Blame The Founder/CEO

If your brand has nothing to say, don't blame marketing. Blame the Founder/CEO.

There's a reason why Andy Raskin told me he only works with CEOs / Founder on the strategic narrative. Because it's way more than just "messaging & positioning."

A narrative drives the product you build, the people you recruit, the company you create.

So when a brand has nothing interesting to say, it's tough to first blame the marketing team -- blame the CEO.

This is always why CEO's CAN NOT pass the buck on marketing. It has to be part of their job -- just like fundraising or doing whatever else CEO's do...

I'm being overly simplistic because it makes for catchier copy, but now that you're reading ... A differentiated point of view can't just be something the marketing team dreams up. Otherwise you're left with vaporware.

Push the leadership team. Push the founders. Push the product team.  If you don't have this at your company today, maybe this can be the blunt reminder you need to go and drive it next week.

Also, if you're evaluating jobs - same thing applies. Are you excited by the founder's vision? Is there a roadmap? Do you believe in it? Do *they* believe in it? Those ingredients will make your job (cooking something everyone wants to eat) much easier.

Show me a company with a strong brand and I'll show you a CEO who 1) has something to say 2) gets marketing.

Working with sales / marketing + sales 

This week's episode of the Exit Five podcast is from a live Q&A session hosted by the team at Clearbit focused on questions about aligning sales and marketing teams featuring me (Dave, hey, I'm writing this), Colin White (Head of Demand Gen., Clearbit), Tara Robertson (Sr. Manager, Demand Gen., Chilipiper) and Matt Ferriss (Sr. Director, Enterprise Sales, Bombora). This conversation covers these questions below:

• How can you get buy-in from leadership to be closer aligned to revenue metrics? (Pipeline, Revenue etc)
• During planning season (quarterly/yearly), how closely should marketing/sales work together to get to the number?
• What cadence is ideal for Sales and Marketing teams to meet?
• Best way to deliver feedback between Sales and Marketing?
• Top tips on creating great sales<>marketing alignment?
• What are the top marketing materials/documentation that Sales teams actually care about?
• How should marketing teams contribute to cold outbound efforts?
• What do the best sales reps do before and after every meeting? How can marketing help?
• What strategies and tactics can Marketing & Sales use together targeting Enterprise accounts?

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