B2B Marketing

A specific personal experience I had lives vividly in my mind and always brings a smile to my face, whenever I recall it. When I was posted overseas to Kazakhstan where I was responsible for sales and marketing of confectionery for a leading Western brand, I was invited to the home of our warehouse director for a feast called ‘datsarkhan'. The host brought out a sheep's head that had been boiled in broth and offered me the eye to eat as an offering to give me increased wisdom. I won't go into the details of what I did then but thought it would be as good a starting point for this entry as any.

The world is certainly flat and organisations are increasingly following their customers as they become more international in their outreach. Given this, senior marketers are finding themselves leading more and more projects and initiatives that span multiple geographies. Even if marketers are only responsible for a domestic remit, increasingly they are finding a greater level of involvement and collaboration with their overseas peers.

The question to ask then is ‘What attributes or best practices are there to effectively manage teams across a global arena?' It is this that I am looking to try to address here.

Stepping back for a moment, it's important to remember why such a global reach, local touch model should exist in the first place? After all, why not let every market just conduct their own marketing? That would be most relevant to each market but could prove fatal in terms of lack of brand consistency and inefficient use of marketing resources that could be utilised across the organisation as a whole. In a previous entry I talked about the differences between a local model, a global model and a hybrid approach to international marketing. What is undisputable however is that by considering marketing across borders you are responsible for using the organisation assets to their fullest to provide the greatest economies of scale from reuse and broadest possible adoption and ensure you are providing a consistent message yet demonstrate that you have a local presence and can understand and meet local requirements.

My suggestions are not embedded in science but rather experiences, as I have sought to deal with initiatives that have an international focus.

1. Seek to Understand Your Markets First.
One of the critical factors for success in leading an international market initiative is to ensure you identify the key local stakeholders and gain deep insight into their markets and uniqueness. Ideally, you should do this first before you do anything else. Almost like taking a blank piece of paper and seeking to understand their business, what has worked and what hasn't. An empathetic point of view where you take time to learn about their markets, their culture, their challenges will be time invested that will reap huge rewards as you work with those markets to build out effective marketing. If you can get beyond the immediate operation and meet with some of the local partners and customers, that would be highly invaluable and will also demonstrate to the host local operation that you are taking the international initiative seriously . If budget allows, you should attempt to do this face to face and should plan for repeat follow ups on a periodic basis.

2. Define a Common Sense of Purpose
As a leader it is imperative that you clearly articulate the common purpose and goals of any international marketing initiative. Rather than conceiving this in isolation, realise that you now have access to the wealth of local expertise in the field. It would be wise for you to consult with those markets to gain ideas and build as much consensus as you can. Don't just talk with local marketers but also ensure you have direct engagement with the wider business. This will ensure that your planned initiatives are aligned with the business.

3. Always Provide Situational Context
Whenever you c communicate with your international peers, always make a habit of providing them with context around thoughts and decisions. I have seen far too many communications without this and sometimes it can leave the recipient a little confused, particularly if there are language barriers.

4. Build a Collaborative Environment
Use whatever works for your virtual team. Whether it is frequent phone calls, a knowledge sharing application or combinations of these or others, work with your teams to understand what works best for all without becoming a hindrance to their day to day tasks. Building a meaningful collaborative infrastructure will help all team members keep abreast of progress against initiatives and allow them to pick ideas from others that can work in their markets. You role as leader is to act as the central conduit of information. Also be mindful of time differences in certain markets and mix the call times to show you respect and understand them.

5. Be Sensitive to Different Levels of Market Maturity
It goes without saying that different countries will be at different levels of market maturity and adoption levels of your goods and services than others. Likewise some messages that currently work in some markets may not be applicable to others. As a leader you need to manage to this complexity but by seeking out some of the examples from more mature markets, who have already crossed the chasm, you can offer significant value to those markets seeking guidance and support so they can adapt previous initiatives to their local and specific requirements.

6. Recognise Unique Talents
Recognise the unique strengths of your team players. In this respect, it is no different than managing a local team but every opportunity to engage with your local marketing teams is an opportunity for you to learn. Some will be more creative at idea generation whilst others may be masters at lead nurturing etc. Take an inventory of your team as a whole and understand the wealth of talent your teams possess.

7. Build Success and Communicate
Whatever initiatives you plan to work on, try to pick a few smaller projects to get your team used to working together effectively first. Ensure you communicate progress against plan not only to those immediate team members but wider across the organisation and ensure you give recognition to those individuals who have made specific team contributions.

Marketing across borders is challenging yet exciting and provides you with an opportunity to apply your chosen profession to meet the needs of a wide and diverse audience. If you plan your approach with these 7 habits top of mind you will not only deliver more value to your organisation as a whole but also feel much more connected with an ever increasing globalised word.