In Martech, "Why" is the Only Question That Really Matters

**Spoiler alert** Marketing executives don’t really care about what you sell or how you sell it. They also don’t really care that much about how much it costs as long as the ROI is measurable and meaningful. They only care about three things: why, what, and how.

The Martech (Marketing Technology) world is crowded. As 2020 began, over 7,000 firms were hunting in the broad field known collectively as Martech, and which has seen 470% growth over the last nine years. A recent report collaboratively produced by BDO, WARC, and the University of Bristol, estimates the worldwide spend on marketing technology to be $121.5 billion.

That’s definitely a market to aggressively pursue, and explains why the acquisition of large players has accelerated. Consider: Salesforce’s acquisition of CloudCraze after picking up Demandware for $2.8 billion followed by purchasing Datorama for $800 million; SAP’s acquisition of CallidusCloud for $2.4 billion; Adobe’s additions of Magento for $1.68 billion and Marketo for $4.75 billion to their stack; and last year’s acquisition of Epsilon-Conversant by Publicis Groupe for $4.4 billion.

Yet, this rapid growth over the past decade – there were barely 150 firms in Martech in 2011 – has begun showing a marked peak: growth in Martech during 2019 was just 3%, outpaced by churn which sat at nearly 5%.

What’s happening? Are marketers “catching on” to another unfulfilled promise of Technology Nirvana? Hardly. Gartner reports that while marketing budgets as an overall percentage of corporate revenue continue averaging in the 10%-12% range, allocations to Martech have increased to 29%, with 34% of CMOs stating the acquisition and deployment of Martech as vital to the success of their marketing efforts.

Clearly, demand is strong. So what do these statistics teach us? Surprisingly, even in an industry sector as technospeak and buzzword-heavy as Martech some lessons remain relatively simple.

An old cliché in sales training dating back to a quote from Theodore Roosevelt goes something like this: “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” True in friendship, life, love, and selling to marketing executives.

Be honest: how many times have we all sat through sales pitches with an exhaustive array of wordy and number-clustered slides telling the audience how much better we are than XYZ? How many glazed eyes have we seen around a conference room or (worse) on a web conference as our best and brightest drone on and on about how smart we are, how much raving the analysts will do (in exchange for hefty retainers) about our capabilities?

How many “great” sales pitches result in the follow-up call saying we “showed well” but weren’t selected?

There is usually a common thread in all of these: Martech typically vendors go in with a “What we do, how we do it, why we’re better” approach vs. “We know your business, your objectives, and we understand why you are looking for a solution and can approach your needs from a common understanding” approach.

Simply put, all of us in this space could take a page from the playbooks of Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and other brilliant communicators: Don’t start with the product details; tell people why the product will change their life.

In nearly every presentation I’ve ever participated in, the audience is asking themselves one question: “Why should I care?” This is particularly true in the crowded space of Martech where it’s routine to hear some variation of this comment: “I’ve sat through dozens of these pitches, and every one of you guys tells me the same story about what you can do – can you tell me how it actually solves my problem?”

This may come as an eye-opener for CEOs and CROs of most Martech vendors, but customers don’t care about our product or service or company history or big idea. Rather, they care about themselves – their careers, their customers, their outcomes. We are simply tools to help them get there.

The truly forward thinking marketing executives looking to break through the noise of activating audiences in the digital age are focused on a single concept: how the customer will experience and react to their brand to get to the behavior they are attempting to drive.

Moreover, most seasoned marketing executives are savvy to the capabilities of the Martech ecosystem. They know the players – in many cases they’ve worked for them. They know the capabilities – often as well or better than the SMEs from the vendors trying to sell them. They know the acronyms, the stats, the promises. What they need to hear from us is the “why this matters to you, to your customers and their experience, in your organization, right now.”

Steve Jobs, in an overly-cited masterclass example of how to effectively do this, sold the first iPod with this simple comment: “Imagine 1,000 of your favorite songs in your pocket.”

Boom. Simple, direct, understandable. Not “this device has 5 GB in storage, best in class,” or “this device has a clever thumb wheel that makes it easier to move from song to song,” or “the LED screen is easy to read,” or “XYZ Analyst said we’re better than a Walkman.”

 “1,000 songs in your pocket” became one of the most iconic slogans in product pitch history. But it started when Jobs asked a fundamental question – why should anyone care about a new MP3 player? Today, the offspring of the iPod (the iPhone) has 900 million consumers, some with more than one device.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page were equally adept at this. Their “why” pitch was simple: “Google organizes the world’s information and makes it accessible.” Clear, unmistakable. Not how many server farms they run, or the security protocols they have in place, or sophistication of their search algorithm. Today, 1.5 billion people around the world view Google as their source of truth for virtually all information.

The common approach here is deceptively simple:

·     Start with the why and the anticipated experience – clearly, precisely, concisely.

·     Describe the impact the customer experience to brand affinity.

·     Only then, explain how you deliver it, including how you fit into their current investment model.

·     If needed, end with your credentials.

Ultimately, marketing executives neither care for, nor listen to our marketing-speak. They care about how we drive their customers’ experience and engagement. And how we change their own experience in leveraging Martech to enhance brand loyalty across the enterprise.