How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO Courtesy of HubSpot

8/8/2019 How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO Courtesy of HubSpot

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ISBN: 978-1-932353-79-2

How to BecomeIndispensable

to Your CEO

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MarketingSherpa Special Report: How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO

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How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO

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Contents

How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO ...............................4

Whats wrong with the current CEO/CMO relationship? ..................................4

What the CEO Wants From a CMO .............................................8

Section 1.01 Interview your CEO ormally ................................................9

Section 1.03 Report on the results o your eorts regularly ...................16

Section 1.04 Behave like a leader in all circumstances ..........................20

Section 1.05 Communicate with your CEO eectively ...........................24

Occupational Personalities Your Most PowerulCommunication Tool ..................................................................25

Type 1: The Technical Personality ..............................................................26Section 1.06 The Technical Personality: Specic types ..............................31

Type 2: The Financial Personality ...............................................................33

Type 3: The Legal Personality ....................................................................35

Type 4: The Sales Personality ....................................................................36

Type 7: The Mixed-Bag Personality ...........................................................42

Type 8: The Jerk Personality ......................................................................42

About the Author: Kristin Zhivago ..............................................44


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Whats wrong with the current CEO/CMO relationship?

I youre in marketing, you dont need anyone to tell you how dysunctional

and strained the CEO-to-CMO relationship has become. You live it every

day. Over the last year, you have probably ound yoursel in one o these

situations:

You have presented a thorough and well-thought-out marketing plan

to your CEO. Now youre discussing it. The CFO is in the meeting.

More than once, the CEO turns to the CFO and asks, What do you

think about this? The CFO expresses his doubts. They both turn

to you and ask you to justiy your recommendations. The item theyre

questioning is so appropriate to you that you werent prepared or

them to question it. Your attempt to dispel their doubts ails. The

meeting ends with more questions than answers, very ew decisions,

and your tail between your legs. You eel like all that work you did is

wasted.

Your CEO has just stormed into your oce. Why are we slipping in

our rankings? he asks, waving a report. Didnt we just double our

SEM spending last quarter? What the hell is going on?

Youve just received an email rom your CEO. He is orwarding anemail rom one o your companys top technical people. The technical

person has been thinking about the way the company is positioning

its product, and she is questioning whether it is exciting enough. I

just dont think our message is competitive enough, she complains in

the email. The CEO, in his email to you, says, I think she has a point.

He cites examples o websites and emails he has seen that he thinks

are more exciting. When you look at his examples, you sigh and

shake your head. Most o them are promoting products aimed at a

completely dierent audience and selling in a completely dierent

How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO


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market. You know its going to be dicult to address this issue with

the CEO without looking like a deensive complainer.

The CEO just had lunch with the Sales VP. When your CEO gets back

to his oce, he sends you an email: Stop by when you have a

moment. Youre in his oce a ew minutes later. He looks up, and

says, I just had lunch with Susan. Shes not happy with the tools that

marketing is giving her. In particular, the most recent presentation on

the Omega 3 is just not resonating with customers. Can you talk to

her? You nod and walk out, grumbling under your breath. You and

Susan worked on that sales presentation together and she seemed

happy with it then. You wish she had come to you beore complaining

about it to the CEO.

The most recent meetings youve had with your CEO are less than

satisying. In act, theyve been downright contentious. His mood

seems to have shited somehow. Hes questioning everything you do.

He just doesnt have aith in your decisions. Youre beginning to

wonder i its time to start circulating your resume.

Whats happening in all o these situations? Bottom line: Your CEO does

not trust you to do marketing in the same way that he trusts other C-level

executives to do their jobs. He doesnt question the Chie Technology Ocer,

Chie Operations Ocer, Chie Financial Ocer, and Sales VP the way he

questions you.

There are many reasons or this distrust. Here are a ew:

Anyone who has ever seen a commercial assumes they know

something about marketing. It gives them, in their minds, the

authority to question everything you do.

The Sales VP talks to customers all day. He has convinced the CEO

that he knows more about customers than you do.


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The sales sta, who must sell to pay their mortgages, complain

constantly about whatever marketing gives them. In every meeting

with customers, they think, I I just had X, this meeting would begoing a LOT better. When they arent talking to customers on the

phone, theyre blaming marketing or every sale they cant close.

The CFO, CTO and Sales VP are able to show a direct correlation

between their activity and results. As you know, its oten dicult to

link marketing activity to revenue results.

Marketing methods and technology are changing aster than ever, and

each new methodology is rie with vendors promising miraculous

results. When your results are less impressive than the promises, the

CEO wonders about your abilities.

Most marketing people nd it dicult to communicate eectively

with certain types o CEOs especially those with a technical or

nance background.

Most CEOs dont come rom a marketing background. Marketing is

something they have observed but not practiced or supervised. The

ever-changing jargon o marketing bafes them, and they mistrust

anything they dont understand.

Every so oten, a high-priced consultant will convince the CEO

either personally or because the CEO read the consultants book

that the answer to the CEOs problems is you guessed it

his new way o looking at marketing. It doesnt matter what youre

doing today. It doesnt matter what youve careully worked out with

the CEO (who agreed to everything youre doing). When that

consultants infuence takes hold, the CEO will be in your oce telling

you to change everything and start moving in this other, new

direction.


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In this age o instant communication, it takes time to design and

implement marketing programs. It takes even longer to determine

i theyre working or not. The longer your sales cycle, the more youare aected by this reality. C-level executives, who have been

accused o having the attention span o a gnat, have a hard time

waiting to see the impact and ROI o the latest marketing

campaign. Moreover, even the most patient CEOs have incredible

pressures pushing them to bring in more revenue. Waiting is dicult.

As serious as these problems are, they are small potatoes compared to the

biggest problem o all: Marketers have no idea how ineective they appear

in the mind o the CEO.

They get hired and they go to work. Over time, the CEO begins to worry that

hes not getting the data he needs, that the right things arent being done,

or that his marketing department is spending too much on things that arent

working. The CEO starts to question little things, then the larger things, then

everything.

The average tenure o a CMO is about two years; the average tenure or

CEOs is six years . This means, o course, that the average CEO will burn

through three CMOs while at the helm o his current company, and that he

burned through three CMOs in his previous position.

You dont have to be average. You dont have to suer the same ate. Youcan change the game at your company, with your CEO. You can become the

kind o CMO who is considered indispensable by your CEO a trusted and

respected member o the management team and the main driver o the

companys revenue stream.

Do you want that? Read on. This guide is or you.


