Strategic Foresight Is The CMO’s Real Job. Everything Else Is Execution.

Brandi Starr [00:00:35]:
Welcome to another episode of Revenue Rehab, the place where marketing misalignment goes to die and bold ideas come to life. I am your host, Brandi Starr and today's bold statement Strategic Foresight is the CMO's real job. Everything else is just execution. Change my mind? Here's the truth. Too many CMOs are stuck optimizing campaigns, tweaking funnels and reporting on last quarter's performance. And that's not leadership, it's really maintenance. And so if your strategic plan is just a mirror of historical data, you're not owning the market, you are in fact reacting to it. And what if there's a better way? What if the most valuable skill a CMO could build isn't content strategy or demand gen? It's scanning the horizon for the weak signals that tell you where the market is actually headed.

Brandi Starr [00:01:35]:
This week we are digging into the discipline of strategic foresight with a guest who's helping CMOs and boards future proof their business by finding, interpreting and acting on the signals that matter. So if you're ready to break free from marketing as usual and step into your full role as a market maker, this episode is for you. So let's get into it Today. I am thrilled to be joined by Laura Patterson. Laura is passionate about customer centric growth. She co-founded VisionEdge Marketing in 1999 to help companies grow faster through data driven insights, strategy and operational excellence. And she's the author of the five star book Fast Track Your Business and has been recognized of as one of in Gotti's top 30 marketing influencers and one of the top 20 women to watch in business by the Sales Lead Management Association. Laura, welcome to Revenue Rehab.

Brandi Starr [00:02:41]:
Your session begins now.

Laura Patterson [00:02:44]:
Thank you for having me Brandi. I'm really excited about this topic. I love helping cmos break free from what we call random acts of marketing. So let's talk about it.

Brandi Starr [00:02:56]:
Awesome. Before we dive into our topic, our industry loves its fancy jargon and let's be real, some of these buzzwords are just fluff and can hold us back more than they help. So we like to banish a buzzword every episode. Tell me, what one word would you like to get rid of?

Laura Patterson [00:03:16]:
You know, I appreciated the fact that you sent me a list of all the people's previous peeves on buzzwords, and I noticed that two of my top peeves were already on the list. Synergy and transform. So I had to. So I had to kind of dig a little deeper, and I came up with two others. I'm gonna. I want to have two on the list.

Brandi Starr [00:03:39]:
Okay.

Laura Patterson [00:03:40]:
One is the word pivot, which I am guilty of using myself, but I think I use it correctly. But I have heard it a lot more lately, and I'm not sure people really recognize what it truly entails. And the next one, which we all are using and need to rethink, is AI powered. I can't have a conversation. There's not one conversation a day that isn't about AI.

Brandi Starr [00:04:08]:
Well, I think that you and I can use our synergies to. To transform, you know, the AI driven way that people talk and make a good 180 pivot.

Laura Patterson [00:04:23]:
You did that really well.

Brandi Starr [00:04:26]:
I was saying, what's crazy is there is so much marketing copy out there that sounds exactly like that. So I am good to banish all four of those words.

Laura Patterson [00:04:37]:
Yes. And let's get real. I think that's what's important.

Brandi Starr [00:04:41]:
Yes. So now that we've gotten that off our chest, let's transition into today's topic. Because this impacts so many CMOs. I'm in multiple communities and in talking to other marketing leaders, there is a lot of doing. And it's so often the things that are just right in front of you and not necessarily the things that you really need to be focused on to own the market.

Laura Patterson [00:05:08]:
And.

Brandi Starr [00:05:09]:
And so I'll start with the question, what is the most damaging belief that CMOs hold about being strategic that actually is keeping them stuck in execution?

Laura Patterson [00:05:21]:
Yes. I want to be clear to all of the CMOs listening. I know you're busy, all right, and you don't have enough people and you don't have enough money, because I've sat in that chair. But what I really want to say is get serious about taking a look at your work because you might actually be drowning in just unnecessary activity. And what your leadership wants is impact. That's what they care about. They want you. They want to know what marketing is doing to have positive impact on the business.

