marketing operations leader guide to strategic planning

Marketing Operations Leader Guide to Strategic Planning, Budgeting & Management (SPB&M)

Produced by Infor and The Pedowitz Group.

IntroductionYour eyes are probably rolling back in your head when we mention words like planning and budgeting – not marketing’s favorite topics. Yet, marketing is in the midst of a wonderful transformation thanks to new customer behaviors and new technologies. For the first time, marketing is able to act like a business by credibly driving revenue and growth. Essential to this shift to a business orientation is the rise of the marketing operations (MO) function. The emerging MO leader is operationalizing marketing’s role as a digitally responsive growth driver and it requires a fresh and dynamic new approach to planning and budgeting. We call it SPB&M or MO-led Strategic Planning, Budgeting and Management.

Strategic planning, budgeting and management (SPB&M) is an emerging discipline managed by the marketing operations leader. SPB&M results in a responsive and actionable marketing plan and budget aligned to company and functional goals and KPIs. It takes the planning and budgeting process in marketing from a series of confusing, siloed and disjointed activities at a single point in time to a continuous process that is defined, managed and aligned through-out the company.

http://revmarketer.pedowitzgroup.com/Marketing-Operations-Interactive-White-Paper.html?utm_campaign=Financial-Services-Infor-Nurture&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email

http://www.pedowitzgroup.com/?utm_campaign=Financial-Services-Infor-Nurture&utm_source=document&utm_medium=email

http://www.infor.com/company/?utm_campaign=Financial-Services-Infor-Nurture&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email

Infor – infor.com | The Pedowitz Group – pedowitzgroup.com

Marketing Operations Leader Guide to Strategic Planning, Budgeting & Management (SPB&M) 2

As the role of marketing continues to transform from the “pens and mugs department” to a digitally responsive growth driver, it falls to the MO leader to orchestrate an effective SPB&M process. In this effort, marketing becomes integral to the strategy conversation in the company and a business partner to drive growth.

The Opportunity and The Challenge for the MO LeaderThe opportunity for the MO leader is to lead marketing to new levels of credibility, accountability, confidence and visibility. In the SPB&M process defined in this paper, marketing is elevated to a strategic partner in running the business and the MO leader is elevated from running a “button pushing” operation to being a strategic player in growth and performance. The impact on the business is a repeatable, predictable and scalable marketing operations group that enables highly efficient growth.

Successfully running a SPB&M practice also enhances the career opportunities of the MO leader. As more companies realize marketing can and should be a growth driver in the organization, executives are looking for those marketing operations executives who have a proven track record in operationalizing a growth engine. Taking more of an investment portfolio perspective to the operations of marketing, the marketing operations leader who can demonstrate a growth agenda including broad expertise in planning, budgeting and optimizing operations, will have a long and full career.

The challenge for the MO leader is that she is working in unchartered waters. The rise of the marketing operations function that helps scale efficient growth is still relatively new and not broadly adopted. As this role continues to rapidly gain importance, the broader skills of operationalizing growth beginning with a professional process for planning, budgeting and optimizing the activities of marketing, will be in great demand. The ultimate challenge for the MO leader will be to help run marketing like a business.

Reading This Paper

Given the importance of SPB&M to marketing and the company, you will learn

■ Best practices from real MO leaders (Quotes and case study vignettes)

■ A 5-step model for how to professionally operationalize the SPB&M process

■ The key tools to ensure success of the SPB&M process

■ The potential barriers to implementing the SPB&M process

■ Details of the new role of the MO leader in orchestrating the SPB&M process and how that differs from “business as usual”

■ How a well-run SPB&M process benefits other stakeholders

■ Next steps for getting started





Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

A 5-Step model for how the MO leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 orchestrates the SPB&M process5-Step SPB&M model explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Lead and manage change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 1: Facilitate alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 2: Mediate pro forma consensus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Step 3: Broker shared KPIs and publish plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Step 4: Track and measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Step 5: Responsive adjustment and optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The difference when the MO leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 orchestrates the SPB&M process

SPB&M 5-step model benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 for each key stakeholder group

Next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25





A 5-Step model for how the MO leader orchestrates the SPB&M processThe SPB&M model embodies the practical experience of MO leaders who have established world-class SPB&M practices that result in goal and KPI achievement. The model is designed with the understanding that organizations may be at different levels of planning and budgeting maturity and will therefore use the model based on their own, unique business conditions.

