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Welcome to Part 4 of “A Nine Part Practical Guide to Martech Enablement.” This is a progressive guide, with each part building on the prior sections and focused on outlining a process to build a data- and technology-driven marketing organization within your company. Below is a list of the prior articles for your reference:
In this part, “Building the Team,” we will look at ways to evaluate the state of your current organization and some simple steps to begin the process of martech-enabling your team members and partners to create a winning team.
Building the team
In Part 3, we spent the vast majority of our time discussing the core team of a successful martech-enabled organization. This included the groups they are in, the roles themselves, and how they correspond to a winning race team.
As we proceed, we’re going to look at the key steps in the process that lead teams to achieve enablement:
Create a martech vision for their enablement initiative and team.
Get executive management buy-in.
Identify team roles and responsibilities.
Who, where, what? Filling the roles with individuals.
Creating an environment of agility, education and collaboration is necessary to foster a strong, cross-functional team. This team must also prepare for a constant state of incremental change and growth.
Creating a martech vision
It seems intuitive to say that breaking down silos within your organization is a good thing. But nothing will stunt or kill a company’s martech enablement efforts more than allowing a traditional organizational structure to present barriers to the collaboration necessary for martech success.
The CMO (team manager) must envision his or her martech team as a cohesive unit, with its most important task being to create a common vision for martech enablement across organizational silos. Envision your martech enablement team as a unit, regardless of where each team member sits within your corporate structure.
I find it helpful to suggest to CMOs that they actually write a brief vision statement for their martech enablement effort to use as a target with which to evaluate ongoing trajectory. Remember, martech enablement isn’t a destination; it’s a journey that will continue as long as there’s work to do in the areas of customer engagement and as long as technology continues to progress (which we can agree are both ongoing).
Executive team buy-in
It’s been my experience that a CMO who has the support of the CEO (owner) will have the easiest time building a cohesive martech team. Forward-thinking CEOs or brand owners are often already aware of the value of martech enablement.
Just recently I was visiting with Jack Lynch, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. HMH specializes in pre-K-12 education content, services and technology solutions for today’s changing landscape. During our conversation, he said, “Having a data-driven marketing organization is critical to meeting and exceeding our customer expectations by providing them the right content at the right time.” It’s this type of insight and visionary thinking from CEOs that enables CMOs to rapidly take advantage of martech enablement.
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