The surprising truth about how to achieve marketing goals

Change the way you look at marketing success. Learn how prioritizing the development of your marketing team leads to sustainable growth.

Forget about your customers - really, because the key to growth may not be what you think.

In today's environment, most companies have a single and relentless focus on growth. And often growth at any cost. However, we haven't stopped to think about what really drives growth.

What is the key to growth? What is the biggest factor that affects whether we achieve our goals and whether we achieve them? And, most importantly, what if it were the other way around?

Marketing has always been about people. You've heard the phrase "the customer is always right." But we seem to have forgotten that there is another important group of people - our marketing team. We will do our best to attract, engage, and retain customers, but we devote little time and effort to building and improving our teams.

‍Why domarketing teams seem secondary?

Perhaps it's because marketers are faced with countless priorities and unrealistic expectations and have too few resources or time to focus on building a high-performing marketing team. But that's no excuse.

In fact, your marketing team is the biggest predictor of your success. An ineffective marketing team won't be able to achieve even the most modest of goals. It also creates more chaos and stress than you need (and already have to deal with).

As marketers, we need to think differently about our priorities and stop putting the cart before the horse. An airplane safety demonstration informs you that it is important to put on your oxygen mask first before helping others. It may seem selfish, but it's not. This is to ensure that you do not become incapacitated and can help others. If you ignore your own needs before trying to help others, you will end up helping no one.

Most marketing teams are so focused on growth at all costs that they forget to put on their own oxygen mask first. It's time to turn our marketing inside out.

‍Marketinginside out

If your marketing organization were a tree, you'd want it to grow fast, keep growing continuously, and become the biggest tree in your area. This is the typical focus on growth: fast, continuous, and dominant.

However, when we think of growth, we often only think of what is visible, not what is invisible. How deep the roots are determines how big or fast a tree can grow. Without the proper foundation, structure, and support, any tree can be toppled by the first storm, especially if it grows too fast.

Unfortunately, this often happens to marketing organizations. The relentless pursuit of growth and the lack of a solid foundation leads to burnout of marketing teams, sales directors selling out, and companies having to start from scratch.

If you want massive growth, it has to be sustainable. And to reach new heights, you first need to put down deep roots.

It's not about clients, KPIs or revenues. It's about people. This is marketing inside out.

The success of your marketing depends on your people. You need the right people with the right skills to collaborate and communicate effectively.

To build a powerful marketing team, the first step is to figure out where your marketing team is at in its development.

‍3stages of creating a marketing team

There are three stages of marketing team development. Before you start focusing on improving your team, it's important to understand where they are at so you can plan accordingly.

‍Pulse

Every marketing team starts at this stage, and many stay there for quite some time. At this stage, your team defines goals, clarifies roles, and works to understand how to collaborate and communicate effectively.

There is a lot of passion and thought, but little structure. Chaotic but exciting, the goal at this stage is to survive, to start setting boundaries and organizing the chaos.

‍Maturity

Your team has built a solid foundation and can now focus on finding opportunities for improvement and growth. Challenges and bottlenecks still limit productivity, but the team is at least aware that they exist. At this stage, your team should focus on building systems and formalizing their operations.

‍Mastery

Your team is made up of the right people who clearly understand the goals and are making tangible progress toward them every day. Now they can spend time testing, learning, and improving the process and their work. At this stage, you can help the team maximize their efforts, share their ideas, and consolidate their success.

Assess your team to understand where you stand. You can then meet them where they are and develop a plan to help them build a solid foundation and grow further.

We often want to believe that our team is more advanced, more capable, and more skilled than it really is. You may be right, but before embarking on a challenging journey, it's helpful to step back and check in with yourself.

‍How to improve thelevel of your team

Inside-out marketing requires you to think differently about how you approach marketing. It is the realization that another tool, new channel, or tactic will not help you achieve your goals.

By focusing on your team, you can make a profound and significant impact and achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible.

If you're ready to take a fresh look at how you approach marketing, follow these four steps:

• Analyze and assess your team to understand the starting point.
• Find the space and time to invest in the development and growth of your team.
• Create a 90-day plan that outlines the direction of your team's development.
• Take action, check in regularly, and keep your team on track.

Rethinking marketing, growth and goals

Marketers will always have aggressive goals, unrealistic objectives, and limited resources to achieve them. Let's face it, the way we're doing things isn't working. That the current marketing approach is not smart or sustainable. Instead, let's look at it from the inside out.

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