The SPB&M model includes two main functions – Planning and Managing. This is an important distinction of the SPB&M process. It represents strategic planning, budgeting and management as a continuous process of improvement, not a one and done effort.

Planning includes three steps – 1. Facilitate Alignment, 2. Mediate Pro Forma Consensus and 3. Broker Shared KPIs and Publish Plan. Managing encompasses two steps – 4. Track and Measure and 5. Responsive Adjustment

and Optimization.

While not a linear step in the model, a key element is Define and Lead Change. This is such a critical driver of success, we have chosen to call it out separately and have it appear in every step of the model. It is represented by the horizontal bar across the bottom of the model.

The SPB&M model is further defined in the following section. This segment of the paper includes an explanation of each step, a description of a toolset for success, and a list of the most common barriers to adoption of the new process.

Figure 1. The 5-step model for orchestrating the SPB&M process

Define & Lead Change

Planning Managing

1.Facilitate

Alignment

2.Mediate Pro Forma

Consensus

3.Broker Shared KPIs

& Publish Plan

4.Track & Measure

5.Adjust & Optimize





5-Step SPB&M model explanation

Lead and manage change While the planning process has a reputation of being painful for everyone involved, it is what sets the table for marketing for the year. No part of the organization is in a better position to lead, change and evolve this capability than the MO leader. When the MO leader assumes responsibility for the SPB&M process, it is often a major change that must be closely managed. Change must be managed in terms of participating in a new process, learning a new way of working and collaborating with other groups, adopting complementary and shared goals and KPIs and measuring results.

Ensuring this change is managed not just in your marketing group, but across all elements of marketing and other functional groups requires defining and governing a specific change management initiative. As part of the change management initiative, the MO leader acts as a mediator, counselor, advisor and project manager in both the planning and on-going execution process. By constructing the budget planning and on-going optimization process as a core capability and a professional practice, the MO leader defines the tools, key processes and barriers to address in order to achieve success.

Defining and Leading Change at Global Test & Measurement FirmChief Marketing Operations and Technology Leader

The leader put into place a decision-making model that accelerated time to consensus in the planning

and budgeting process. The model was transparent and outlined who played which part at each stage

of the planning process. Every stage of the planning process was clearly articulated and the roles and

responsibilities for every function was included. They named and branded the process. The new process

has allowed the team to define and effectively lead change in the planning process.

1 2 3 4 5





Tools for Defining and Leading Change The tools most often utilized for defining and leading change include the use of third-party tools and data as well as specific skills and training.

Third party tools and data ■ Benchmarks of similar organizations ■ Benchmark results of MO leadership in SPB&M ■ Business case templates for marketing to create budget rationale ■ Analysts frameworks ■ Standard process methodology

Skills and training ■ Develop collaboration, influence and communications skills ■ Collaborate with key stakeholders to build new process ■ Develop benefits of the new process for each key stakeholder group ■ Train each stakeholder group on the new process

Common Barriers to Defining and Leading ChangeThe most common barriers to defining and leading change are found in lack of leadership and too much variance in the system.

Short-changed on leadership ■ Lack of executive support ■ Lack of marketing operations leadership ■ Turnover in management ranks contributes to interdepartmental strife ■ Short-sighted, immediacy driven focus could disrupt more strategic plans ■ Unstated belief that the organizational impact is not significant enough to merit change management

Too much variance ■ Variance in levels of participation especially at regional or business unit levels ■ Variance in resources availability (technology, process, frameworks) ■ Variance in the amount of planning detail provided by various departments makes rolling up to one plan difficult

■ Variance in the use of templates departments need to complete and to aid their planning ■ Variance in delivering key documents to the process - Failure of one or more departments to hit deadlines slows the process down





Step 1: Facilitate alignment

The hallmark of an MO leader driving an SPB&M process is she must be a master at facilitating alignment within the various groups of marketing and with the external stakeholder groups including sales, finance, and executives. Alignment on the planning process, strategy, goals, and KPIs is critical.

This may be one of the more challenging aspects of the SPB&M process depending on your current cross-functional working relationships. While marketing may be happy with the new process, other groups like sales and finance do not understand how marketing now plans to participate in the annual planning and budgeting process.

