We work with talented marketers every day, yet we see a disturbing trend where their real strengths and values are not being put to good use. Ever since the economic downturn in 2008, B2B marketing departments (or what’s left of them) have become a catchall for sales support, answering RFPs, IT support, and miscellaneous requests. But this busyness doesn’t promote growth, let alone help you to get a return on your marketing dollar.
Upper management must return their in-house marketers to their core competencies if they want to see marketing activity have a positive impact on the overall sales number. Delegating authority becomes increasingly important as your company grows, and not acknowledging the fact that you simply can’t do everything will only sabotage your company’s success. Centralization of authority is a slippery slope that leads to decreased efficiency, low employee morale, and decreased profitability. Instead of gaining control, you see even more things fall through the cracks.
But effective delegating skills are developed in an atmosphere of trust, which means that upper management must have confidence their vision, priorities and philosophy will be applied by their team. Effective management delegation can be helped by the creation of a framework that keeps marketing managers aligned with leadership.
A great framework will be structured like an umbrella with the vision and mission at the top and funneling down to applying these principles at the tactical level.
Here is the framework we use for our clients:
- Vision
- Mission Statement
- Company Goals
- Growth Initiatives to Support the Goals
- Principles/Values
- Definition of Success
- Tactical (daily) Projects and Responsibilities
- Prioritize, Organize, Delegate
When these are clearly stated, it provides the freedom and confidence for both upper management and marketing to begin to find efficiency and serious forward motion on mission critical projects.
Still not convinced? Here are five ways effective delegation can help your company succeed:
We would like to offer one final message and point of encouragement to marketing managers: communicating through the same perspective as your C-level team helps build the confidence and communication structure you need to take your strategic plan and activities to the next level. We work with many of our clients to break open the marketing silo and have put together a guide to help you get CEO Support for your Ideas.
