“Do you know,” I asked the marketing manager, “how much money to spend on demand generation, and how many leads to create for salespeople to make quota?”

With a shrug, she said, “I do what we did last year.  We have a marketing plan,” she continued. “We review last year's spend and make adjustments, usually on a budget the CFO gives us.”

Yeah, yeah these are difficult times, but marketers are always faced with difficult times.  It is every marketers job to over-come difficult times, be it market crashes, governments that stop buying, recessions, product failures, competitors, international meltdowns, hurricanes, tornadoes. earthquakes or COVID-19.    As marketers we've been there and done that and always found a way to recover because that's what we do.   That's why we were hired, we perform in the most difficult of times. 

  Note: This is one of our most popular posts and brought back for your amusement. To see the how much the woman in the photo has changed since the first post, click here. 

It’s a proven fact that salespeople can cause premature aging in marketing people.  Wrinkles are the most visible indication that salespeople are stressing out the marketing department.

Doctors tell me that another symptom of premature aging in marketing people is increased blood pressure (usually within 25 feet of anyone from Sales, including sales management).   Other health issues may be gas and bloating; severe snoring and lack of sleep; heart palpitations and migraine headaches between the eyes.  Stomach ailments are also reported when salespeople fail to make quota and complain to Marketing.

Without the Marketer, Most B2B Companies Would be Regional Door Knockers

"Nothing happens until the sale is made," is most often quoted as a lead-in to praising salespeople. And the speaker is almost right, but we know that deep in our B2B marketing hearts, it all starts sooner than that.

Why it's Important

"In B2B, nothing happens until the marketer creates demand. Without the marketer most B2B companies would be regional door knockers; they would not be able to go beyond the reach of their salespeople. Marketing in B2B companies creates Wealth. Real wealth. Hardcore, measurable, bottom line profitable dollars that drives the growth of our 11,000,000 plus businesses in the US."

Tweet This

Salary Marketing Communications Manager 2019

This is another one of those salary levels that I think is way underpaid.   Marketing Communications Managers create wealth for their employers that far outstrips almost anyone in the organization.  If there isn't a marketing communications department and manager  most lead generation activities will be run by presidents, CFOs and gasp, the sales manager.    These people will make uninformed decisions about lead gen and sales will greatly suffer. 

The following estimates are from three sources on the same day (January 17, 2022).  Actual pay varies greatly by location.  Read the job description. 

More:

From January 2019 through March 15, 2022 we will be posting up to 21 salary reviews of varying job titles in sales and marketing.

You can see the most recent postings and last year's reviews here.   Salary Reviews

PayScale

This is Part 2 of last week’s post:  January: the Most Important Month of the Year

When sales are flagging and excuses are flying from salespeople failing to make quota, few people understand that the reason for most quota failures is what Marketing didn’t do three to six months ago.  Today’s sold deal started from Marketing’s ability to find a qualified prospect three to six months ago.  This isn’t my fact, it’s the fact.

Most B2B companies have a 3-to-6-month sales cycle, some are 12 to 18 months.  If Marketing isn’t spending forward with an eye to the future when the forecast comes due, it isn’t doing its job.  That’s why when Sales isn’t making quota in a quarter, most of the leads Marketing creates will have little impact on the failing quarter (but will have an impact on the following quarters). 

Why it Matters

"Today’s sold deal started from Marketing’s ability to find a qualified prospect three to six months ago.  This isn’t my fact, it’s the fact."

The trend toward "Where's Waldo?" websites that hide company contact information has spilled over into email signatures. Let's take a poll: Who still uses email? Ahhhh, many hands go up. It's not going anywhere. Although more professionals, especially younger ones, skip the entire phone number element altogether, "Best, Cameron" isn't enough and that's not a signature.

Today we start at 10:30am Pac: Revenue Rebels with host, Rhoan Morgan and her guest, Michael Sala, Managing Director, Strategic Origination, LLR Partners Topic: How sales and marketing alignment moves the revenue dial. Then Dan Perry hosts Sales Enablement Radio with guest Bill Hicks, Chief Relationship Officer, Ultimate Software discussing if relationships still matter with retention. Matt Heinz's guest, Nick Jordan, CMO of Logic Inbound discusses How to Sell to Larger Organizations with Bigger Budgets. And our season finale for WVU Marketing Communications Today takes us to Integrate WV 2018 with hosts Cyndi Greenglass & Matthew Cummings LIVE from Studio B.

10:30 am Pac: Revenue Rebels with host, Rhoan Morgan, CEO DemandLab @demandlab

Guest: Michael Sala, Managing Director, Strategic Origination, LLR Partners

Topic: How sales and marketing alignment moves the revenue dial

 https://goo.gl/iDA2Jk

11:00 am Pac: Sales Enablement Radio by The Brevet Group

Guest: Bill Hicks, Chief Relationship Officer, Ultimate Software @WEHicks

Topic: Account Retention - Do relationships still matter when retaining accounts?

 https://goo.gl/jWjuMC

11:30 am Pac: Sales Pipeline Radio with host, Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing @heinzmarketing

Guest: Nick Jordan, CMO of Logic Inbound

Topic: How to Sell to Larger Organizations with Bigger Budgets

 Listen Live >

12:30 PM Pac: WVU Marketing Communications Today 

LIVE from Studio B at INTEGRATE WV 2018

SEASON FINALE -  Hosts are Cyndi Greenglass and Matthew Cummings

 https://goo.gl/nfBKvV