“We win together and we lose together…”

– Senior Director of Marketing OperationsCloud based Communications Firm

Gaining alignment at VerintDan Brown, VP of Marketing Operations at Verint

Interview with TPG

Dan Brown established the MO function at Verint seven years ago and part of his responsibility included

defining and leading the SPB&M process. Marketers in general don’t like budgeting and were confused

and daunted by this annual and quarterly challenge. Under Dan’s leadership, a solid project management

effort for SPB&M was launched and marketing quickly adopted the new process. However, getting groups

outside of marketing to accept the new process took a bit more work. Dan engaged with every key

stakeholder group and shared the benefits they would enjoy from adopting the new process. Dan served

as a mediator, counselor, advisor and project manager in both the planning and on-going execution

process. Over time, he proved the value of marketing’s role in the new process and is now engaged with

1 2 3 4 5





Tools for facilitating alignment The most commonly used tools for facilitating alignment include methods to gain collaboration. One can also leverage the branding of SPB&M as a change initiative, and the associated training, to drive alignment.

Collaboration ■ Co-developing the new process with clear roles and responsibilities for each stakeholder group ■ Co-identifying benefits to each stakeholder group ■ Co-instituting common and complementary goals and objectives aligned to organizational strategy

Branding the initiative ■ Name and brand the initiative ■ Transparent communication ■ Training on the new process

Common Barriers to Facilitating AlignmentThe most common barriers to facilitating alignment include lack of a cross-functional team mentality, poorly established organizational guidance and marketing legacy behaviors.

Lack of a cross-functional team mentality ■ Groups do not want to work together ■ Other groups don’t see the value of marketing in their process ■ Changing historical competitiveness to collaboration or co-opetition

Poorly established organizational guidance ■ Organizational objectives are not clearly defined and communicated ■ Strategic plans aren’t completed early enough to be usable input in budgeting ■ Strategic plans don’t exist at all

Marketing legacy behaviors ■ Marketing plans do not appear aligned to sales and channel plans ■ Reluctance to defund items that have been done in the past ■ Inability to defund events/shows that required commitment 6-12 months prior





Step 2: Mediate pro forma consensus

A pro forma is a financial statement of your earnings and expenses and is the key ingredient to getting your budget approved. Pro formas speak the language of business and by developing a pro forma as part of your marketing plan, you demonstrate to your company that marketing operates like all the other business units of the firm.

A marketing pro forma is part of your budget and it includes your expenses and your expected returns. Don’t worry if you can’t estimate a return for every dollar of marketing spend. Measure what you can. You might be surprised at the difference it will make.

Consider the last marketing plan and budget you built. Quite often, they consist of a list of activities that will be performed in each quarter and how much it will cost. If this is what your CFO sees every year, no wonder marketing budgets are often the first budgets cut when a company hits a bump in the road. The CFO sees a big set of costs and zero return.

By incorporating a pro forma including costs and returns based on benchmarked data, competitive analysis and any history of prior years’ performance, you’ll have a much better chance at getting your budget approved and keeping it all year long.

What you measure, mattersSenior Director of Marketing Operations

Cloud based Communications Firm

The senior director implemented an expense tracking process to campaigns. He essentially has two

buckets of expenses – those tied to campaigns and those not tied to campaigns. For those expenses tied

to campaigns, he is able to estimate conversions to ROI. Once he made this simple change in managing

expenses, it had a big impact on how marketing and the company viewed marketing’s ability to provide

ROI. By starting with what he could measure, he helped his team think and act in financial terms.

“Aligning with the finance department was huge to our success!”

– Senior Director of Marketing OperationsCloud based Communications Firm

1 2 3 4 5





Once alignment on strategy, goals and KPIs are understood and in progress, the MO leader then works with the different marketing groups to build an initial set of pro formas. These pro formas begin with a benchmarking exercise including key benchmarks like the average spend and return in different categories of marketing. Having benchmarked data helps to prepare and defend realistic pro formas – both in the initial planning and review stages.

The critical job of mediation is the next step for the MO leader. This is the negotiation up, down and across and with other departments on budgets and goals. The outcome of a successful mediation is a set of marketing pro formas that reduce redundant spend and are aligned to achieving complementary and shared goals and KPIs.

Tools for mediating pro forma consensusThe best tools for mediating pro forma consensus include setting standards and providing key technology and training.