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What the CEO Wants From a CMO

There are dozens o things a successul CMO must do. You could do them

all, and still be red. Why? You didnt ocus on the one thing you must

accomplish, the one thing that will overshadow all other aspects o your

work, the one thing that will determine your ultimate success or ailure:

You must earn the trust of your CEO.

I your CEO trusts you, you will be a welcomed and respected member o

the management team. You will be given the resources you need to do a

proper job. You will not be micro-managed. Even i something doesnt go as

well as you both had hoped, you wont be red.

Note that I said you have to earn the trust o your CEO. Any executive who

joins a company has to earn the CEOs trust. When youre rst hired, the

CEO has high hopes or you, but a part o their brain will still be in wait-and-

see mode. Youre an unproven resource. It will take time to earn a CEOs

trust.

To earn the trust o your CEO, there are ve things you must do. Most

CMOs do a little bit o each, but seldom give these activities the priority and

ocus they deserve. Well talk about all ve in detail in this guide. They are:

Interview your CEO ormally

Interview your customers continually

Report on the results o your eorts regularly

Behave like a leader in all circumstances

Communicate with your CEO eectively


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Section 1.01 Interview your CEO formally

Ater youve been hired, interview your CEO ormally beore you do

anything else. I youve been in your job or a while, interview your CEO

this week even though it will eel odd. Every day that goes by without

you doing this interview is another day when you think you know what

your CEO wants, and he thinks you know what he wants and youre both

probably wrong.

Make a ormal appointment with your CEO. Tell him you want to nd out

what his goals or marketing are, what his preerences are, and whats been

done so ar. Allow two hours or this meeting. You can do it over lunch, but

take plenty o notes as you eat.

You might think you know the answers to all o these questions i youve

been in your job or a while. Ask them anyway. Tell your CEO that you want

to make absolutely sure you are on the same page strategically and that you

want to know your CEOs latest thoughts on these subjects.

Ask:

What are your goals or the company?

What is most important prot or market share (these are almost

always mutually exclusive you are either making a prot or plowing

the money back in, to grow your market share).

What are your most pressing concerns regarding marketing

and sales?

What rustrates you the most about marketing?

Which marketing vehicles/methods are most intriguing to you

right now?


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How do you eel about the current level o spending? Would you like

to see a shit in the current budget mix?

When it comes to measuring the return on marketing investment,

which statistics are most important to you?

Who do you consider your most important customers, and why?

Which products are most important to the company strategically?

What aspects o your products and services do you think are most

attractive to buyers?

What has been the history o marketing in this company? (Assuming

you dont know this already but, then again, you may learn

something new i you ask this question.) Make sure he tells you

which activities have generated the most revenue.

Which companies and/or campaigns do you admire most? Why?

Who do you think are your biggest competitors and why? What are

their greatest strengths and weaknesses?

Who do you consider your most important partners? Why? What do

you think we should be doing to make sure they have what they need

to partner with us successully?

Tell me about each member o the leadership team. Is there

anything I should know about them that will help me work with them

more successully?

What do you think is the companys brand? (My personal denition o

a brand, which is still holding up since I published this in 1994: Yourbrand is the promise your company keeps, not the one you make.

So, a better way to ask this question is, What are the promises


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customers expect us to keep? And, What is our unique promise

the one only we can keep?)

What is your own background? What are some o the lessons youve

learned about marketing during your career?

How much do you want to be involved in marketing eorts?

You need to know the answers to these questions beore you start doing

any work. They will save you rom the deathly guess-and-hope method,

where you do something, present it as a plan or a ait accompli, and watch in

dismay as your CEO makes it clear youve just stepped on one o his biggest

land mines. Youll be hobbling or months aterward. Everything you do will

seem lame. You may never recover.

Interviewing the CEO, and applying what you learn, will also help you to:

Avoid the mistakes o your predecessors.

Predict which ideas and concepts will work, which ones will not

work, and which ones might work i you can gure out how to sell

them successully to your CEO.

Understand what drives your CEO. Lets ace it, your CEO is your rst

customer. Not necessarily your most important customer that

privilege is reserved or your actual customers. But i you cant sell

the CEO on what you want to do, your actual customers will never

see any o your great marketing campaigns.

Sell your concepts to the CEO in a way that makes sense to them.

Knowing his observations and preerences will make it obvious to you

which methods will work and which ones will not.

Establish a bond with your CEO that could not be established any

other way. People have a need to be heard. People who manage


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companies, and hire a marketing person to represent them to the

outside world, want to know that their marketing ocer understands

them and shares their concerns and goals. Spend these ew hourswith the CEO and pay careul attention to everything he says. He will

at least know that you care and that you are taking the steps that

will lead to success.

State and deend the CEOs preerences the ones that apply to

your area o expertise when hes not in the room. Its easy to get

into an argument with your COO, CFO, Sales VP, or CIO about

marketing. I you are certain that your approach refects your CEOs

views and desires, you will be able to condently deend your

decisions. Attacks will also be blunted when you have the CEO on

your side.

Again, even i youve been working or the same CEO or a while, and you

talk requently, this interview is critical to your career. You might eel a little

shy about asking or the time. But hell make the time, because hell know

youre doing the right thing.

Section 1.02 Interview your customers continually

I know, I know. Youre getting 200 to 300 emails a day, many o them rom

people inside the company who are depending on you or some kind o

helpul response. Your day is lled with back-to-back meetings. Youre lucky

to get lunch every day, much less spend an hour on the phone talking to a

real, live customer. I know how easy it is to sit in my oce, at 11 p.m., ater

answering my last email, and think, Darn, I should have called a customer

today.

Next to understanding what your CEO really expects rom you and rom

your marketing program calling customers is the most important part o

your job. Its more important than all the emails youll ever get in the course


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o your employment. Its more important than all the Web pages youll help

launch, the email campaigns, the SEO and SEM, the events, the PR, the

blogs ... everything. Why? Because i you arent personally interviewingcustomers, all those other things you do will refect the corporate reality

rather than the customers reality. In other words, everything you do wont

be nearly as eective as it could be.

Your marketing copy will sound fat to customers vague, generic, lieless.

The product unctions you choose to eature will not be the ones that appeal

to customers; theyll be the ones that appeal to the squeaky wheels in your

company. The questions you answer on your website and in promotional

materials wont be the questions that customers actually need answers to.

The real career-killer, however, is that you wont be able to argue with

a salesperson in ront o your CEO and win. Salespeople are natural

convincers. They also spend every day with customers. And they always talk

about the last three sales calls as i they are a trend.

