How do you maintain momentum in your marketing team?
Challenging times
The global economic crisis has had a severe impact on marketing activities, with companies in every sector experiencing cuts in programme budgets and a freeze or reduction in headcount, affecting both permanent staff and contractors. In the technology sector, the crisis has affected all areas of marketing, but particularly events, sponsorship and public relations.
In these tough economic times when budgets are tight, business opportunities are shrinking and competition is intensifying, maintaining a clear competitive advantage is more important than ever. Marketers are continually under pressure to achieve more for the business, but with less resource. In extreme circumstances, some companies have decided that, when times are tough, marketing stops. There is a mistaken belief that marketing no longer has an important role to play.
Take the lead
It’s clearly time for marketing to take a stronger lead, regain the strategic higher ground and put the momentum back into the team and the business. Effective leadership is essential to make marketing more visible so that the board recognises its value and maintains marketing investment.
More than ever, companies need to have good marketing people in the right place at the right time. But the recession is also having a negative effect on staff morale, encouraging key people to look over their shoulders and consider speculative moves.
Warning signs
The warning signs are clear - teams are feeling vulnerable, stale and uninspired. People who are surrounded by the uncertainty of depleted teams, stalled investments, cancelled or downscaled projects and more cautious strategy decisions are unlikely to have the courage or optimism to push the boundaries. Add restrictions on travel and any investment considered to be discretionary and the prospects for marketing can seem daunting.
So, how do you maintain marketing momentum in this environment? How can you keep the team’s level of vitality, innovation and creativity high?
Time to refocus
Industry experience indicates that winning teams are getting back to basics. They recognise that marketing’s key role is to lead by challenging, refocusing and reinventing. That’s the only way to maintain the competitive edge, even in the hostile environment of a global recession. In the current climate, the winning businesses are those that make the best of a limited marketing investment to stand out, evolve and demonstrate a powerful - and sustainable - competitive difference.
Change and adaptability are key to success. You may need to reconsider the way you do things, or restructure plans, budgets and programmes in line with the new market conditions. That’s why it’s vital to maintain team development, with continuous training and professional development programmes. And that must be backed with a no-slip policy on innovation and creative standards – it’s easy to let things slip when morale is low. You need people with the skills to deliver results and the flexibility to adapt to changing roles and responsibilities.
Encourage change agents
In a period of change like this, a strong inclusive leadership style is essential. Good marketing managers are proactive in dealing with the challenges. They promote “change-agent” thinking, encouraging members of the team to submit their own thoughts on a turnaround strategy that can build momentum. In larger organisations, leaders are creating multidisciplinary marketing councils to plan strategy and realign programmes and resources, with encouraging results.
As part of that process, marketing leaders ensure that everyone in the team has a demonstrable part to play in the transition and they are developing creative ways to make teams feel valuable, with rewards for outstanding success that encourage people to “go the extra mile”.
Flexible recruitment
Although it’s essential to begin by making the most of the people in your team, there may be circumstances when getting fresh blood and new ideas into the team could make all the difference. In the current economic climate, obtaining budget sign-off is tough – especially for recruitment. Wilson Miller Resourcing recognises this and has adapted its recruitment portfolio by introducing FlexiHire to ensure that clients continue to have great technology marketers that meet their needs, even when times get tough.
FlexiHire allows you to recruit a candidate as a contractor for a 9 month period, paying a reduced fee against their salary each month. If you decide to recruit that person in a full-time role within the 9 months, you only pay the outstanding fee amount. But, if budgets do not allow the contractor to be recruited on a permanent basis, then you can choose not to recruit them full-time after 9 months and continue to enjoy the advantages of employing them as a contractor.
Towards recovery
With forecasts indicating that early economic recovery is unlikely, marketing must adapt to the new environment. Flexibility and adaptability are key to success, but it will take strong leadership to motivate the marketing team and ensure that they have the skills and commitment to play a positive proactive role in rebuilding and maintaining momentum.