Setting standards ■ Benchmark data ■ A common language (aka a taxonomy) ■ A pro forma template used by all groups ■ A standard process for reconciliation ■ Commonly used methodology for estimating returns

Technology and training ■ Secure, private, network location for all the plans and pro formas with some standards around versioning

■ Training on how to use the pro forma ■ Broker, influence, collaboration and mediation skills





Common Barriers to Achieving Pro Forma ConsensusThe most common barriers to achieving pro forma consensus include legacy experience inhibiting change and inability to change prior plans.

Legacy experience ■ Unwilling partners in other departments ■ Teams are rarely 100% comprised of people that can easily adapt to new focus areas ■ Inexperienced departmental leader(s) unable to keep up with fast paced project ■ Leadership has not provided well-defined strategic goals

Prior plans ■ The current planned headcount and associated commitments to team members ■ The habit of making long term spending commitments to avoid later resource and budget redistributions

■ Old way of budgeting to account for: ■ Highly competitive placements (Print, TV) – buy in advance and buy in volume to secure or get best marginal cost

■ Digital – buy real-time, buy in small quantities ■ Events – buy well in advance





Step 3: Broker shared KPIs and publish plan

Brokering and deploying shared KPIs is so critical to this new MO led planning process, it is called out as a separate step in the model. Shared and complementary KPIs provide several key benefits including:

■ Defining working relationships across key groups such as sales and finance ■ Providing a baseline for measurement and continuous improvement ■ Demonstrating transparency in performance to KPIs builds marketing credibility across the organization

■ Improving a team approach to achieving company goals

Nothing impacts the effectiveness of a working relationship as much as shared goals. For marketing, this means creating shared goals and KPIs that align to company strategies, that enable sales objectives and that are transparent to the finance department. Step 3 is a clear and intentional statement that these are the KPIs and MO will be tracking to performance in the second stage of the process – Managing.

Providing a baseline for measurement and continuous improvement, the MO leader holds all key stakeholder groups accountable to the KPIs and to remaining in alignment. Publishing the agreed upon KPI’s as part of the plan is like publishing an agreement for how to work together. It is refreshing that marketing is now being accountable and are setting up to be transparent in sharing performance data. This builds credibility for the marketing organization.

By establishing this set of shared and complementary goals and KPIs, the MO leader facilitates a team approach to growth in which marketing participates. For too long marketing has acted like an island unto itself and was not connected to driving growth. The SPB&M process encourages a cross-functional team effort and defines how marketing can more fully integrate into the business.

It is important that KPIs are shared and everyone in marketing has some KPI. It is important that all the KPIs are complementary and that they are obtainable. The publishing of KPIs sets up the second stage of the SPB&M process – Managing. The reality is we want to know what to measure (KPIs), we want to know what we have to do to succeed (targets), but without a path (the plan), there is no chance for success. So as a MO leader, to truly embrace the SPB&M process, you can’t just provide the targets, but must also provide the path in a strong plan.

1 2 3 4 5





Tools for brokering shared KPIs and publishing the planTools for brokering shared KPIs and publishing the plan include the use of technology for distribution, visibility and acceptance.

■ Technology that displays the plan and displays KPIs ■ Technology that gains signatures indicating acceptance of KPIs and understanding of how all KPIs work together

Common barriers to brokering KPIs and publishing the planCommon barriers to brokering KPIs and publishing the plan include ignoring steps in the process, managing accountability and lack of individual KPIs.

■ Ignoring/skipping the step and moving from budgets to execution. Plan and KPIs must be published.

■ Level of visibility into performance of investments will likely be a transition for many marketers and that accountability may be rejected

■ KPIs are not rolled down to the individual MBOs and goals and so their significance is lost

A Common Story of KPI Alignment

A consistent refrain across all top-performing marketing operations leaders is aligning the plan and the

budget around complementary KPIs. As the MO leader takes responsibility for this process, gathering and

brokering KPI alignment is the glue that binds all the plans and budgets and sets up the Management

stage of the SPB&M process. Ensuring KPI alignment also invites sharing accountability which in many

cases, changes the perception of marketing credibility across the firm.