Im sure this will sound amiliar to you:

Dave (salesperson): I dont think that campaign will work.

Susan (CMO): Why not?

Dave: Because I just met with [names some big-company, big-budget

customer], and they say they arent interested in that. What they care about

is [whatever they said], not what youre talking about here.

Now, i Susan had been talking to two customers a week, ater a month,

shed have interviewed eight customers that month. Ater two months, 16.

I others in her department were also interviewing customers, Susan would

know what many customers were saying not just the last three lost sales.

And, shed be able to talk about denite commonalities among those she

interviewed.


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Shed be able to tell Dave, in ront o the CEO, that her conversations with

dozens o customers have established that this issue really is important

to them, which is why she eatured it in the campaign. I Susan was reallyon top o her game, shed be able to spout some statistics rom their

search engine metrics and their Web-based customer surveys that urther

supported her strategic decisions.

I you arent interviewing customers, its your word against everyone elses.

When the salesperson has been talking to customers and you have not,

youre sunk.

One skill most marketers have is the ability to spot a trend in the midst

o a lot o interview data. Salespeople dont have this skill. They tend to

be ar more enthusiastic about the issue o the moment than is justied

regardless o any data that are available. I you have the right data, you will

be better able to describe and justiy the trend, and the argument will be

over. I the salesperson is always the one in a meeting who makes sweeping

generalizations based on his last three calls, and you are always the person

who presents conclusions based on data that were gathered and analyzed,

guess who is going to earn the CEOs trust.

Marketers also have the ability to listen without arguing another skill that

salespeople lack or even scorn. A marketer who interviews customers will

get a lot more truth out o those customers than a salesperson, who will

never be able to resist the urge to contradict the customer usually in mid-sentence.

You must interview both current customers and prospects. Current

customers know a lot about your product and your company. They can tell

you what their buying process is, and what their concerns are. They can,

in essence, map out their complete buying process, rom start to nish,

in a way that will help you create a marketing program that supports that

buying process perectly and makes it a no-brainer or similar prospective

customers to buy rom you.


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Current customers will also reveal what they were really thinking as the

salesperson was trying to sell them. You can be sure they did not reveal that

inormation to the salesperson while they were being pitched.

Why? No one ever tells salespeople what they are really thinking.

Salespeople think they know what buyers are thinking, but theyre wrong.

A salesperson can leave a prospects oce convinced that he has almost

made the sale when, in act, the prospect decided, early in the meeting,

that hed never do business with that salesperson. Why didnt the customer

say so? It would just lead to more renetic selling. So, the customer just sits

there, smiling and nodding, until the salesperson is nished. The customer

lets the salesperson think that he is making the sale while intending to

back out later on.

Its important or you to make this dynamic clear to the CEO when the time

is right. All you will have to do is ask the CEO: When was the last time you

told a salesperson everything you were thinking?

O course, Im not suggesting that all salespeople dont understand

customers. There are some rare, mature salespeople who have a pretty

good handle on what customers want because they listen more than they

talk, and they invite customers to tell them what theyre thinking. But we all

know, rom personal experience as buyers, that these salespeople are ever

so rare. We eel great relie, as buyers, when we meet one.

There is no substitute or your own personal interviews. It is the most

powerul tool you have at your disposal in the earn-the-trust game and in

your day-to-day political battles. Every marketer Ive ever coached, who

started talking to real customers on a regular basis, was transormed

rom someone who routinely got beaten up in meetings to someone who

dominated those meetings and won almost every argument.


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Section 1.03 Report on the results of your efforts regularly

Youve interviewed your CEO. You are interviewing at least a couple o

customers a week. Your marketing strategy, programs, and tactics are

accepted and supported by your CEO. Revenues are increasing. Lie seems

good.

Too bad theres a big, at fy in the ointment.

The problem: I you arent measuring your results and reporting them,

sooner or later other managers, the CEO, and the board will start askingquestions you cant answer. That day will be a turning point in your

relationship with the CEO, and it will be dicult to recover.

Unortunately, ater you make a commitment to measuring the results o

your eorts, the next thing you will have to contend with is metrics that are

painul, messy, and dicult. No one has ound a painless way to measure

ROI. Youll have to suck it up to succeed.

There are some best practices, however, that will make it tolerable:

Decidewhatyouretryingtomeasureroma35,000-oot

perspective.Discuss this with your CEO and the rest o your

management team. What do they want to know about the marketing

and selling eort? You probably know this already, but examples o

lead-to-sale conversion data points include:

1. How many leads are generated and where do they come rom?

2. Which lead-generating concepts, themes, and vehicles work best

both in terms o quantity o leads and protability o the resulting

sales?

3. How many sales are generated and rom which sources (ties

in to #2)?


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4. How quickly are leads responded to?

5. How are leads responded to (email, phone, etc.)?

CreateaConversionMap a diagram o your marketing program

(assuming you havent already). Show the sources o leads, where

those leads go, and how they are processed (replied to and ollowed

up on).

Adddatameasurementcheckpointstothemap.Keeping your

desired lead-to-conversion data points in mind and the tools you have

or tracking and reporting, then add data measurement checkpoints

to the map. These are the points in the lead-to-sale conversion

process where you can gather the data needed to answer the

questions being asked by the management team (including you). As

you do this part o the exercise, you will nd that you dont have every

data point covered with eective data-gathering tools. Youll have to

set up new methods or gathering and reporting on the data.

Dontobsessoverperectionwhencloseenoughisgood

enough and striving or perection simply isnt a protable exercise.

Just make sure you set everyones expectations about the data you

are gathering.

Hireadatamasterorthemarketingdepartment. Personally, i I

were a new CMO, this would be my rst hire. You can outsource just

about everything else in marketing, but you must have this person

working right by your side. Justiy this position by explaining to your

CEO that all relevant, dependable statistics come rom data, and

that data must be mined, managed, and manipulated into relevant

and understandable reports. No marketer has the time to create

marketing programs and mine data. Plus, the same person who does

one o those tasks well is not going to be very good at the other.

Thats just a human reality.


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OK, your budget is tight (whose isnt?), and data mining alone is not

a ull-time position. A person o this type will also do a great job o

running other projects that take advantage o his or her particularskills, such as running your email marketing campaigns; providing

reports to the sales orce that they can use to ollow up on lapsed

clients or new leads; creating management-riendly reports on your

website metrics and lead-to-sale conversion rates; creating and

managing image libraries; serving as a liaison between marketing and

IT. This person could also track the competition and report regularly on

any news, website changes, secret shopper activity, etc.

Usedatatoworkmoreeectivelywiththesalesorce.Youve

been successul at getting more leads into the system, but the

salespeople simply arent converting them. The right data will help

you convince your CEO that the companys revenues could be

increased with ocused sales training.

Diagram the lead-to-sale conversion process. Show how the

leads are handled, and what happens to them as they move through

the system. Make sure you do a good job o documenting where and

when leads disappear. For example, we all know that salespeople

cherry-pick the leads they get rom marketing; they pursue the

ones they think are most promising and ignore the rest. Beore the

age o databases, this was known as the leads in the drawer

syndrome. Salespeople would get a stack o leads rom marketing,pick the ones they elt were worthy o a call and stash the rest in their

desk drawer.

Knowing exactly who does this and at which stage in the lead-to-

sale conversion process will help you have a constructive

conversation with your Sales VP. The VP wont like your data, but

i youve done a good job o gathering the data and diagramming

what happens to leads, he wont be able to argue the validity o

it. Have your discussion about it in ront o the CEO, so you get top-

level support or the next steps to take.


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Findoutwhichreportsyoursalesmanagerarealreadygetting.

Very oten I nd that sales managers are getting reports rom IT that

marketing people dont even know about. Meanwhile, marketersstruggle to obtain certain kinds o data that is already being extracted

and reported on or the sales manager.

OutsourceyourSEOeorts.Search engine optimization is an ever-

changing game. The people who do it all day long, and who compete

with other vendors to get clients, are more likely to be up on the

latest methods and changing search engine algorithms. Find an SEO

vendor who comes highly recommended by clients because they

are achieving their desired goals and hire them. Make sure your

vendor is as amiliar with your Conversion Map as you are, and that

their eorts help you measure what you want to measure.

Its not enough to measure and report on statistics. You need to generate

a high-level report or everyone in the company. Then distribute it regularly

once a week, once every other week, or once a month (requency should

be guided by the length o your sales cycle).

The report should be one page o statistics and one page o text a couple

o paragraphs that describe your latest accomplishments. Also, mention

activities under way so everyone will know what you are working on. This

keeps the marketing-isnt-doing-squat complaints to a minimum.

Its dicult or people in the company to see the results rom marketing.

They know accounting is working when theyre getting paychecks,

vendors are paid, and the company avoids nancial problems. They know

development is working when prototypes and beta versions are produced.

They know manuacturing is working when products are going out the door.

They know sales is working when reps are dashing out to their cars or

talking on the phone all day. Is marketing working? Who knows? Who can

tell? I you dont tell them, they will make something up and it probably

wont be fattering.


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Section 1.04 Behave like a leader in all circumstances

Im actually sorry I have to bring this subject up. We all like to think were

behaving like leaders all the time. My experience with marketing people

at even the highest levels has convinced me that they must improve

their leadership behavior in one or two ways. Then they could signicantly

improve their standing with the CEO and among the CEOs trusted advisers.

What areas do you need to work on? Take this test and be honest with

yoursel.

Test-taking tip: Take this test by thinking o someone you consider to be

an eective leader, someone you respect and have enjoyed working with

(or or). Lets call that person a 10 in your mind. As you answer these

questions, compare yoursel to that person, and rank yoursel. You shouldnt

try to be just like that person, but you can more easily see where you need

to make improvements in your own behavior so you can become an even

better version o yoursel.

The purpose o this exercise is to identiy the areas where you need to make

a concerted eort to improve. The overall score is not important. You could

be a 10 in every area but one giving you a high score. But that one area

is keeping you rom earning the respect o your CEO.


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Behavior CharacteristicRanking

1 - 10

My CEO considers me a strategic partner, on par with the other

trusted advisers on the management team.

I am calm in all circumstances.

I am analytical I assume every problem can be broken down

into logical component parts, and solved.

I am discreet. I know exactly what to talk about, when and how

to talk about it, and when to be silent.

I tell the truth when I am asked a question, even i Im not proudo what the answer reveals about me.

I am intensely involved in the success o the company.

I am able to listen to the CEOs musings, rantings, and

descriptions o goals, with an open mind.

I know when and how to communicate with my CEO, and our

discussions are always ruitul.

On a tactical level, I am very organized. I am aware o the power

o a good system and I am always nding new ways to improvemy personal and departmental systems.

My people turn to me rst when theres a problem because they

trust my ability to solve those problems.

I am anatical about gathering data. I know where our best leads

are coming rom, and which areas o our lead conversion process

need improvement.

I am constantly updating mysel on the latest technically oriented

marketing methods.

While I do stay up to date with the latest methods, I also make

sure that I dont go overboard I make sure that I know the

new methods will reach my customers beore I invest heavily in

them.

I delegate eectively.

I have a deep, personal understanding o our customers.

I understand, based on my own interactions with customers,

what they want rom our company, the concerns they have as

they buy our type o product, and how they want to buy.

I work well with my peer in sales, and we oten present our

concepts to the CEO as a united ront.


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A serious weakness in any one o these areas will tarnish your reputation.

Every time your CEO hears about yet another situation where your

weakness was a actor, he will think less o you and trust you less. Ater awhile you will have used up all the goodwill in your trust bank, and your

tenure will be over.

It may seem unair that marketers have to keep so many plates spinning

to get all these things right while at the same time sweating to meet

deadlines, trying to keep up with the food o email and vendor pitches,

making sure you understand the latest technology, etc., etc., etc. The only

consolation I can give you, perhaps, is that people in other positions eel the

same way that there is so much required o them, and they simply dont

have the time or resources needed to get it all done.

But I have met marketers who do get it all done, who do have the respect

o their CEO, who are disciplined and organized, who manage and delegate

eectively, who solve every problem calmly and eciently, and who manage

to keep up to date with developments in marketing methods and tools. I can

also tell you that they didnt get there because they were naturally that way.

No one is born a manager. People learn how to be eective managers the

hard way. It starts with some conscious choices. Here are some o the

choices these people have made, which have resulted in their success:

They never gossip. They never say something about anyone, behindthat persons back, that they wouldnt say to their ace. This includes

people they work or, people who work or them, customers,

vendors...anyone.

They always make sure theyve heard both sides o the story

and have gathered any other pertinent inormation beore coming

to a conclusion or making a decision.

They do not allow their employees to make sweeping, negative

generalizations about customers, co-workers, or managers. They


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always nip personal attacks in the bud. They turn everyones attention

instead to getting the acts on any situation, then solving whatever

problems need solving.

They do not burden others in the company with their personal

problems. Sure, a little chatting around the water cooler or during

lunch is ne, but they never, ever engage in a conessional

conversation.

