As a business owner or someone who works with business owners, you are likely hiring strategic resources to help in areas that you have recognized as a weakness or too expensive to bring in the company. Outsourced CFO’s, IT and HR specialists are all very popular resources today. But the one area that can have the most impact on a business is often overlooked - a professional who can drive strategy to increase a company’s sales and marketing efforts.
An outsourced CMO can be a part-time addition to a company’s executive team who provides an outsider’s perspective for a lower cost than an in-house executive would demand — an especially important consideration for those trying to grow their company. More important, an outsourced CMO can deliver real value that can dramatically improve a company’s overall bottom line.
Outsourcing marketing efforts can pay off.
The way companies bring in this type of an engagement can vary from à la carte services to higher-touch engagements over the long term. Flexibility and an open mind are the keys to reaching growth goals when working with an outsourced CMO. Let’s take a look at why hiring an outsourced CMO may make sense for you.
Get an outside-in view of your business
Having a wealth of experience and expertise working in a variety of industries gives a unique perspective that is often missing from most businesses. Working with an outsourced CMO often results in a highly collaborative process. Even when there’s some friction, opposing points of view can produce better ideas and outcomes since an outsourced CMO and a business owner share common goals. While they may have differing views on how to achieve a goal, an outsourced CMO can advise and act in the brand’s best interest instead of conceding to particular internal groups.
In addition, companies that utilize an outsourced CMO are more likely to push back quickly when they don’t like something, while companies with in-house marketing are less likely to call out the negatives — and therefore are more likely to tolerate bad results for too long.
Validate your message strategy for success
I have met with companies that have from $20 million to over $100 million in sales – yet they fail to pay attention to their message strategy; how they are different than their competitors; why that is important to the customer; and how to tell that in a compelling way. Time and again it’s been proven - giving validated focus to a message strategy will pay off handsomely in future results.
The ability to build trust
Buyers do not buy from you after one interaction. You have to build trust which means businesses must nurture their leads. This is a strategic marketing function that many B2B businesses neglect – but an area that an outsourced CMO will pay specific attention to throughout the sales cycle.
Create a pipeline of new customers
Over the past several months I have met and talked to many business owners and C Suite execs who do not even have a database or if they do, they are not using it in any strategic manner. Most have no strategic means of pursuing new business. Think of how great an ROI these businesses could achieve by bringing in an outsourced CMO that can successfully lead these efforts.
An Outsource CMO remains a novel concept for now, but companies will need to think in new ways to survive in increasingly competitive markets. Whether they work with an Outsource CMO or not, tomorrow’s businesses must be ready to face never-before-seen challenges, especially from a marketing perspective.
Most B2B businesses are not prepared – and probably haven’t even considered bringing in an Outsource CMO.