Step 4: Track and measure

A key benefit of an MO led planning process is this team has the capacity and skills to optimize the last two stages of the SPB&M process – 4. Track and Measure and 5. Responsive Adjustment and

Optimization. When MO is not involved in the SPB&M process and a plan is published, we often see the following:

■ The plan is not monitored ■ Plan results are not shared ■ Plan and budget adjustments are not made based on changing business conditions and performance

■ Optimization of the budget spend does not occur ■ The departments begin to gradually diverge in how they spend and organization cohesion and agility is lost

When the MO team leads the SPB&M process, all of these elements are established and baked in as part of the Managing stage. The MO team has the skills, tools, and capacity to track and measure how budget spend and KPI achievement is performing. The MO leader is responsible for monitoring and sharing plan results as frequently as necessary. The MO leader is responsible for communicating plan and budget adjustments that might be necessary based on performance and business conditions. The MO leader is responsible to ensuring the budget is optimized and that groups with common KPIs stay in alignment.

In order to achieve these key objectives, the plan and budget must be built with the following criteria:

■ Plan must be actionable ■ Tools to track and measure are in place ■ Instituted and agreed upon set of KPIs to track and measure are in place ■ Transparency is established for all KPIs ■ KPI accountability from the CMO down to the individual marketer is inaugurated

“Putting together practical and actionable plans and budgets is the precursor to effective measurement and optimization.”

– Dan Brown, VP of Marketing Operations, VerintInterview with TPG

1 2 3 4 5





Tools for tracking and measuring KPIsTools for tracking and measuring KPIs include systems and analyst skills.

■ Execution systems to collect proper data ■ BI system or reporting tool to aggregate data ■ Analysts or ability to decipher information or transform data

Common barriers to tracking and measuring KPIsCommon barriers to tracking and measuring KPIs include lack of systems, data, updates, use of spreadsheets and not taking responsibility for the job.

■ Lack of systems and data ■ Infrequent updates or measurement ■ Trying to do too much in spreadsheets (e.g. waste of time) ■ Pushing this down to the field when it should be MO’s/corporate’s job

Toolset is KeySenior Director of Marketing Operations


“One of the best pieces of advice I can give to another MO leader who wants to adopt

the SPB&M process is to make sure you have a great toolset. Technology is the key to moving

away from spreadsheets and to providing transparency through dashboards for tracking

and measuring plan and budget activities.”





Step 5: Responsive adjustment and optimization

Step 5 represents the most critical difference and impact of having MO lead this process. Because MO works with the systems and the data, they have insight into what is working and what is not working. In this sense, the MO leader acts like a portfolio manager. If an investment is not working, it gets defunded. If an investment is working, it gets more funding. Balancing the entire portfolio involves optimizing returns with a wide variety of activities. Key MO leader activities in this stage include:

■ Constantly reviewing and analyzing performance data to improve the plan and the budgets

■ Working with marketers who want the data and they will do their own optimization

■ Working with her own MO group and/or other marketing groups who want MO to do the optimization

■ Providing plan and budget governance through formal reviews

“The responsive adjustment and optimization process is a continuous process based on KPI ownership. Without KPI ownership, responsive adjustment and optimization fails. The key is to communicate effectively and to say it with dashboards.”

– VP Marketing,Global Industrial Manufacturer

Frequency Varies by GroupSenior Director of Marketing Operations


“Because we have shared KPIs and dashboards that represent those KPI’s, we have a structured process

for review and discussions for adjustments and optimization. For marketing, it can be daily, for finance it is

weekly and for sales it is quarterly. Every group is different and we are responsive to those needs.”

1 2 3 4 5





Tools for responsive adjustment and optimizationTools for responsive adjustment and optimization include modeling and technology.

■ What if analysis (if we change on the fly what will the results be) ■ Technology or communication methods to communicate changes

Common barriers to responsive adjustments and optimizationCommon barriers to responsive adjustments and optimization include shifting of resources, apathy, and lack of maturity.

■ Managing the shifting of resources through projects ■ Risk adverse or apathy “this was the plan we need to stick to it” ■ Lack of maturity to move from measurement to taking action

The difference when the MO leader orchestrates the SPB&M processThe following table describes the difference between “business as usual” and an MO-led SPB&M process. This table also provides a fairly detailed description of the MO leader’s new role in the SPB&M process.





Table 1. Comparison of Old vs New Model for Planning

Common Practice or “Business as Usual”Step in Model

Define and Lead Change

Step 1: Facilitate Alignment

Step 5: Responsive Adjustment & Optimization

Step 3: Broker KPIs & Publish Plan

Step 2: Mediate Pro Forma Consensus

Step 4: Track & Measure

Disjointed, politically-charged resource competition

Siloed, functional prioritization

Allocations and plans are adjusted biannually without clear connections to changing dynamics or performance

Disjointed, siloed KPIs

Competitive, political “negotiations”

Quarterly cadence - only costs are measured and stored in individual managers spreadsheets

■ MO defines and governs SPB&M as a change management initiative

■ MO defines the budget planning and on-going optimization process as a core capability and a professional practice

■ Marketing ops acts as a mediator, counselor, advisor and project manager in both the planning and on-going execution process

■ MO guides a highly collaborative and deliberate process across marketing, sales and finance

■ Alignment occurs in the planning, budgeting and on-going optimization of the budget and performance to shared KPIs

■ Tools, processes, training and communication vehicles ensure alignment

■ MO includes the development of responsive budget strategies that respond to performance and business conditions

■ MO responsibility extends beyond getting to and publishing a plan to include on-going continuous improvement of spend based on data

■ MO brokers complementary KPIs across marketing, sales and finance

■ MO publishes the plan

■ MO guides and manages the plan like building a business plan so that budgets are defensible and responsive to performance and market changes

■ Mo ensures all plans include a realistic capacity and setting expectations for that capacity early and often

■ MO provides visibility to complementary KPI performance ■ MO establishes a process for providing data insights to

all parts of the business so that budget adjustments may be made based on marketing performance or changing market conditions

■ MO establishes a governance and alignment mechanism during plan execution

MO-Led SPB&M





SPB&M 5-step model benefits for each key stakeholder groupThe SPB&M process affects all the groups with which marketing has to interact including sales, finance and executives. Taking the time to define the benefits for each group as a result of participating in this process will speed up the adoption process.

By adopting a formal SPB&M discipline orchestrated by the MO leader, key stakeholders reap tangible benefits. The next section details the benefits to the CMO, the MO leader, the marketing team, the sales team, the CFO and the executive team.

For the CMO, key benefits of the SPB&M process are an increased credibility and confidence along with improved visibility and alignment to company objectives.

Credibility and Confidence ■ Secures the CMO as an important member of the annual strategic planning process and on-going strategic conversations

■ Constructs a supportive win together, lose together culture ■ Builds CMO credibility and confidence as a business leader

Visibility and Alignment ■ Aligns marketing to key company and sales goals ■ Provides a disciplined method to communicate strategy and goals across BUs + regions ■ Creates visibility into how marketing strategy is being implemented to drive business and sales goals

Benefits for the CMO“For me, having my MO executive lead a formal SPB&M process,

I now enjoy increased credibility as a business executive, not

just as a marketing leader. Because of the increased visibility,

alignment and transparency the process drives, I have more

confidence in working with the executive team. It’s clear how I am

accountable and how I am doing with that accountability.”Every

group is different and we are responsive to those needs.”





Key benefits for the MO leader resulting from the SPB&M process include exemplifying leadership and applying project management to a messy process.

Leadership ■ Taking a leadership role in SPB&M now ensures marketing is fully a part of the company-wide annual process

■ We are now able to align goals and define budgets to meet goals ■ On-going leadership of SPB&M results in improved credibility for marketing

Project Management ■ Taking a disciplined project management approach to SPB&M results in a well-planned and well-executed annual and on-going set of processes

■ Marketing and the rest of the organization understands our role in SPB&M ■ Communication and visibility to results are highlighted in communications and dashboards

Benefits for the Marketing Operations Leader“We’ve been running a SPB&M practice for four years. It went

from being a mess to now operating as a disciplined approach.

We are fully involved in the company-wide strategic planning. As a

result, we can better align budgets and align to budgets while also

creating critical shared goals. It’s been a great career opportunity

because of the visibility and results-oriented reporting I can do.”





Participating in a SPB&M process provides the marketing team a clear line of sight to accountability and confidence to perform in a new way.

Line of Sight to Accountability ■ Establishes marketing accountability by instituting common and visible KPIs

■ Forms alignment between marketing groups and clearly outlines the role of marketing in meeting company objectives

■ Forms alignment with sales and clearly outlines the role of marketing in meeting sales objectives

Confidence ■ Gives meaning and structure to a heretofore ill-defined process

■ Inspires confidence that marketing has control over achieving objectives

■ Marketing feels more integrated in the company and part of the team to drive growth

Benefits for the Marketing Team“Since we’ve adopted a more formal SPB&M process, I finally understand the role we (the marketing

team) play in the annual planning and budgeting process. More importantly, I now understand how

what we do directly affects sales and company performance. I totally get what accountability means

for me and my team.”





As a result of participating in the SPB&M process, the sales team now has a new partner in revenue attainment and in making course corrections based on market conditions.

An Unexpected Partner in Revenue ■ Marketing participates in our annual planning process and now know what we need to do

■ We have a much better understanding for how marketing can work with us and we can work with marketing

■ Having shared KPIs and visibility into those numbers helps us see marketing as a partner

Course Corrections ■ Beyond just annual planning, meeting on a regular basis to discuss how we are doing helps us make quicker course corrections in our sales plan

■ Sometimes, we have marketing coming to us to discuss things they are seeing and how we might improve some element of our sales process

■ We are clear about where marketing is investing to support us and this helps as we respond to market changes

Benefits for the Sales Team“We see a difference in how marketing is working with us. Since they were a part of the annual planning

process, they understand what we need to achieve and are coming to the table as a partner. Never

thought I would see that!”





CFO benefits as a result of participating in the SPB&M process include a new perception of the power of marketing and including them in a credible financial process.

A New Perception of Marketing ■ Gives visibility to finance of what marketing is doing ■ Gains insights on how marketing is contributing to the business

■ Creates a productive working relationship between marketing and finance

A Financial Process ■ Establishes a financial capability in marketing ensuring efficient spend and predictability

■ Establishes a well-run budgeting and managing the budget process

■ Provides deep insights and visibility for the CMO into the business of marketing

Benefits for the CFO“As the CFO, I’ve always thought of marketing as the money pit. Now that marketing is involved

in planning, budgeting and managing their impact on the business, I see the value they bring

to the business.”





As a result of participating in the SPB&M process, company executives find a better way to optimize current resources and improve their confidence in marketing as a growth driver.

Optimizing Our Resources ■ Ensures all key functional groups are aligned to executive/company goals ■ Ensures measurement of performance on shared goals ■ Provides a mechanism for course-corrections

Growing Confidence in Marketing ■ Beginning to see marketing as a growth driver ■ Visibility and transparency of KPIs gives me confidence in marketing ■ How they are helping to drive alignment to company goals is beneficial

Benefits for the Executive Team“As an executive in the company, I am responsible for optimizing every available resource to reach our

goals. Having marketing step up to the plate as a key member of the strategic planning and budgeting

process helps me understand a new way to better leverage marketing. As they manage the marketing

plan and budget through-out the year, they are now part of every strategic conversation.”





Next stepsSo, after reading this entire white paper, what are appropriate next steps? Clearly the answer depends on where you are on your own journey. In general, here is a set of next steps that will accelerate your adoption of the SPB&M process.

1. Win together and lose together. The SPB&M process is a team sport so get ready to move out of your silo.

2. Invest in the right toolset. Without the right technology, you will not be able to fully operationalize the SPB&M process.

3. Ensure KPI ownership at every level of marketing and ensure KPIs are aligned across stakeholder groups.

4. Create visibility and transparency to performance metrics with dashboards.

5. Govern the process like an investment advisor. Your job is to optimize the plan and the budget spend.

6. Finally, as an MO leader, embrace the opportunity to lead – it’s your time to shine.

About Infor With Infor, you can easily find the right solutions for every aspect of your business. Infor builds complete industry suites in the cloud and deploys software that puts the user experience first, leverages data science, and integrates easily with existing systems. Over 90,000 organizations worldwide rely on Infor to help overcome market disruptions and achieve business-wide digital transformation.

About The Pedowitz Group – Connecting Marketing to Revenue™ The Pedowitz Group wrote the book, and is the undisputed thought leader on Revenue Marketing™. As your partner, TPG helps you plan, build and optimize your revenue engine by delivering services in MarTech, demand generation and marketing operations. We believe that marketing is the driver of customer engagement that fuels the revenue engine. The Pedowitz Group customers have won over 50 national awards for their Revenue Marketing excellence. To discover how we can help your organization become successful Revenue Marketers™, visit pedowitzgroup.com, call us at 855-REV-MKTG or visit Revenue Marketer blog.



http://www.infor.com/industries/financial-services/?utm_campaign=Financial-Services-Infor-Nurture&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email


http://www.pedowitzgroup.com

http://www.pedowitzgroup.com/blog/?utm_campaign=Financial-Services-Infor-Nurture&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email

marketing operations leader guide to strategic planning

Documents