Laura Patterson [00:05:52]:
And that takes strategy. So the, you know, lack of strategic focus, which is where I think the biggest problem is chasing trends, which we're all doing right now with our friendly hand and dandy ChatGPT perplexity and every other AI tool out there and all the internal demands, instead of making Deliberate value driven moves. That's the problem. And the myth is if we just do more campaigns, adopt more tools, generate more content, we'll eventually hit on something that works. And that is the myth that activity equals progress. Right? And that's not true. It doesn't lead to anything except to misalignment and wasted energy and time. And it masks the real issue.

Laura Patterson [00:06:38]:
And I want to put this out there, and I, I want to be a little provocative. It masks the real issue of an, of an. Basically the absence of a clearly defined customer centric strategy that's grounded in your core competencies and your value propositions that bring measurable value to your company. So I just want to put that out there. I want you to think about that, let that sink in for a moment. Because random acts, whether they're random acts in marketing or random acts in sales, or random acts and analytics, they might feel really productive in a moment. And we all want to do something productive. We all go to work with the idea of making a difference.

Laura Patterson [00:07:14]:
But ultimately they dilute your impact and they dilute your value and they distract you from the real drivers of growth. That's my answer to that question.

Brandi Starr [00:07:21]:
I agree. And this is one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you so much because, because this conversation comes up so often. And one of the things that I have heard repeatedly, and I mean to the point that I've seen people, you know, kind of making jokes and memes about it, is that so many CMOs understand and agree completely with what you've just said, and they don't want to be chasing the trends. They, you know, know their organization isn't even ready for all of the AI tools. And, you know, since that's the hot. Or, or that the, whatever the hot thing is at the time doesn't make sense for them, but they get pressure from their CEO or from other peers or the board that they need to be. You know, I had a CMO say, I was at a conference about a month ago and a CMO said, I went into a meeting and our CEO said, what are we doing about AI? And that was the question. And it wasn't clear if he meant because they were a software company, AI in their product, AI usage and marketing.

Brandi Starr [00:08:33]:
It was just, what are we doing about AI? I need everybody to have an answer about what we're doing about AI. And so there was this push to chase the shiny object, even though the CMO knew that that was not where they needed to be focused at that point. And so what do you say to those people that they're like, I would love to do what you're saying, but. But the pressures drive me to do other things.

Laura Patterson [00:08:58]:
Okay, I understand that. And trust me, I've been in those similar conversations. But as a leader. Right. If you're going to be the leader, then you have to be willing to take a little risk and have a response that says, well, we can talk about what we're going to do about AI, but I want to be clear, what about what we're trying to achieve for the organization? And then let's discuss whether that effort and that investment will help us get there, or if we're not, or even if we're ready to use that to get there. I mean, that's part of being the leader and being an advisor, a counselor to the CEO.

Brandi Starr [00:09:45]:
Right.

Laura Patterson [00:09:46]:
Is being able to have a meaningful business conversation. And unfortunately, many CMOs have been relegated down into a more tactical role. I've seen more and more of that. And if you want to climb out of that hole, then you have to be willing to have those kinds of conversations. And I always say to every CMO to ask three questions on a regular basis. What is it we need to achieve as a business to declare success in whatever the time horizon is, this quarter, this year, the next two years, whatever it might be, how will we know that we did? And what is it you expect marketing to do to contribute or impact that result? Because everything marketing does should come from the answer of those questions. If you don't know the answer to questions, those first two questions, then you will be a hamster on a wheel doing activity every day and being put into this sort of, you know, rabbit hole. Right.

Laura Patterson [00:10:52]:
Going down a rabbit hole. And that's not fun. What's fun is being able to move the ball down the field and get those touchdowns. That's fun.

Brandi Starr [00:11:03]:
You're speaking my language. I'm so ready for football season.

Laura Patterson [00:11:06]:
But you're not the only one. Have you noticed that there's football now all year round, so we don't have to worry about the seasons? It's just all year round.

Brandi Starr [00:11:16]:
I have not seen football.

Laura Patterson [00:11:17]:
Yeah, now we have summer teams and everything now.