They treat everyone with courtesy and respect, rom the receptionist

to the CEO. People notice this, and trust them.

They behave like a good leader would behave even beore they

become a leader. When its time or a promotion, its obvious who

should get that promotion because the leadership behavior is an

observed and proven characteristic.

They dont play the victim. They never complain about their boss totheir sta.

They work hard to give their own employees the tools they need

to get the job done. I something is keeping someone rom

accomplishing what they need to accomplish, they nd a way to solve

the problem.

When there is negative news to deliver, they do it with grace and

proessionalism. They use language that tells people exactly what is

going on, without sugar-coating it or dumbing it down.

Over the years, I have met many marketers who just dont understand that

their own behavior is creating their own personal glass ceiling. They think

they should have been promoted. They think they are eective. But they

routinely choose to behave in ways that run contrary to the behavior Ive just

described. They wonder why theyre not being promoted. What they dont

realize is that their boss would love to promote them i only they would

behave in a way that justied that promotion.


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You can rise to the top o the CEOs list o trusted managers and advisers.

You just have to behave like someone who belongs there.

Section 1.05 Communicate with your CEO effectively

Make no mistake. Convincing your CEO (the whole management team) to

do the right thing is essential or you to do the job you were hired to do.

Marketers are proessional communicators, right? So why do so many CEOs

and CMOs have so much trouble communicating? Why do so many CEOseel like they arent getting straight answers rom their CMOs? There are

several reasons:

The CMO talks to the CEO in marketing-speak, which the CEO

pretends to understand, or thinks they understand, but doesnt, really.

The CMO is araid to say, I dont know. Instead, the CMO dances,

and the CEO thinks, Shes dancing again. Now I know I cant trust

her answers. What the CEO wants is or the CMO to either answer

with condence, because they know or say I dont know but Ill try

to nd out.

The CMOs answers seem vague to the CEO. CEOs want numbers;

CMOs oten deliver anything but a number. I this happens oten, the

CEO will discount everything the CMO says.

The CMO doesnt communicate with the CEO according to the CEOs

occupational personality type. What is an occupational

personality? Theyre the group o characteristics shared by people

who choose a certain occupation or type o position.


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Occupational Personalities Your Most

Powerful Communication ToolCEOs dont start their careers as CEOs; they always start in some other

type o position and work their way up. They rise to the top o the heap

ater holding positions in a certain area technical, sales, nance, legal,

operations, manuacturing, or marketing. Even i theyve held several types

o positions, the bulk o their experience will be in one area. People who

are attracted to and work in a particular occupation tend to share some

communication characteristics.

Knowing your CEOs occupational personality will help you start

communicating more eectively with your CEO and right away. Youll be

able to abandon the communication methods that are strained, and start

using methods that work.

For you to take advantage o the ollowing inormation about occupationalpersonalities, you need to know your CEOs career history. Its not enough

to have seen his resume; you need to hear him tell you why he got into his

chosen area o expertise, and what happened to him and how he changed

as he rose in the ranks. You cant assume that just because he spent

some time as a salesperson he is really a salesperson at heart. You need to

understand which one o the occupational personalities is the real him.

Once youre sure o your CEOs dominant occupational personality, study

that type o person in the section below.

You will also benet rom reading the other sections, since your CEO is not

the only type o person you interact with. You have to sell your concepts

to others on the management team as well, and they each have their own

occupational personality.


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Type 1: The Technical Personality

All technical people share the same traits:

Technologistsdontcarewhatpeoplethink. This is a problem

because marketing is all about what people think. Fortunately, there is

a way around this problem. Always present perceptions as aggregate

data supported by anecdotal evidence. Never attempt to convince

the technologist with anecdotal evidence alone; marketers who do

this are usually laughed out o the technical CEOs oce and told to

get your acts together and then come back to me. Always present

the data rst, then tell the story. The story will back up the data and

the CEO will use it to sell your ideas to others but you will never get

this kind o support rom the CEO without rst presenting the data.

Technologistsarelogicalfrstandalwaysexceptwhentheyre

outotheircomortzone.The good news: You can always rely on

the tendency o a technologist to preer the logical approach. I yourapproach is logical, you will have very satisying conversations where

the two o you ne-tune the logic, and then proceed with the project.

The bad news: I he doesnt know much about a subject, he may nd

himsel out o his comort zone, and the conversation can get

subjective and heated very quickly. When that happens, you have

two choices: Explain why your approach is a logical course to ollow

(i it really is) or, shut up and let him rant.

Even i his rant is lled with inaccuracies, dont bother to argue until

you have some solid data to show him. Then youll be operating back

in his comort zone and can proceed to make progress together.

One o the problems marketers have when they discuss marketing

with their CEO is the approach they use: An inside-out (company)perspective, rather than an outside-in (customer) perspective. You

ask or trouble i you do that. When you look at things rom the

company perspective, everything is driven by politics and subjectivity.


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Decision-making degenerates into an argument, and arguments

are won by the people with the most power or the best debating

skills. Decisions will not be based on marketing realities.

On the other hand, i you approach marketing rom an outside-in

perspective where customer needs and preerences dominate the

arguments cease (well, almost). You end up having logical

discussions, and the resulting decisions are sensible even to

customers.

A technical CEO can understand that the customer has a buying

process and i you support that buying process, you will make more

sales. The goal then is to make it easy or the customer to buy.

When you look at marketing and selling rom this perspective, you

can more easily identiy where the barriers to the sale are, and what

you must do to eliminate them. What are the concerns that buyers

have? How can we respond to them most eectively?

When you look at selling rom the companys perspective as in

How can we sell more? the course is not clear. There are

millions o answers to that question. When executives start trying

to sell more, their suggestions are always based on what they

have experienced elsewhere (which is oten inapplicable), what they

think competitors are doing, what the company has done already, etc.

The person missing rom all o these experiences, preerences,opinions, and belies is the customer. The customer is out there,

trying to buy something and, more oten than not, the companies

selling those things actually make it more dicult or the customer to

buy.

Diagram your customers buying process, and show how your

marketing (and sales) eorts make it easy or the customer to buy.

Your CEO will be able to understand and support the logic o

your approach. Your CEO will be more likely to approve your budget

recommendations which brings us to the next point ...


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Technologistsreactpositivelytodiagrams.The most eective

way to bridge the gap between marketing-speak and technologist-

speak is to use a diagram. Diagram everything that lends itsel to adiagrammatic orm your marketing processes, your campaign

strategy, the path that your leads ollow rom initial inquiry to nished

sale to ater-sale support, website visitor pathways, etc. A diagram

will provide a context and structure or your conversations. It will

eliminate the conusion that occurs when you lapse into marketing

jargon while explaining.

