5 Hurdles to Revenue Marketing™ Transformation

The current shift to customer-centric marketing and the transformation to a Revenue Marketing™ organization will take the average mid-sized to large corporation about two years. There are hurdles to overcome in driving this transformation and a Change Management (CM) team is vital to achieving success.

In addition, firms embarking on this Revenue Marketing Journey™ must acquire a series of new capabilities and skill sets, including:

• Campaign management


• Technology power user skills


• Funnel management


• Marketing reporting and analysis


• Lead nurturing


• Prospect engagement


• Inbound marketing


• Content marketing

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This is a major shift in how marketing is done, and to use a well-worn metaphor, the marketing engine has to be swapped out while the car is still cruising around the track. Job descriptions, organizational structures, compensation plans must be changed and there are many people who simply don’t like that and will resist the change. As a result, this transformation requires a Change Management team with a plan to guide its success and overcome hurdles.

The CM team will report to an executive steering committee, but the team composition is best comprised largely of line manager staff, with perhaps one director. The primary task of the CM team is to help guide the organization towards realizing the vision, overcoming obstacles, and identifying and eliminating barriers to change.

There are five large hurdles to the transformation that the Change Management team will tackle most:

1. Marketing people continuing to do their old job – failing to embrace their new job description


2. Executives lack of understanding on why the change is important and urgent


3. Sales people lack of understanding of the new prospect information marketing is providing


4. Too much focus on activity metrics instead of results


5. Too much focus on the technology and not enough on evolving prospect engagement

The Revenue Marketing CM team has an obligation to keep their ears to the ground, but their eyes must remain on the vision of the future. They will drive the requirements for education, changing job descriptions, executive briefings, celebration of early wins, and institutionalizing change within the organization. They will need to drive the sense of urgency within the organization to change.

The winds of change are upon us in marketing. A good Change Management team will hoist their sails, and help ensure the transformation is smooth sailing.

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