Common Weaknesses in Marketing Operations

I’ve seen the inside of some of the biggest companies in the world.  Here are 5 common marketing mistakes I’ve seen made and how we avoid them: 1. Not Communicating in CEO/CFO Language If our pitch for “spinning up AppLovin” is all ROAS and jargon, we’re going to lose the room. We have to present the business case and show the potential impact on revenue and EBITDA - plain and simple. 2. Getting Sucked into the Vortex of Crazy We’ve all been there: one bad day of performance and suddenly budgets get slashed or reallocated. If we can’t step back, diagnose the actual issue, and provide solutions, we’ll forever be chasing short-term swings. Stay grounded and lean into real data rather than day-to-day panic. 3. Not Aligning on a Single Source of Truth I’ve heard, “We’re down 30% overnight!” only to dig in and find different teams pulling data from different places. If everyone isn’t looking at the same numbers, then things are set up for chaos. Nailing down the single source of truth is a must. 4. Living in the Weeds (and Ignoring User Behavior) Sure, split-testing and channel optimizations matter. But if we’re not pausing to ask, “What does the customer actually do or need?” we’ll miss the bigger picture. It’s critical to zoom out, study their journey, and make sure our tactics align with how they really buy or interact. 5. Forgetting the Unit Economics If we don’t know the lifetime value of a client’s customer or what they’re willing to pay to get them, we’re basically flying blind. Nail down the segments, margins, and target acquisition costs. That’s the only way we’ll know if a channel is truly worth it. --- Ultimately, success in marketing comes down to clarity on your customers, your data, and your strategy. And it’s all rooted in the fundamentals. When you truly understand your audience and make decisions based on solid insights, everything else starts to align. Because once you’ve got clarity on your numbers and your audience, the rest falls into place.

One thing I've learned is that what an executive asks for, isn't always what they need.... "We just need to fix our attribution in HubSpot," the CEO said during our first call. "Our board wants to know which campaigns are driving revenue." Simple enough, I thought. Until I asked three basic questions: "How are you tagging your campaigns today?" Silence. Then: "I think marketing uses UTM parameters... sometimes." "What about your lifecycle stages? how are leads moving through your funnel?" More hesitation. "Well, the sales team is supposed to update those when they follow up." "And where do you track campaign performance now?" A sigh. "We have these spreadsheets that marketing updates monthly... when they remember." That's when I realized this wasn't an attribution problem. It was a fundamental marketing operations breakdown. The next day, I presented what I found: - 78% of their leads had no source attribution whatsoever - Lifecycle stages hadn't been updated in months—some customers were still labeled as "leads" - Different teams were using different definitions of "qualified lead" - Critical campaign data lived in six different spreadsheets maintained by four different people The CEO looked stunned. "I just wanted to know which campaigns work best..." "To get there," I explained, "we need to rebuild your foundation first." Over the next six weeks, we: - Implemented a comprehensive UTM strategy with clear ownership - Built automated workflows to update lifecycle stages based on behavior - Created a single source of truth for reporting (goodbye, spreadsheets!) - Trained every team member on the new process with clear accountability By week eight, the CEO could finally see which marketing efforts truly drove revenue. But more importantly, their teams were aligned around a common language and process. "You know," the CEO told me in our final meeting, "I thought I needed a technical fix. What I really needed was to rethink how we operate." Lesson: What people ask for is rarely what they need. The best solutions address the underlying problem, not just the symptom. This is what separates senior resources from junior ones.

Isn’t it time to end the marketing madness and marketing malpractice. From working with over 250 b2b clients, I have seen these common problems? 1. Assuming they don’t need any insights, as they know there customers. It is part paradigm, part belief that research is costly and takes too much time, and part fear of finding out you are wrong. 2. Sending out web surveys because they are cheap and hoping you stumble on insights. 3. Assuming your product alone is enough to drive traffic. Remember the Apple Newton? 4. Assuming you can force the consumer to follow your sequential customer journey. 5. Assuming you can copy and paste what worked in b2c. It won’t. 6. Not understanding customer segmentation and failing to develop Ideal Customer Profile. The ones I have seen are many times volume or industry. 7. Failure to recognize the 80/20 rule. 20% of your customers control 80% of your revenue and your destiny. Identify these accounts and the stakeholders in each. 8. Failure to craft a value proposition/unique selling proposition. Why should they buy your solution. Many companies list on features not benefits. 9. Failure to position company/brand against consumer wants and needs and versus competition. 10. Poor messaging. Why are you valuable? Why are you different? 11. Not understanding you may need manufacturer reps to scale 12. Not understanding how customers buy. Do they want to buy from a distributor for one stop shopping? 13. Using customer service departments and treating them as cost centers. 14. Using CX, CSat and NPS as transactional measurements with no attempt to understand insights. B2c is decades ahead of b2b. 15. Cutting marketing across the board in a recession. 16. Concentrating all effort and investment on new customer acquisition. Instead of also trying to focus on key customers for customer retention and making them raving fans. 17. Developing new products,without input from customers. 18. Misalignment of sales and marketing. Having marketing report to sales or to branding. 19. Marketers playing with their digital toys instead of having discussions with key customers. 20. Believing that you have to significant investment in branding at the beginning. Unless you are selling very expensive solutions, branding is not A priority. You can’t spend enough to move the needle. 21. Not learning from customers who have defected/churned. Is it a poor fit or are you driving customers away? 22. Unreasonable expectations for revenue. Product is a nine month sales cycle. Exoectations are for quarter. Expectations not being aligned from CEO and CMO are in part shortening CMO tenure. 23. Trying to sell to everyone instead of focusing on segments and niches. 24. Not doing demand gen in parallel to lead gen. In general, only 5% of b2b buyers are ready to buy now. 25. Assuming b2b is no different than b2c. Thoughts? George Coudounaris Anita Toth Mario Jakus Alon Even #marketing #b2b #customerinsights