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Chapter 4—Why is marketing tough for
B2B companies?

One of the most common questions I hear from CEOs of small
and mid-size B2B companies is, “Marketing hasn’t been a
priority for us because of the resources required—so where
do we even start?”

Their question reveals the challenges of B2B marketing.
Many CEOs understand that marketing is important for their
businesses, but they haven’t been able to tackle it effectively.
They know they should be doing it better, and they want to
do it better, but they don’t know how. That’s understandable,
because there are some significant challenges for B2B
companies when it comes to marketing.

The main challenge is a resource gap. For B2B companies,
marketing is rarely a core competence. In small and mid-size
B2B companies, marketing is typically a small function that
doesn’t warrant its own executive or team. So the Head of
Marketing is often someone who has another job—the CEO,
the COO, or the VP of Business Development. The problem
is that these executives have other priorities. If there is a
problem in the plant, the COO isn’t going to stop to write a
press release. If there is a new sales opportunity, the VP of
Sales isn’t going to film a video case study. Because their
other responsibilities are prioritized, marketing activities are
put on hold whenever the executive is pulled away to another
area, which happens frequently.

Because of the nature of marketing, this leads to poor results.
Marketing is a business function that demands consistency. It’s
like dating—a slow and steady approach is far more effective

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd