EIR at Balderton Capital, Independent Consultant, Author of Kellblog, and Co-host of SaaS Talk.
Since many of you are in the midst of presenting your annual marketing budgets to your CEO, CFO, and board, I thought I'd write a quick post to remind people what board members actually care about when it comes to the marketing budget.
I’d recommend reframing the “optional initiatives” as stretch programs or “go big” ideas. Presenting them as the things you’d prioritize if your budget increased reinforces your position as the marketing leader.
Bob Finley
3w
Great post, Dave. As usual, filled with good information.
The highlight of my career was a board meeting where I was asked if I was aligned with the CMO (someone who didn’t always attend board meetings thought I was in Sales).
Leah Tharin
3w
"Overwhelming volume (e.g., 28 slides with a 15-slide appendix)" So true. I don't know why this still keeps happening for someone working in marketing. You're supposed to sell me your budget, not give me the data so I work it out myself. I trust *you* to handle the numbers, details are good if asked, yes, but the simplified strategic story needs to fit on a very short artifact. Most of what you write about also goes towards the Startup CEOs, they tend to compress their details instead of working from a simple statement and then working down from there to give details where needed.
Grant Duncan
3w
great post, ty for sharing
Mimi Spier
3w
Dave Kellogg always love your words of wisdom!!
Dave Rochlin
3w
CMOs ... Go big or go home! 😄
CMO & Founder at B2B Fusion | Enhancing Pipeline Growth & Visibility
3wGreat content - this one is particularly interesting as it could be interpreted: "Is marketing focused solely on pipeline generation or do they also worry about pipeline coverage?" If just on pipeline generation, the risk is it becomes Marketing reporting on Marketing. Which can also further exacerbate the cheerleading tendency you reference of 'look how good i am doing in Marketing!' If one is reporting on pipeline coverage (eg all sources going into the pipe - MQA/6QA, leads, partners, inbound, outbound, SDR, PLG), then it becomes a business conversation across all functions, including Marketing. And Marketing drives alot of that demand in other inputs as well. We advocate hard for the latter - and build those reports into SFDC for our clients. Great framework and content, thanks for posting.