Nobody ever gets it right on the first go-round.
If you’re anything like the typical marketer, we like to make the same mistake over and over again – just to make sure it’s absolutely wrong. But no one wants to make mistakes if they don’t have to.
We asked our #FlipMyFunnel community of B2B marketers what they wished they knew when they started their careers.
It takes a village to flip a funnel so check out some of the advice that’ll help elevate your B2B career!
Strategy Director at Momentum ABM
I’d have learnt more technical skills earlier. And the thing I always kick myself for: note down achievements as you go along! So at the end of your tenure somewhere you have a list of wins!
Founder of #FlipMyFunnel and CMO/Co-Founder at Terminus
To my younger self – Figure out what it takes to be at the decision table and find ways to impact it massively!
Director of #FlipMyFunnel
I wish someone would have told me most metrics in marketing are vanity metrics and don’t really do much to drive the business forward.
Demand Generation Manager at #FlipMyFunnel
That at the end of the day, it means nothing unless it provides value to the customer. There is such a thing as a customer journey and I must master it before I try to change it. Nothing beats personality. It’s so much more fun.
Vice President of Marketing at InsightSquared
You never know which gesture will create an ally, so be as selfless as you can afford to be.
Director of Demand Generation at Curata
I think this goes for any career, but I wish I knew earlier that it was okay to fail! You’re not going to lose your job because you run a bad campaign, send out an invite to the wrong list, or offend one out of every 10,000 people with that hilarious email campaign. But you might if you always play it safe and just go through the motions. Sometimes you’ll mess up, but that’s how you learn.
Vice President of Marketing at Vidyard
I wish I had known how much of an impact small changes and variant testing can have on the results of digital marketing programs. It’s amazing to see how seemingly minor tweaks to copy, layouts, imagery, colors, CTAs and video content can impact conversion rates on web pages and digital ads. And of course, more often than not, what you think will convert the highest rarely ever does. The truth is in the data!
CMO at Triblio
Advice to Katniss from Hunger Games: “Your mentors are your lifeline….They are the difference”
Founder at ScoreMoreSales
When I started in my sales career, I did not realize that my salary (and compensation in general) was negotiable. Although I was a single mom in my 20’s, I received less salary than a few of my single male colleagues. Once I learned what the salary range was for my sales position inside my company and outside my company I had leverage. Also, money is not the only compensation involved, sometimes it is a more flexible schedule.
Global Business Development Professional at Sheehan Marketing Solutions
Ensure that you have a mentor within your organization. This is critical for your career success. If your mentor retires or moves to another company and you’re without a mentor think seriously about changing companies.
President at Heinz Marketing
I’m a productivity nut, but that hasn’t kept me from focusing on the wrong things too often. This includes not just how I manage my day, calendar and email. It’s also how effectively I’m staying focused on the right work. The right initiatives. The most urgent AND important priorities for the day, month and year. I’ve learned if nothing else that focus is fleeting. It takes constant vigilance.
Queen of #SocialSelling
To be interesting, be interested….in something other than yourself. Lead people to you; not with you. #KnowThyCustomer
CEO at The Bridge Group, Inc.
When starting out in my sales career I wish I had known it was the greatest show on earth. Sometimes you land in job “just because you do” but have no appreciation for the skills or the finesse required to be the best. I wish I had known that a passion for learning a craft breeds success. Oh but to be young again….
CMO at Edison Partners
I wish I knew what it felt like to “carry a bag” (i.e., be a salesperson) earlier in my career. Empathy for sellers is possibly the most powerful marketing skill that can be developed.
VP of Marketing at Bizible
The huge importance of everyone moving in the same direction. I didn’t not realize that shared goals, metrics that matter, and sales alignment could have such an impact on the business and how much the person who champions them is seen as a leader.
GM and Co-Founder of Web Profits
I wish I knew how often the marketing industry would change. I’ve been doing this for 14 years and feel like I’ve gone through 3 revolutions of marketing.
VP of Demand Generation at RevJet
There are no rules, no best practices or fixed guidelines, merely the starting position for negotiations.
CMO at MongoDB
The best advice I received early in my career was the importance of the sales and marketing relationship. That not only was it a partnership, but that marketing should treat sales as an internal customer. To understand what they need to build relationships with prospects in order to close deals and to communicate frequently.
SVP of Marketing at SnapApp
I have seen how incredibly important it is to “chase scale.” Too often we get enamored with (and subsequently bogged down) by some program or idea or concept that will never deliver more than just a small return. If you can’t magnify a successful test into something that will materially move your needle, than you need to make sure you invest accordingly. That’s not to say we shouldn’t do smaller things, but we need to balance how much time and money we put into those things that will never deliver scale outcomes.
VP of Marketing at LookBookHQ
I wish I knew that marketing isn’t always an objective science. Early in my career, I didn’t trust my instincts as much as I should have. I would see marketers that I looked up to doing things a certain way and assume they must know better. I now realize there are lots of “right” ways to approach marketing and that the definition of success depends largely on context.
Product Marketing Manager at Vidyard
Marketing is more than marketing. The most successful companies have figured out how to align their marketing team with their sales, customer success, and support teams. This unity creates clarity and is the foundation of many outstanding customer-centric organizations.
Director of Demand Generation at Invoca
That in order to achieve the most success, marketing and sales need to work seamlessly together and share the same high level goals, like bookings, pipeline, and account engagement. I learned in a more traditional marketing environment where marketing was responsible for creating awareness and interest, and then simply passed off prospects to sales and left it at that. Not only is it more rewarding and validating to be responsible for driving actual financial numbers, but being focused on the same goals and strategies enables sales to do a better job as well.
Meet some of these B2B marketers and more in person at The Revenue Summit, presented by #FlipMyFunnel and Sales Hacker. Join us for a two-day experience on March 7-8 in San Francisco to learn how to hack your revenue goals!