Brandi Starr [00:11:21]:
Oh, I was gonna say. Well, I won't get off on that tangent all day.

Laura Patterson [00:11:27]:
Yeah.

Brandi Starr [00:11:28]:
But thinking about the three questions, so what do we need to achieve? How will we know when we've got there? And what are you expecting? Expecting marketing to contribute, not do we.

Laura Patterson [00:11:38]:
Know, not how we know that we got there. I want to be really clear about my language. What Is what will, what is success look like up at the, at the end of the. Whatever the time horizon is, you want it to be measurable, how will we know that it was achieved? Back to measurable. Measurable. What is it you expect marketing to do or to contribute to achieving that result?

Brandi Starr [00:12:11]:
I like that. And I think that that is a good framework and a really clear conversation to have with the CEO so that there is alignment in what the expectation is. So let's talk about. We get that alignment. We know, you know, we know what our end zone looks like. Using our football analogy, how do we make sure that daytoday we stay focused on what we're trying to accomplish when it is so easy to get caught up in the things that are right in front of us that aren't always directly tied to that goal? Like saying no can often be one of the most difficult things to do. And so how do we overcome that?

Laura Patterson [00:13:03]:
Oh, I love this conversation. Okay, so again, you're going to have to have a little bit of grit and fortitude to have this conversation. When someone comes to you with a task or an idea or an initiative or whatever words they might be using, that's something that wasn't on the agreed upon board. And if you don't have an agreed upon on board of you know, which is your plan or whatever, what, these are the things that we're investing in. This is where our time, our money, our treasure, our talent is going. That's something you need to fix, like right away, right? Whatever you want to call it. So they come with something that's not on the board. My first question, I always ask them, because if it's on the board and you have your outcomes very clearly defined and you know what success looks like and there's an agreement, what marketing is going to do, which is now translated into, into marketing measurable marketing objectives and it's all flowing down.

Laura Patterson [00:14:01]:
My first question is, where does this sit on the board? Which of the following objectives, which of these objectives or which of these outcomes will this sit under? Which of these programs or activity, tactics or activities will this be a part of? And if you don't know the answer to that, then it's time to have a conversation about, okay, if you think it's that important, does that mean we need to add a new outcome to the board or a new objective or a new strategy willing to do that? Let's take a look at our resources because we're at maximum capacity. Which of these things are we willing to turn the dial down on? Or eliminate altogether to put this on the board or is this something we can put in the parking lot and if we get all of the other things done and we have resources left over, we consider this maybe as an experiment that we're going to try out or we consider it more deeply and put it on the board with an outcome that we want to pursue in the future. So those are examples.

Brandi Starr [00:15:07]:
Yeah. And I know we use an agile marketing approach. We went through and got certified in that. And that, you know, what you're describing speaks a lot to those agile principles. And we use a Kanban board and we do have those conversations of here's the resources that we have. If we're going to add this thing, what are we going to remove? And in some cases, you know, we do have our leadership say, okay, yes, this is more important, these are the things we're going to table in order to do that. And it has worked wonders, not only in actually accomplishing what we need to accomplish, but even as sort of a bonus benefit, it helps to avoid burnout in the team because you are not expecting people to overextend, you know, a crazy amount.

Laura Patterson [00:15:58]:
Exactly. I mean if it's, if it's an orphan on the board, it's a random act. And a random act is a distraction. A random act is consuming. It consumes money, it consumes time. It's a cookie monster. Why feed a random act when you've got real things that you need to actually do in order to achieve the outcomes? So I really encourage people to do that. If you can't do it physically on a board or on a whiteboard or in a tool or whatever.

Laura Patterson [00:16:27]:
If you can't do it physically, then try to do it mentally. You know, here's in my mind what it looks like visually and what it lines up and it's not on the line. Right. If it's not on the line, it's worth the conversation.

Brandi Starr [00:16:42]:
Perfect. I love that as an action and I think that is an approach that really anyone can take to get clarity and to get out of the weeds. I want to go back to something that I read that you wrote and it was tying to really owning the market and looking at the markets signals and you know, the importance of the CMO in being able to look at those signals, to be able to get ahead of things, to pivot, to really be strategic. Can you talk a bit more about your perspective on that?

