How many times have you heard a manager use the phrase, "the ball is in our court?" Some like to use sports metaphors' to describe the struggle to win customers and drive businesses to their goals. Some prefer to use more aggressive comparisons. Regardless, how the efforts are described and compared; it's no doubt that CIOs struggle to understand the technicalities of marketing and sales. It just may be that they are unfamiliar with those areas. JR Rodrigues, the founder of NetCablesPlus, a network cable and accessories online distributor, explains.
JR has held the position of Chief Security Officer and Chief Marketing Officer in the high tech industry. Here are three things that Rodrigues would tell a new Chief Information Officer who is unfamiliar with marketing:
- We are at war with our competitors and other enemies. Sales is front lines of the fight, marketing provides food, ammunition, medical supplies, intelligence and scouting, The IT department provides engineering and transportation services. Everything stops if the logistics fall apart. The better the logistics (in terms of providing the right tool or service to the right people at the right time), the better we can fight our battles. Communication is key in this regard.
- Marketing staff can be a significant user of data to the benefit of the company's bottom line. A slightly better understanding of customers, prospects, partners and the market, itself, can produce dramatic financial results. Sometimes, however, marketing does not perform important analyses that could affect bottom line results because they are not aware that the data exists and can be accessed. Communication is also key in this regard.
- Marketing departments generally have three types of people: analysts, creatives and administrative and operations. The analysts will be very computer literate and the IT department can deal with them on an advanced level. The creatives will know computers due to graphics programs, desktop publishing, etc., but their knowledge and skills will vary quite a bit. The admin and ops staff will likely be using computers all day long and should be viewed as intermediate users.
As CIO, do these metaphors help you get a clearer understanding of the marketing department?
