This time of year, marketing teams in every industry are faced with the challenge of budgeting to drive higher performance with incremental increases in budgets. What complicates this further is the rapid changes occurring in the buyer market—media, behavioral and generational shifts. Marketing needs to address the aging decision makers as well as the new breed of digital-first thinkers that are taking over important roles in every company.
It is not an easy task to be sure, but the common practice of using last year’s budget as a template or starting point will only guarantee that next year’s results will look a lot like this year’s. If you need evolution, you need to shake things up. Here are a few resources designed specifically for B2B marketers to energize the process and stimulate some new thinking within your marketing team.
Budgeting tool spreadsheet
Plug your budget data into our Budgeting tool. The instructions are in the download and it will likely highlight some neglected areas that need to be funded if you are going to drive change.
Gamify your budget planning
Try this team-building and budgeting exercise. Gamify a budget planning session with poker chips and a game board. I guarantee you will generate great discussion and draw some new insights about your programs as well as how people think and feel on your team.
Lastly, remember—the marketing team is a catalyst for change and education. It is our job to keep people thinking and adapting. With the changes in the world over the past few years and the pace of change going forward, it is critical that the CEO and CMO are well aligned. If you want some additional ways to inject some new thinking and energy into your strategic planning process, feel free to reach out.