When you say brand, or search engine marketing, you know

exactly what you mean. I you could read your CEOs mind, and

you knew what he was thinking when you said brand or search

engine marketing, youd gasp. Youd understand why diagrams are so

important.

The other good thing about diagrams is that they put the ocus on

processes and their relationships, not concepts. Marketing used to be

80% creative and 20% logistics and technology. Now its just the

opposite. Youre expected to be the master o todays marketing

world which is 20% creative and 80% logistics and technology.

Diagrams help everyone understand how process-centric marketing

has become and how important it is to understand and manage those

processes.

Technologistswontmicromanageyouitheytrustyou,buttheywill

micromanageyouitheydont.Once youve earned a technologists

trust as long as you dont do anything too crazy, they will leave

you alone to do your job, and they will support you in meetings. But

i you havent earned their trust, they will pick at you like a

woodpecker. They will ask tough questions. They will scold you

publicly, even in ront o customers or the press (remember, theydont care what people think). They will ask anyone they trust or input

about your programs and strategies because you havent given them

the answers they need.


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I you continue ailing to meet their expectations, they will put you on

their worry list. I youve been on their worry list or a while, theyll

move you to their take action list, and they will start tosystematically build their case or your dismissal.

Technologistsrownonextravagance.Technical types or the most

part are airly rugal. Yes, we can all think o ree-spending technical

CEOs, but they are the celebrities o the business with money to

burn and egos to stroke, not the normal technical type who starts a

company or runs it. You will have to justiy every penny you spend.

Technologistsneedtimetothinkbeoretheyreplytoaquestion.

One o the biggest mistakes you can make with a technical person

is to ask question #2 beore youve given them time to compose

their answer to question #1. Some people compose their sentences

on the fy beore considering the answer. Technologists actually

compose their sentences even whole paragraphs in their heads

beore they open their mouths to speak.

I youre having a conversation with a technologist, ask your question, and

then zip it. Let there be silence. Technologists will appreciate your giving

them time to compose their thoughts, rather than doing what most people

do ll in the silence with chatter or new questions. They will relax during

the silence, while composing their answers. When they see that you are

giving them time to think, you will have passed their rst test. They willbegin to trust you.

Technologists will cut you some slack, no matter what has happened, i

it was clear you were ollowing a sensible process. Technologists respect

people who move in a step-by-step manner. I something does go wrong,

they will question what happened; dont take it personally. Its just their way

o understanding where things went o the rails and start thinking about

what to do about it. They will be happy to help you, once you both have

agreed on a new plan o action.


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Technologistsunderstandsalesbetterthanmarketing.Marketing is

just too uzzy or them. Sales, on the other hand, seems logical. They

see it as an eort in = results out game. Thats why theyre morelikely to side with the Sales VP in a dispute. But i you stay in touch

with customers, ollow logical processes, and build measurement

into your marketing eorts, youll make the salesperson look

anecdotal and uzzy and the CEO will side with you when theres a

dispute.

Technologistscannotrespectamarketerwhodoesntatleast

makeanattempttounderstandthecompanystechnology.They dont

think technology is that dicult to understand. They applied

themselves to it, gured it out, and think anyone should be able to

do the same. Too many marketers just dont make the eort. They

think they can BS their way through a technical conversation. No

one is ooled, least o all your technical CEO. You wont be able to talk

about anythingwith your CEO i you cant converse about your

companys technology. Apply yoursel. Read the books. Google the

subject. Take the technologists to lunch and pick their brains. Have

them show you what theyre doing. Watch customers use the

product. Youll gure it out. And, once you do, you will nd that the

technologists in your company including your CEO respect you

and treat you like one o the boys. You will never be allowed into the

inner circle i you dont understand what theyre saying.

Technologistsarrogancecomesromignorance,notego. I know,

this is dicult to believe. So many technologists seem to be

incapable o empathizing with customers or seeing their own

invention rom the customers perspective. But I have proven to

mysel that even the most rabidly in-love-with-his-invention

technologist is able to empathize with customers i and only i you

nd ways to present customer needs and perceptions as data. Datathat have been careully gathered, analyzed, and logically presented.


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Yes, its true that many technologists tend to look down on people

who dont understand their technology. But they are smart enough to

know that i they cant sell products, their company wont succeed.

In other words, happy customers = revenue.

Think o this ormula as a reality channel. Stay tuned to that channel

in all o your conversations. Use data and customer interviews to

keep your CEO tuned to that channel.

Theyaskquestionstounderstand,notheckle. Some people enjoy

making others uncomortable by asking one tough question ater

another. Technologists, on the other hand, do this because they must

understand the truth, not because they are doing anything malicious.

I you get deensive, you are missing the point and the outcome will

be negative. I you simply answer their questions, calmly and

honestly, they will come to trust you.

Section 1.06 The Technical Personality: Specifc types

Everything Ive just written applies to all technical types. But there are also

sub-categories. Here they are:

Electricalengineerswork in an abstract world one that ew

people understand. They tend to be a bit more aloo than otherengineers. A bit distant. They also tend to be more status-conscious;

its their way o categorizing people and keeping things tidy in their

minds. Their desire or tidiness maniests itsel in their wardrobes;

they tend to be a bit better-dressed than other types o technologists,

which comes in handy when youre trotting your CEO out to the

public.

Mechanicalengineers are not so tidy. Their work requires them to

get their hands dirty once in a while in the real world. They work on


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large, physical systems, with people who work on machines. They are

more down to earth than electronics engineers; their successes

and ailures are more obvious to the average person, which makesthem more humble. Mechanical engineers have a strong sense o

justice, and the absurdity and politics o legal technicalities drives

them nuts. They are much riendlier than electronics engineers, and

are better able to empathize with customers.

Programmers enjoy debating. They live in an i/then/and/or

world. The possibilities are endless. When discussing marketing with

a programmer, you can easily get sucked into a vortex o minutiae.

Make the customer the ocus and keep bringing the discussion

back to that ocus, and your discussions will be productive. I you

dont do that, you can spend hours debating, and never actually

accomplish anything. Programmers dont deal with physical orces

as directly as their electronic and mechanical brethren. I some

code isnt working, they can create a patch or workaround. Thats why

programmers are less black and white than other technologists. They

are also more paranoid. Ater all, theyre only creating code and

code can be stolen or copied.

