|
|  |
|
|
What do your CEO and CFO think of marketing?
by M. H. “Mac” McIntosh
The Reader Survey in the last issue of Sales Lead Report asked what your CEOs and CFOs think about marketing. The results show that respondents perceive the CEO as valuing marketing more than the CFO.
What CEOs think
Of the 187 readers who participated in the survey, almost 92% reported that the CEO thinks marketing is very important (60%) or somewhat important (32%) to the success of the company.
Only 7.5% said the CEO thinks marketing is not very important to the success of the company. A mere 0.5% said they “haven’t a clue” as to what the CEO thinks about the importance of marketing.
What CFOs think
Almost 78% said the CFO thinks marketing is very important (39%) or somewhat important (39%) to the success of their company.
Another 13% said they believe the CFO thinks marketing is not very important (10.7%) or not at all important (2.2%) to the company’s success. Surprisingly, 9.7% said they “haven’t a clue” as to what the CFO thinks about the importance of marketing.
Follow-up research
In follow-up, one-on-one phone conversations with some survey participants, most interviewed said the CEO had a background in marketing, which helped to make the CEO a “believer.”
I think that the marketers with CEOs who have marketing backgrounds are lucky. However, many companies are led by CEOs who came out of finance and think more like accountants than marketers.
One interviewee said his company’s CFO is not as enthusiastic about marketing efforts as is the CEO, and that he must work harder to help his CFO understand that getting marketing tasks performed out of the country may be cheaper initially but costs more in the long run.
Another interviewee echoed that idea. Her CFO claims to see the importance of marketing but “doesn’t understand why it has to be so expensive.” This marketer also said her organization is “immature” vis-à-vis metrics; if the company’s sales spike after a road show or conference, marketing efforts are rated successful.
Impact on the marketing budget
One business-to-business marketer said he courts his company’s CEO to increase the marketing budget. This marketer uses sales projections in relation to marketing expenditures to sell the program. But because the company’s marketing objective is generation of short-term leads, and because the company only needs a small number of very large deals to meet its goal, the employees review each campaign and make decisions about increasing or decreasing marketing expenditures based on the immediate results.
The results of this reader survey highlight the importance of educating top executives on the important bottom-line role that marketing plays.
I believe that if marketers want bigger budgets, they will have to convince their CFOs of the important role marketing plays in contributing to the company’s revenue and profit goals.
For more on starting this dialogue with your CEO and CFO, read the feature article in this issue: “You know a qualified lead when you see one—or do you?”
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
|
|
|
