Selling futures

Reading Michael Farnum's post (here) brought me right back to one of the more frustrating parts of being the marketing guy. It's the diametrically opposed objectives of being perceived as the "thought leader," while at the SAME TIME driving demand for things your field reps can sell TODAY.

I always wanted to err on the side of what we had today because I understand how sales works. I can put out a hundred press releases that say pretty much anything and still cash my paycheck - the guys in the field don't eat unless they sell something. That made me pretty popular in the field, but not so much in the corner office.

There you have the yin and yang of technology marketing. In every hyper-competitive market, it's all about one-upping your competition to gain that elusive "leader" tag. The theory is that if someone important calls you a leader or has you with the biggest market share, the customers will line up at your door. The reality is much different, but most tech CEO's (that I've seen anyway) subscribe to the theory. The marketing guy (or gal) is in a world of hurt if the competition tells more effective lies. Their ass is in a sling if the media actually believes the lies and calls them the "leader".

The problem with this type of "aggressive positioning" is just what Farnum talks about. He has a problem that needs to be solved TODAY. Every time someone talks to him about a feature or capability they can't deliver until TOMORROW, he is disappointed. He thinks you are wasting his time. In fact, you are. Do that enough times and you won't be invited back for the next conversation.

I can't tell you how many times I was backed to the wall and forced to announce a new capability 3 or even 6 months before it would see the light of day. Lord knows, we need to announce this before the other guys. But what about the customers? Won't they be pissed? Won't they lose trust in us if we "bend" the truth? "Shut up and send the release over the wire, Rothman. Or we'll find another marketing guy that will..."

I can think of only one time in 8 YEARS where we pulled a release and it wasn't because I was protesting (even though I was). Basically we had a big customer that called the CEO and said he was pulling our stuff out if that release hit the wire. The product wasn't ready, it didn't do as we said and this customer felt pretty strongly that it was wrong to publicize it. God bless that guy. Guess who got drummed about asking that customer (who was beta testing the product) to provide a quote for the release?

If I'm sounding a bit bitter, it's because I am. Doing the VP Marketing job forces you to compromise on stuff that after a while I just couldn't handle. I knew there were folks like Farnum out there that want to hear about what they can buy TODAY, as opposed to some friggin PPT slide about what is maybe going to be built TOMORROW. But that's not the way the game is played.

All I could do is vote with my own wallet and not take another marketing job. I had the option to do something different and I took it. But many of my friends are marketing folks, so it's harder for them to get off the hamster wheel.

My advice is to do the right thing for the CUSTOMERS, even if it pisses off the CEO and other muckety-mucks. Given the average tenure for a technology marketing VP is less than 18 months, marketing jobs will come and go. Your reputation stays - FOREVER. Do the right thing, regardless of how they tell you to play the game.