Programmers dream o developing a killer application. Their natural

tendency is to create things that will impress their programmer

riends rather than creating something a customer will nd easy to

understand, buy, and use. I your CEO is a programmer, usabilitytesting should be your #1 priority.

Webgeeks all into two camps: programming types and Web 2.0

types. Programming types tend to be older. They are classic

programmers. The Web 2.0 types are more socially adept than the

programmers. They know that usability is important. They spend more

time thinking about interactions and transactions. Theyre still inclined

to arrogance because theyre so smart, and because mistakes and

missteps are so easily corrected on the Web. Plus, as with all


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technical types, they are appalled at the laziness and stupidity

o the average user. But, they also know that customers =

revenue, and they are willing to make changes to be successul.

Scientifcandmedicaltechnologists oten try to avoid becoming

CEOs. Theyd rather be in the lab or practicing medicine. Their

biggest aspiration is to be recognized by their peers or making a

signicant discovery.

o Physicistsare logical in a very strange way. They have a great

sense o humor; they love doing radical things just to see what

kind o reaction they get. As long as youre honest and doing

things that make sense, the physicist will support your eorts.

I you dont mind having lunch with someone who oten spills

salad dressing on his shirt, youll have un working or a physicist.

o Chemistshave a sense o humor, but its more cutting than that

o the physicist. They tend to be atalistic and secretive. You wontever eel close to a chemist, but you can earn a chemists trust.

o Biologistsare classic research types. They want to study

everything. They tend to be shy and quiet. Approach the biologist

with gentleness since they tend to leave the room mentally

i things get too heated or uncomortable. I its obvious theyve

let, stop the meeting and ask i it would be better to continuethe meeting later. The biologist will appreciate your attentiveness

and either come back so you can continue the meeting or agree

that it is better to resume the meeting later.

Type 2: The Financial Personality

Its not uncommon or a CEO to come rom nance. They behave as onewould expect: They obsess about nancial results. They want data about

costs, leads, conversion rates, search engine results, return on investment,


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you name it. You will be expected to answer questions about minute details

o your budget. There is no way you will be able to satiate their appetite or

data without a data master in your department.

Finance people are persistent. Once theyve decided they need certain data

beore they can proceed, they will not budge until you have provided that

data.

They also believe they are closet marketing geniuses, and that people can

be manipulated just like numbers. They will come to you with all sorts o pet

ideas. Only data and testing will convince them that you might be right ater

all.

In all your interactions, lead with data and argue using data. Never try to

argue without data. They wont listen, and you wont win. I you have no

data, or insucient data, tell them youd like to postpone the discussion until

you have the data. Theyll let you do it. Thats the good news. The bad news:

You really will have to gure out how to get the data.

Financial types dont think much about customers. They dont naturally spend

much time thinking about them, and they dont normally have a high opinion

o them. You will need to nd ways to help the nancial CEO understand,

empathize with, and respect customers.

An example o this would be to nd one o your more intelligent customers

and interview that customer on the speakerphone during a leadership team

meeting. Radical? You bet. Memorable? Absolutely. Perception-changing? For

sure. Ive done this. Aterward, the entire team had a new appreciation or

the intelligence o and the need to listen to the customer.

I, in spite o all your eorts, the nancial CEO continues to look down on

customers (assuming you still want to work or him), your best allback

approach is to stop wasting time trying to get him to respect customers.

Focus your eorts on providing actual, quantitative proo that your

campaigns are working.


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One last note about nancial types: They preer analyzing data to making

decisions. Do whatever you can to ask or bite-sized decisions, where you

have specic data and you need a airly simple decision. In other words, iyou are developing a new strategic direction or the company, dont start

with the big idea. Youll get bogged down beore you start, because his rst

question will be: What kind o data do you have to support this strategy?

Instead, break the strategy into its component task/project parts, and get

approval or those parts. Once you have approval or almost everything, then

present the big idea and point out that its pretty much already in place, at

least operationally, and heres the data to prove it.

Type 3: The Legal Personality

As marketers, all o us have worked with the lawyers in the company. Weve

gotten copy approved, or instance, and handled other situations where legal

needed to be involved. Yes, these interactions can be painul, but its nothing

compared to what you will go through i your CEO is a lawyer.

On so many levels, marketing people and lawyers are undamentally

opposite.

Marketers ocus on what is possible; lawyers ocus on what

happened and how can we protect ourselves rom what might

happen?

Marketers ocus on growth; lawyers look or ways to contain and

document situations.

Marketers tend to be optimistic the glass is hal ull. Lawyers are

naturally inclined and proessionally trained to see the glass as hal

empty.

Lawyers are suspicious, marketers are not. Lawyers do not naturally

trust others, and they never will. O course, this means that


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employees and customers wont trust the CEO, either. And, as the

marketer, you will oten nd yoursel in the middle.

Lawyers will judge you more by who you know than by what you do

or who you are. Make a point o networking with high-level people

whenever you can, and drop names here and there. Its sad that you

have to resort to this, but its necessary i youre going to earn the

respect o a legal CEO.

A legal CEO will say that customers are important, but he wont

behave as i they are. There will be times when the legal CEO comes

right out and says: I dont care what the customer thinks, were

going to do it this way. Unlike the engineering or nance CEO, you

cant convince the legal CEO with data. Lawyers assume all data

can be manipulated. Your only real hope is to have your ideas

endorsed by someone the CEO respects. Again, hobnobbing and

name-dropping work best or the legal CEO.

Type 4: The Sales Personality

The best salespeople make lousy managers unless they consciously

abandon their natural tendencies. A salesperson who does grow up can

make a great manager. Youll have to decide where your sales CEO ts on

the maturity scale.

At the immature end o the scale, we have the salesperson who is

constantly running around like the building is on re. Theres always a crisis.

He lives or deadlines, pressure, and insurmountable odds. I there isnt any

danger nearby, he will create some.

I this is how your CEO behaves, you will nd yoursel in perpetual reaction

mode. Hell spend time with customers (thats the good news) and thencome back into the oce and change his strategy based on the needs

expressed by the last customer he visited (thats the bad news).


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He will be easily infuenced by others. For example, you and he will agree on

a strategy, and you will leave his oce to start implementing it. A ew hours

later, youll pop into his oce to ask a question about the strategy, and hellsay, Oh, hey, come on in. Im just on the speaker phone with our distributor

in the Northeast. Hes telling me that customers really want [some other

thing]. You need to hear this. It will probably change what we discussed

earlier today.