Laura Patterson [00:17:21]:
Absolutely. And this is where being good at insights from data is going to be very important because there's a Lot of information out there or a lot of data. And it creates a lot of noise. So it's important to know what is a signal and what is noise. And that's where your data visualization becomes very important because that what you're looking for are the right patterns and something that is saying to you, pay attention to me. It could be something that's happening internally to your organization that tells you something like customer behavior that would be internal. Right. You're seeing a push out of orders or you're seeing a reduction in conversations, or you're seeing fewer form completions or less traffic at key events, whatever it might be.

Laura Patterson [00:18:18]:
Those could be signals. I don't know if they are. I'm not saying they are. It depends on what's right for your company. And they would be internal, but they could also be external signals. And the world is very dynamic. We're living in a. I mean, for those of us right now, we're all watching a very fluid world, right? Where the market is very.

Laura Patterson [00:18:36]:
Is doing one thing one day and doing something else the next day. And as a result, businesses are facing a lot of uncertainty. And when businesses face a lot of uncertainty, they tend to either stop doing something or reduce doing something or change directions or whatever it might be. So you want to be paying attention to what those things are. And different people use different things. For example, I'll just give a couple of examples. We have some people on our industry in our customer base that pay attention to airline reservations. And airline reservations.

Laura Patterson [00:19:12]:
If they start seeing a real significant dip in airline reservations, it might tell them something about what's going on with people's need for their services. Right. Because that's future forward. Airline reservations aren't about today. They might be. They might look at airline reservations three months out, four months out, five months out, six months out. That would be telling you something. If that is significantly different than it has been for the past X period of time, that would be a signal that would be external to your organization.

Laura Patterson [00:19:41]:
You have no control over it, but it could tell you something about what's happening in the marketplace. Another one that we used to, you know, people in that are in the manufacturing world can look at is cardboard box orders, right? Cardboard box orders, things that get shipped in boxes for all of us who have become addicted to getting, receiving things that come in boxes. And I know I have.

Brandi Starr [00:20:04]:
Guilty. Right.

Laura Patterson [00:20:07]:
It's funny, I mean, I was mentioning to you earlier that I have a toy Aussie and we switched him to one of those food programs that's delivered to your home, right? Fresh, fresh food delivered to your home. And it comes in a box every month. And so you know, he's, and he's just like somebody on one of those commercials waiting at the door for, for the box to arrive. And I feel like, oh, he's Pavlov's dog. But we're no better. We're waiting at the door. But people who are in manufacturing are paying attention to what do those cardboard box orders look like? Because if they're starting to decline and they're seeing a reduction that that probably means that people are going to be buying less, people are going to be shipping less. That could affect, you know, so if you make something, it could also be telling you that people are not going to be buying as much.

Laura Patterson [00:20:56]:
I'm just using these as examples. I'm not telling you they are the signals. But as a person that is responsible for helping to future proof your organization, that is one of the jobs of the cmo. Find, keep, grow, find and keep and grow the value of our, of our customers. We need to understand what's happening in the marketplace that might be affecting our customers. Did I answer your question?

Brandi Starr [00:21:18]:
Yes, very much. And those examples are really great. And what it makes me think about is so often we naturally look at like our dashboards, what's happening with pipeline, what's happening with our current customers. And I do think that those things give us some insight. But when you're thinking more future, quite often by the time the trend shows up in your own data, you're already kind of behind the eight balls, so to speak.

Laura Patterson [00:21:51]:
Exactly.

Brandi Starr [00:21:53]:
So finding that external thing. So I love, you know, airline reservations, if people traveling ties to what you sell or box orders, when you know your stuff, once it reaches your customer, then goes in boxes to their customer, like finding that thing in the market that is more of a forward looking signal or trend that you can pay attention to, to really identify. And I mean because if you think about it, if I know and let's just say manufacturer because I work with a lot of manufacturers, if I know box orders are going way down across the board and I as the CMO can then expect a slump in demand that can change my strategy of where I may need to ramp up, focus on more current customers and expanding those trying to land sooner than later, the new ones, it really can shape and frame. Going back to your board, what are the things on the board that we need to focus on? And so you know, I think a lot of the more seasoned CMOs, especially those that have worked for larger organizations and have, you know, people who are looking at and analyzing this data are a little more familiar with this. Thinking about some of the newer CMOs, those that have, you know, worked sort of in startups, smaller organizations, how do you like, what advice do you give them in starting to really think, Think about what external signals they should really be looking at.

Laura Patterson [00:23:33]:
That is a really good question. So that means that you really need to know who are your customers and what do, who are their customers and who are their customers. So you have to think all the way to the end of the line, if that makes any sense. All the way, not just your own business, but all the way to the end of your line. So when I worked inside companies, I didn't want to just know who my customers were. My question would be, well, who are your customers and what is it that they depend on you for? And why do they depend on you for that? And is that something that is essential to their survival? Or nice to have, you know, those kinds of questions and then maybe talking to some of those people, what is it? What you know, why do you need those products and services? What is it you are doing? Next in the line? What's next in the line? Right? So you get all the way to the end. So think about another example might be if you're in the, in some kind of construction industry or a part of the construction industry, then you might want to be thinking, huh, I wonder what's happening with permits in my space, right? Are permits going, are people asking for permits for new construction or for remodels or are those going down? If those are going down, that might mean that the competition for your, what your, your services are might go down. It could be an architectural firm, you could be an engineering firm, you could be a construction company.

Laura Patterson [00:25:01]:
They're all going to be affected by permits. If you're, where are you in that line? Where are you in that food chain? So if you're right and, and you have to know that in that industry it might be a two or three year process. So it might not be happening right this moment because construction is in place. So if you're at the part of the line that's when it's construction is happening, you might not notice it until later. It could be a year or two later when there is no more new construction because those permits never went through. You understand where I'm trying to say? Yeah, right. So even though you're not feeling it right now, you could be feeling it later. And I think there's a lot of things that are going to be going on and right now, I mean just there's fascinating things that are happening right now in terms of the market that people ought to be thinking about.

Laura Patterson [00:25:52]:
And what is that? What are the ripples? And this is really about the ripples, right? Well, how does it ripple back to my business? That maybe it would be a way to think about it, get to the end of the line and then based on what happens at the end of the line, how does that ripple back to my business? Yeah.

Brandi Starr [00:26:12]:
And I think, you know, there's a lot of people that talk about, you know, the CMO dropping the ING for marketing and being the chief market officer. And it really is this sort of forward thinking understanding of those weak signals and being able to plan for and strategically pivot the organization to get ahead of that so that you don't sacrifice your goals. And you know, to the point that you made earlier, you can't do any of that if you are stuck in the weeds and trying to do all of the things.

Laura Patterson [00:26:51]:
Exactly. And it's interesting about having the chief market officer but really our job in marketing is to create a customer. That is the job of all business. And our job as people in marketing is to find, keep and grow the value of customers. We, that is our primary job. And we do that because we are the primary growth engine in a company. So we really are the chief growth officers. And that is what's important is to remember that is our, if you follow that, that, that logic, then that's really what we're responsible for doing.

Brandi Starr [00:27:25]:
And Laura, I. My last question is a bit of a. I don't know what I don't know and I know you've got a wealth of experience, experience and insight. And so I'll ask a really broad question. Is there anything I haven't thought of to ask you about that you feel really important to help empower CMOs to really own their role and operate from a strategic space?

Laura Patterson [00:27:52]:
Wow. Well, you can't, you can't operate in a silo. I think that's something else. We have a tendency to get myopic. We can't be myopic. We need to be able to bring data and what it means to the table. That's important. That's what the leadership team is looking for.

Laura Patterson [00:28:12]:
They're looking for guidance, bring strategic guidance, be deliberate about that. And we need to have processes and measures in for marketing and they can't be vanity or activity measures. They need to replace. They need to be something the cfo, the CEO, the CEO and the board can relate to. So get your measures in line with what matters to the leadership team and make sure you have the processes in place to deliver on the strategies that you need to execute.

