Experts speak on how marketers can drive performance in uncertain times
By Abimbola Mohammed
MarketingWeek, in collaboration with Smartsheet, held a webinar recently in the United Kingdom with the theme: “The Work Behind the Wins: How Marketers Can Drive High Performance in Uncertain Times.”
The insightful conversation was between Dan Montalbano, Global Head of Operations, Agency VCCP, Sarah Chatterton, Director of Marketing, Smartsheet, and Europe, while Lucy Tesseras, Managing Editor, MarketingWeek moderated the session on how to draw insight from the world of elite sport to understand how marketers can drive high performance.
The session spoke on how marketers are driven by outcomes whether it’s winning industry awards, doing best-in-class creative work, or overachieving on ROI. It also addressed how, in uncertain economic times, marketers are under even greater pressure to deliver.
According to the speakers, while those moments of ‘visible’ high performance are the most memorable, success starts a long time before marketers take the victory lap. Just as in sports, 20% of ‘glory’ is made possible by 80% of preparation time. So what habits and behaviours do marketers actually need to nurture to succeed?
On her part, Chatterton noted that what high performance means to her in marketing is a team that is agile, autonomous, market aware, but ultimately the one that drives results and value within the resources that are available in a similar way that athletes or elite sport team prepare for many months up on to the last race or final game.
Montalbano on the other hand noted that marketing is a means to an end, and awareness to drive sales or to drive sales directly with a high performing team. He added that the end result that is seen is just the tip of the iceberg as most of the work happens beneath the surface. He mentioned that, at the end of the day, the goal is to add value to the brands and the industry.
According to Chatterton, recent research has shown that just around 20% of marketers felt that their team was high performing. She said it was surprising to her because there is an increasing pressure to perform or demonstrate ROI from work, which seems to be low.
However, Montalbano said it’s surprising to him because 60% of people think about driving brand awareness through competitive impact but 40% don’t think about what marketing is about.
Speaking on what hinders high performance, Chatterton said, “Team spending 45% too much time in reactive mode versus strategy mode, 39% company structure or process being too rigid, 44% high performance not being clearly defined or understood while 37% communication breakdowns and a lack of collaboration.”
While speaking on some of the issues that affect high performances, the expert noted that communication and collaborative effort should be a crucial element to consider.
Advising on how to drive high performance, the speakers said 80% of high performance comes through effective team work, adding that the collective energy of a high-performance team is greater than some of its parts.
“It is not your immediate team that you need to bring in on this, marketers need to make sure they are bringing the creative designers, content team, the legal, the finance, the sales, and the enablement team from the get go. When we do all of our basic work, all partners would be brought together as a team.”
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