Okay, fair warning. I'm going to let you inside my life experience as a Marketing Operations evangelist. This, you'll see, relates quite a bit to my last post.
At the MOCCA meeting a couple of weeks back, I had an interesting experience that makes me laugh a bit now but really caused me some initial consternation. I had approached one of the MOCCA board members about trying to get MOCCA aligned with the vision I had for a Marketing Operations Institute to professionalize our discipline (see my earlier post on the subject). My hope was for MOCCA to be part of the co-creation process. My only motivation at that time was to get the person to agree to meet with me to talk about it in more depth.
To my surprise, I was confronted with great suspicion and resistance, almost hostility. The conversation got kind of heated. I was even accused of really being a sales guy and trying to get an unfair advantage over my competitors. And, when someone interrupted us, the person seemed all too happy to escape from the topic (and me), perhaps never to return.
Funny thing is, I wasn't really asking for anything except support, an agreement in principal to dialogue together and find a way to make it work within our collective business models and worldviews. Instead, the person's response led me to feel as if I was asking for some sort of special favor or standing.
That gets back to this label thing I discussed in my last post. I've got an identity problem. I'm really a hybrid. Part consultant. Part solution provider. Part educator. Part practitioner.
The MOCCA board (or at least some of its members) don't seem to know how to perceive me, how to categorize me, what to do with me. I've been lumped in with the technology solution providers and independent consultants from the beginning (even though I run the only dedicated, holistic Marketing Operations firm around). As such, I wasn't invited to the meetings until they were opened to everyone. I'm not eligible to be on the Board (and not even so sure I'd be welcome to work on a committe). I'm not granted access to the MOCCA Yahoo Group, where I understand there are some helpful templates and resources that I will remain in the dark about.
That I'm trying to sell Marketing Operations as a discipline doesn't matter because I am not perceived by the MOCCA board (or at least some of them) as a real practitioner. Someone that is working in-house, in a role that has been blessed (by whom, I'm not sure) as "Marketing Operations."
It doesn't matter that I am doing the same work as them. Helping a large company like Anritsu launch its initial MO function, including developing the MO roadmap, and defining the marketing charter and roles and responsibilities. Putting together a Marketing Operations innovation summit for a major retailer. Helping an IP telephony company possibly win a marketing breach of contract legal case against a major telecommunication brand as a marketing expert witness.
I'm still considered a consultant. A vendor. A sales guy. Someone who is out to sell something to you (whether you want it or not).
Which is silly and naive.
Because first, we are all really sales people. Internally in advancing MO initiatives. While between jobs in advancing our careers. And hopefully, overall, in professionalizing our discipline. Heck, most of us even take pride in the value we provide to the sales force in our organizations to enable them to sell . . . more quickly, more efficiently, more effectively.
And second, Marketing Operations isn't a product or service I can sell to you the first time we meet. The customer buying cycle - and subsequently, our sales process - is long. It requires deep understanding of your challenges, requirements and vision of the future. It's a very high value selling process. A consultative engagement. A SPIN sell. Based on considerable mutual trust and respect.
I'm not selling baseball cards or movie rentals or groceries. What I (and my team) have to offer requires a serious investment. A real compelling need. Support from other decision-makers in your organization. It takes some courage to work with me. You're not about to make an impulse decision, no matter how persuasive I might be. So the last thing you will ever get from me is a hard sell. I'm only interested in working with companies that are naturally attracted to working with me.
So whether you consider me to be a consultant or solution provider or sales guy or fellow practitioner, don't be afraid to get to know me. I respect where you sit - the need to maintain some semblance of control, the vulnerability involved in making the wrong decision (or the right one at the wrong time), the confusion over who to trust and who to avoid.
I'm really truly here to advance our common cause. We will all win - in other words, Marketing Operations will become the professional discipline we want it to be - if you get the help you need to transform your Marketing organization into a more strategic, more valued contributor to your organization's success. And, of course, if people like me are able to make a decent living providing that assistance (<:}.
Gary
