Gartner has predicted CMOs will soon spend more on IT than their CIO counterparts. In a recent CMO Magazine article, Brian Fetherstonaugh Chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide, predicted the emergence of a new type of c-suite executive to meet this challenge: The chief marketing technology officer (CMTO) also known as the chief marketing technologist. Similarly, McKinsey advocated the creation of a new position—marketing technology officer (MTO).
If these predictions are correct because it will be much easier to identify and pitch to these marketing-tech hybrid people. It is not always easy to sell technology to marketers today. In working with marketers over the past several years, I’ve seen a significant variability in marketing department’s approach to buying and implementing software. My assessment is that software buying sophistication is evolving at different rates across companies. If you are selling to marketers there is no one-size-fits-all pitch or selling process.
In my experience, there are at least three types of marketers:
- Tech-savvy marketers with good access to a tech team
- Tech-savvy marketers without good access to a tech team
- Marketers pretending to be tech-savvy
Recognizing the type of marketer you are dealing with is key to success. The type one marketers are essentially the hybrid that has been predicted. It is great to sell to these folks. They understand both the benefits and the costs of implementing new software and they have the resources to get projects done. The only caution with this type of buyer is to adjust your pitch to their level of sophistication. If you have followed the general advice of “talk to marketing different than you talk to IT” you may have deleted or over-simplified critical pieces of your presentation. If you over-simplify, a type one marketer will be insulted because you are talking down to them. If you leave out too much implementation information they may wonder if you really understand your own technology or are being honest about what it takes to get it up and running. You may also miss out on the opportunity to sell a technical differentiator. If your software is faster or more reliable, explaining how and why will impress a type one marketer.
How to identify a type one marketer? Ask them questions about the software they are currently using. These questions can help you understand how your product will fit within their infrastructure and assess their level of sophistication. Questions should be appropriate to your product, but questions like, “How many custom objects have you created in your CRM system?” will give you a good sense of their understanding. The other critical piece of the puzzle is determining if they have the resources to implement your product (and thus generate value, stickiness and follow-on opportunities). To assess their access to the right technical resources, build a discussion with IT into your sales process. If your marketer can’t bring the right technical resources to a phone call, they may not be able to procure their services to get your product working. Alternatively, create a questionnaire that requires technical knowledge of the key infrastructure elements important to your product. If you get complete answers quickly, you are in luck, if not you may be dealing with a type two marketer.
A type two marketer is tech savvy but their company has not yet structured the organization to allow marketing to get technology projects done quickly. Dealing with a type two buyer means you will have two sales to make, one to marketing and one to IT. You may be able to get the deal done without talking to IT and this will be tempting, however, it can lead to problems down the road. In the worst case your solution never gets implemented and your customer churns. Other problems can include long delays that prevent follow-on sales opportunities and/or higher costs of implementation caused by your lack of knowledge of their infrastructure. To avoid these problems make sure you can talk with the right technical resources and get their buy-in. This takes extra effort and may lengthen the sales process, but it pays huge dividends over the long term.
Type three marketers are the biggest challenge. They are hard to recognize initially because almost all marketers know they should be tech-savvy so they will all “market” themselves as such. Your questions about the software they are using will provide the necessary insight. If you are dealing with a type three, a simplified pitch is critical. Too much technical detail will be confusing and make your product seem too complicated. A type three marketer may or may not have access to a tech team. In either case, you’ll want to pitch to the tech folks separately.
Eventually, calling on the CMTO may make selling technology to marketers easy, until then you need multiple presentations and multiple sales processes to appropriately communicate with different types of marketers. In summary…
Ask questions to determine to identify your prospect’s type and make the right pitch:
- Type one – Tech savvy with IT resources, A sophisticated pitch that includes technical differentiators and implementation description.
- Type two – Tech savvy without IT resources, A two pronged approach, one for the marketer and one for IT.
- Type three – Not tech savvy, A simplified pitch to the marketer, a separate pitch to IT.
Links to the articles referenced above:
http://www.cmo.com.au/article/569657/chief-marketer-2016/
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/the_dawn_of_marketings_new_golden_age