O course, eel ortunate that you stopped by his oce at that moment. He

would have orgotten to tell you that he had that conversation, and youd

spend the next week working on something that he no longer considered

valid. This is irritating the rst ew times it happens; it becomes demoralizing

over time. Most marketers quit sooner rather than later. Its just too dicult

working or a moving-target decision maker.

Salespeople go into sales because they can talk their way in and out o

anything. Thats why theyre such lousy managers. They dont have any

patience or research, planning, and analysis; they just want to nd out

whats happening and then react. They take great pride in their fexibility.

But companies need structure. Employees need to understand the overall

objective, agree with their managers on their role in meeting that objective,

and then be allowed to carry out that role with guidance and support rom

management. You will not get this rom an immature CEO with a sales

background.

Some salespeople do grow up. They realize they cant do everything

themselves. They realize that employees need structure. They recognize

their own weaknesses. They hire smart people to cover their weaknesses

in nance, operations, manuacturing, and marketing. They dont assume

they are smart about all these things, although they continue to learn. They

listen to customers and look or larger trends instead o reacting to the last

customer they talked to. They are enthusiastic, but not overbearing. These

CEOs are a pleasure to work or, and they will do a better job o supporting

your marketing eorts assuming you know the customer and can prove

that your marketing eorts are helping the company win new sales.


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A sales-oriented CEO, regardless o his maturity level, will not tolerate

marketing eorts that dont support salespeople. Youll need to make sure

you spend a lot o time asking salespeople what they need and giving it tothem including qualied leads. Otherwise you wont last long.

Sales-oriented CEOs appreciate salesmanship. Youll want to make sure

your presentation skills are rst class. Hell also keep several people in your

department busy creating presentations or him. Hell be very picky about

them, and will want to modiy them or each new pitch to a new customer,

the press, or a potential business partner.

Type 5: The Manufacturing Personality

People who start out on the actory foor, then work their way up the

corporate ladder, oten turn into eective CEOs. They understand the

pressures o the typical employee and, at the same time, know how to meet

deadlines and turn out a quality product. They are able to keep calm underpressure. They tend to talk straight and think straight.

Manuacturing people have a low tolerance or BS. When they ask a

marketer a question, they expect a actual, condent answer. I they dont

get one, theyll keep pushing until they do. Manuacturing people are not

overly ambitious. They rise slowly through the ranks. They oten become

CEOs later in lie, when it just seems like the next natural thing to do. Bythen, theyve had plenty o time to exercise their judgment and observe

how people act in certain situations. Theyve been conronted with, and

overcome, a wide range o problems.

Its dicult to surprise a manuacturing CEO or throw him o course. He will

be able to keep his eye on the desired goal while dealing successully with

the dozens o details and little crises that crop up every day.

Manuacturing CEOs make methodical but steady progress in pursuit o their

goals. They arent swayed by outside pressures or the latest management

ad. They usually achieve whatever they set out to accomplish.


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They also understand the power o an ecient process and the importance

o solid systems. Thats one o the rst things they dig into when they start a

new job: analyze the processes and the systems. They know that i they canget these two things working right, normal activities will proceed smoothly,

leaving everyone more energy to deal with out-o-the-ordinary situations.

You wont be able to sell a manuacturing CEO on the creative aspects o

your campaign unless and until you have convinced him that your processes

and systems are sound. Whenever you meet with him to discuss what

youre doing or present your plans, most o the questions he will ask will

target your processes and systems.

Marketers arent naturally strong in this area. They tend to go into marketing

because they like creating campaigns. As their careers progress, the more

successul ones improve their process and system skills. The less successul

marketers just keep doing what theyve always done, never moving beyond

their marketing communications positions. They retire as old-school marcom

managers. These people will not be promoted. They will nd themselves

working or a CMO who has managed to master processes and systems.

There are no shortcuts to winning the avor o a manuacturing CEO. Your

natural charm wont get you very ar. I you want to succeed with this type

o CEO, youll have to start analyzing your departments processes, bone

up on technology, and work closely with your IT people to make steady

improvements in your departments ability to create and measure yourcampaigns.

Type 6: The Marketing Personality

You would think it would be easy or a marketing person to work or a

marketing-oriented CEO. Sorry. It can be hell, really, although usually not as

bad as working or a lawyer or immature sales CEO.

Ive talked a great deal here about the weaknesses o various types o

CEOs. Marketers have their own. They are, as I have mentioned, not


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naturally strong in the areas o processes and systems. The smarter

marketing CEOs will learn everything they can about these areas, and hire

strong people to compensate or their weaknesses. But thats not why itstough working or a marketer.

Its tough because the marketing CEO will always think he can do your job

better than you can. As much as he wants to support you, there will be many

times when you know hes thinking, Thats just not very good. I could have

done better. He will be especially picky i hes a writer. I you can handle the

pressure, you will become a much better marketer as you strive to meet his

high standards.

The nicer CEOs will acknowledge when youve gotten it right, and youll

be able to move on to the next project. The not-so-nice CEOs will never be

satised. In those cases, youd be better o working somewhere else. The

rustration just isnt worth it.

I you want to sell your ideas to the marketing CEO, make sure you do athorough job o interviewing him long beore you present anything. He

will be very disappointed in whatever you present i you dont ask or his

ideas rst. He will want to be very involved in all the decisions you make

about marketing. Its not just a matter o understanding his goals. You must

know what he thinks you should do. He will have very strong opinions about

the types o ideas, vehicles, and methods you use to reach and convince

potential buyers. He will want to know all the details o your decisions, andthe reasons you made those decisions. I you have overlooked something,

he will let you know in ront o everyone.

Again, your best deense is a strong oense. Interview him thoroughly and

check in with him requently as you prepare your strategy, budgets, and

campaigns. He will want you to use vendors and marketing employees he

has used in the past. Respect his wishes to the extent that you evaluate

them all, but dont just roll over. You need to hire vendors and employees

who work or you, not him, so you arent dealing with the constant threat o

people going over your head to your boss and undermining your authority.


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There will be times when he insists on doing something the way he did

it in a prior job. I you dont think its the right course o action, youll have

to provide convincing evidence to support your opinion, using customerresearch. When you do this, you must tell him youre going to conduct some

research beore you do it and live with the act that he will consider it

disloyal. And, i the research proves that hes right or either o you could

be right then do it his way without rancor.

One way to keep him rom running your marketing eort is to keep him

busy. Assign someone in your department or at your PR house to set up a

lot o press appointments or him. Hell be glad to talk to the press and will

do a good job. (O course, you should only do this i it supports your overall

marketing strategy.)

Documents

How to Become Indispensable to Your CEO Courtesy of HubSpot