At Vertiv, when we say “Marketing is my Cardio”, some people may wonder if we are talking about some new exercise fad. In fact, this is the campaign theme we have given our new Vertiv initiative to further elevate the role of Marketing within the company while sharing best practices with our customers and partners. Just like cardio evokes thoughts of energy and healthy hearts, our goal is to ensure that Marketing, aligned with Sales, is valued as a critical component of every healthy and dynamic business strategy. For many Latin American businesses, this may mean adopting a new mindset — one that could make them more profitable and enhance their customer experiences.
In Latin America, the concept of Marketing is often limited to organizing events, printing brochures, or choosing attractive giveaways. Some businesses do not always view Marketing as adding tangible value, and they may make this strategy the first target for budget cuts if the company is in a downturn. This ignores Marketing’s critical role in the “lead-to-cash” process, which begins with Marketing and ends with revenue generation. Successful organizations adopt Marketing that has evolved and embraced technology, including Digital Marketing, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Predictive Marketing, and other tools. Today’s Marketing is considerably more strategic and involves actions that are measurable in terms of their positive impact on growing business pipelines and boosting revenues.
We believe there is a need to change this mindset and embrace a new Marketing vision in the region. Marketing has long been a core part of our business strategies at Vertiv, driving how we interact with our customers and stakeholders. As a customer-centric company, what we do and how we do it are driven by our goal of being a trusted vendor of choice, ensuring that our customers and partners have the best experience every time they come in contact with us. We are keenly aware that Marketing has evolved, and we have taken steps to make it an even greater part of the core strategy leading the company’s business growth while gaining a better understanding of our increasingly more educated customer. This has meant taking important steps to integrate our Marketing and Sales functions, in a process now referred to as “SMarketing”. We have skilled marketers who support all areas of our business, have aligned our objectives to facilitate pre-qualifying sales leads routed from Telemarketing to Sales teams, and have expanded communications channels between Sales and Marketing teams to establish an, even more, fluid dialogue.
A Healthy Business Strategy
According to a report from LinkedIn (The Art of Winning: Orchestrating Marketing and Sales to Deliver the Ultimate Customer Experience), companies with aligned Marketing and Sales functions generated 208% more revenue from their marketing efforts. The company’s global research also showed that 70% of respondents said Marketing and Sales collaboration delivered a better buying experience for customers, while 60% believed that misalignment between the two business areas could damage a company’s financial performance. In the US alone, LinkedIn research shows Marketing and Sales teams waste an estimated $1 trillion per year due to lack of coordination. The report recognizes that the task of joining both functions can be challenging, as they are built to see the world differently, but acknowledges that not doing so is “as if you’re on the same field playing baseball and soccer – at the same time.”
Our aim is to bring some impactful Marketing best practices to the region, in an effort that begins with innovative education and knowledge-sharing initiatives. We have launched an insight series that will cover a variety of related topics through short 2-minute videos, of which the first installment is on Digital Marketing. We also organize webinars through which we train our partners, while Vertiv University continues to offer comprehensive Marketing, Sales, and Technical training courses. By sharing knowledge, we want to inspire and empower people and companies to meet their full Marketing and Sales potentials for a better customer experience and increased revenue stream.
Marketing is my cardio and, at Vertiv, we are ready to help get our customers’ and partners’ lead and revenue generation efforts pumping. Ready, Set, GO!
