Well, I made it! Issue No. 2! Woot Woot!
Since I nicknamed myself the “truth-teller” in my inaugural letter (https://mailchi.mp/cec89d2b0ea0/the-smartest-newsletter) last month, I think it’s fitting for me to begin with a confession. This letter was more difficult for me to write than I thought. It’s a strange and vulnerable place for me, given what I do for a living.
Over the past several weeks, I would ask myself, “Why is this so hard? Why can’t I think of anything to write about?” This scenario may sound like a temporary case of writer’s block, but that was not the case. I had no problem writing for days on end about all the current popular B2B marketing topics: account-based marketing, digital insights, data intent, artificial intelligence, marketing automation, SEO, SEM; you name it! However, every time I would begin writing about these subjects, I would become uninspired after about twenty minutes of writing. I had plenty more to share on the topics, but I knew deep down in my overly critical gut that what I was writing about was not what my audiences needed from me. I needed to understand my customers better and at a deeper level.
For the next few weeks, I kept a journal of observations in my day-to-day interactions with my clients and their in-house teams. I started to pinpoint friction points across several of my clients’ organizations, and I kept writing down the same word: GAP.
Talent Gap. Skills Gap. Stopgap.
Naturally, this begs the question, is there a common gap within professional service firms that hinders their ability to grow? I think I may know what it is.
I would be retired already if I had a dollar every time I heard an in-house marketer say, “I have been telling them that for years, but you say it once, and they listen.”
Why is that? It shouldn’t be this way. Firms should feel confident taking marketing advice from their in-house teams. After all, most A/E/C marketing consultants started in-house, me included. Believe me; I wasn’t any smarter on October 8, 2008, my first day as CEO of Smartegies, than I was on October 7, 2008, my last day on someone else’s payroll. So, I started to explore this a little further in my daily conversations with my longest-standing clients, and I have concluded that the real problem is this:
Most firms have struggled with closing the language gap between what you want from marketing and what marketing produces. Seller-doers speak a language called, “is it worth the money?” and Marketers tend to speak a language called “marketing best practices.” It’s the dots in between where things get sideways because one or both parties struggle to connect the language dots to their company’s strategic growth goals. Aha! I found the problem!
I bet you want to know the solution, right? Me, too! So, I did what any educated expert would do. I googled, “How to learn a foreign language?”
After scrolling past all the ads for Rosetta Stone, I finally found some gold nuggets you can use whether you plan to tour abroad this summer or want to understand how to talk to your technical, bd, or marketing counterparts more effectively.
01. Speak the language whenever you can. Talking about marketing is not prominent in A/E/C work culture. (pause). I’m politely waiting for you to stop thinking, “that’s not true; we are always talking about marketing.” Having weekly meetings about things you need to do before the RFQ comes out, website updates on the parking lot and future tradeshow plans differs from speaking the language. Start using real marketing terms in your dialogue—the same ones used in every other B2B industry. Integrate terms like customer lifetime value, deal velocity, and client acquisition cost into your everyday vocabulary.
02. Teach your foreign language to those who don’t speak it. I sometimes grit my teeth when I watch firm leaders dismiss marketing ideas because they don’t understand how the proposed idea will move the needle in their business. I must practice equal restraint when I observe marketers pitching ideas without a strong business case. Case in point, I recently sat through an earful with a CEO of a national firm who was criticizing his team on a zoom call because his competitors were downloading their e-books. I’m sure you are familiar with this scene where the professional has many opinions about something they feel is not good marketing. After the discussion, I reminded the CEO in a private conversation why targeting competitors in this scenario was the best way to achieve the outcome he was seeking. The truth is he forgot. Marketing is just one area he oversees as a business owner. Sometimes marketers forget that the most important way we bring value is to help connect those language
dots and reiterate the business use case. Sometimes this means you must keep reminding stakeholders why and how your marketing decisions are suitable for the business and the brand. AEC marketers can build the credibility they need internally by becoming fluent in their company’s business and educating key stakeholders about the language of marketing.
03. Use foreign language tools. If I wanted to learn a foreign language, I’m sure there is an app, podcast, or webinar for that. Guess what? Suppose you’re going to build a new marketing culture that closes the language gap between operations, business development, and marketing. In that case, there are dozens of great B2B marketing podcasts, webinars, and events to help you. Of course, my personal favorite is the AEC Marketing for Principals podcast (https://smartegies.com/podcast/) hosted by Smartegies’ (https://smartegies.com) VP of Strategy Execution, Katie Cash (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/) . Be on the lookout for Season 4: Filling the Gap, to air later this spring. Go ahead and get caught up because the more you consume, the more educated you will become. The more educated you are, the less likely things will get lost in translation.
Thanks for being here to the end. I appreciate you.
