Jan Ryniewicz, Head of Field Marketing, Google Cloud (Argentina, Chile, Colombia)
“Bring in an expert on a different topic—for example, a neuroscience expert—to discuss how the brain processes data and how that process relates to data management. Take audience members out of their comfort zone and engage them.”
“We—meaning sales, marketing, and clients—are now all in the same home-office scenario and navigating the new norms together. We
now have to figure out how to build relationships digitally,
as well.”
Field marketing is a service team for the sales organization. We support sales’ business objectives with relevant market strategies and tactics. Before COVID-19, field marketing would work with sales teams to understand their goals and long-term plans. From those goals, we would build strategies, tactics, and key performance indicators for six-month, one-year, and three year plans. Although we focus on long-term strategies, we remain flexible so that we can adapt to opportunities as they arise. For example, a crisis in Brazil could trigger a new opportunity in the financial services area. We had to be on top of the market. We had to be flexible and versatile enough to capture new opportunities without losing sight of the long-term plan.
The marriage between sales and marketing has had its ups and downs. Sometimes, salespeople have a narrow “what’s in it for me?” view of the marriage and assume that our job is to make events look pretty when, in fact, we are working to build a high-quality pipeline for them. At the end of the day, though, we understood that they have the tougher job: sitting in front of existing or potential customers and asking them to buy our company’s product . . . and often getting “no” for an answer. They need thick skin to do their job, and we feel their pain.
This is an excerpt from 15 Experts on Reimagining Field Marketing. The eBook was generously sponsored by Mighty Guides.
