Needs to be Part of This:
Marketing should always be involved in the internal development of your company culture. (Retweet.)
There are times where companies will hire agencies to do work around design, mission, vision, values, and not consult Marketing on the onboarding experience for new hires.
We Marketers should always be involved because Marketing is all about surprising and delighting people.
How do you surprise and delight prospects? How do you surprise and delight the customer? How do you surprise and delight the employee?
When a company has great external Marketing and their internal culture is an afterthought, as an outsider you can see something is off.
If you want to be head and shoulders above the competition, design your culture page on the website, the new employee gift, the onboarding process, and even WRITE your own job descriptions. (Add your company’s flare and personality to ALL of it.)”