Brandi Starr [00:28:48]:
I love it. So we've talked about the problem. Now it's time to fix it. Welcome to the lightning round. So fast answers only. Let's make sure our listeners leave with actions that they can take right now to start making an impact. So four questions. Number one, finish this sentence.

Brandi Starr [00:29:08]:
If your company's marketing strategy is based solely on historical performance, the first thing you should do is stop.

Laura Patterson [00:29:23]:
Okay, in all seriousness, I really, I do mean stop, pause, take, take a, take a knee, take a breath, whatever the right phrase is for you, and figure out how what you are doing directly links up, and I mean directly links up to the business outcomes for your organization. And if you don't know what that is, you need to stop. Stop spending money, stop spending time. Just energy. Just stop.

Brandi Starr [00:29:53]:
Just stop. What's one red flag that a CMO is stuck in execution mode but might not realize it yet?

Laura Patterson [00:30:01]:
The measures that they're using, if they're using measures that don't really connect back to the business, then they are probably stuck in activity. So all the go back and look at your, how you are communicating, your value, your impact, your contribution to the business. If you can't communicate it in terms that are relevant and meaningful to the business leaders and you're only talking about, you know, activity or output measures, you're probably, that's probably a red flag.

Brandi Starr [00:30:36]:
What's the most common mistake people make when trying to fix all of this?

Laura Patterson [00:30:40]:
They. They try to reverse engineer. What I mean by that is they try to reverse engineer what they're doing to an outcome that is a mistake. Right. It doesn't start at the bottom, it needs to start at the top. Right. So you want to start at the top and say, this is, this is what success looks like. This is how we're going to know if we are contributing to success.

Laura Patterson [00:31:10]:
Right? You have to start at the top, not reverse engineer. That says, here's all our stuff, let's see if we can figure out how to connect it directly to the outcome.

Brandi Starr [00:31:22]:
And the last one, what's the fastest action someone can take today to make progress?

Laura Patterson [00:31:29]:
Yeah, that is a really good question. And I think it goes back to being thoughtful about your question and sort of saying to yourself, let's take a look at our top three initiatives that we're doing in marketing right now and let's ask do we know exactly how these initiatives are going to contribute to creating customer value and giving our company a competitive advantage? Yes or no, right? Take your top three that you're spending your time on, your money on, your people are all allocated toward and ask yourself that question or put it on a scale of 1 to 10. If you're not willing to just do a 0 or 1 answer, you know, and and say if we don't, you know, if this is not a 9 or a 10, we don't know the answer or these are not yeses probably means that you need to do something different.

Brandi Starr [00:32:29]:
Awesome. Well, every good session ends with a plan for progress because the problems aren't just going to fix themselves. Laura, this has been so awesome. Tell us, where can our audience find you and definitely give the shameless plug for Vision Edge.

Laura Patterson [00:32:45]:
Well, come to visionedgemarketing.com we have hundreds of articles, free articles, free resources that any business leader, chief Marketing officer, VP of marketing, Chief Growth officer, whatever role you are in, can help you. They're all meant to give you very specific suggestions and tips. You know, they're not theoretical. I would just feel free to come visit. Come get our cheese. It's okay if you don't buy anything. If you want to buy something and you have questions, you just reach out. We have a way to do that through our advisory services.

Laura Patterson [00:33:22]:
You don't have to do a big heavy engagement. I people have questions, we have answers and you can always email me at laurap@visionedgemarketing.com. Happy to hear from you.

Brandi Starr [00:33:33]:
Awesome. Well, we will make sure to link out to the website so check the show notes wherever you are listening or watching this podcast so that you can connect with Laura and her team. Laura, this has been such an awesome discussion. I've definitely got some actions that I am going to take back for myself as I am sure each listener does as well. So thank you for joining me.

Laura Patterson [00:33:59]:
My pleasure. Thank you for having me and thanks.

Brandi Starr [00:34:02]:
Everyone for joining us. I hope you have enjoyed my conversation with Laura. I can't believe we're at the end. Until next time. Bye Bye Bye.