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Drummers get a bad rap. How many musician jokes are about them? But – what would our world be like without drummers? How important is that rhythm section to us? They drive the music. They hold it together. And in our B2B lives… who’s the drummer in your ‘band’ at work?
Give this Smashing Pumpkins tune (with Jimmy Chamberlin, one of my all-time favourite drummers) a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week…
Marketing Performance Amid Pandemic Challenges
Although many marketers have been largely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, new research suggests that some are finally rebounding after the initial struggles they faced back in 2020.
Most marketers (70%) are now reporting their business performance as better overall compared to last year. And 63% claim that their budgets and priorities reflect pre-COVID levels. When factoring in pandemic-related challenges, 91% of marketing leaders said that their team has been successful over the past year.
In the same period, the majority agreed that marketing has grown in importance. Most marketing leaders (68%) shifted their resources to product marketing during the pandemic, while 62% shifted toward digital ads. About 53% moved toward customer marketing.
What kind of changes have you made? Did the pandemic prompt you to explore new strategies or channels? All things must surely have to end, but the changes they cause are lasting, so we must be able to adapt as they come.
Who’s Your Favourite Drummer?
I probably learned just as much about business being in bands as I did while in business school. We may think drummers take the backseat to other musicians, but their role is vital, and perhaps they can help us learn the meaning of it all!
What can they teach us that we can apply in our B2B lives?
Everything you do is both a reaction to, and cause of, something. A drummer speeds up, the band speeds up. They slow down, you slow down. But when your bass player settles in on a line, the drummer hears it, finds it, and helps them keep it.
In business, especially startups, every decision has an impact. So they should be rooted in reason (a reaction to something) and executed with purpose (to cause something to happen).
Find the tempo and stick with it. Too slow, and it drags. Too fast, and it gets sloppy. Settle into that pocket and keep it steady.
Find a sustainable pace at which to work. Generating demand can be hectic, but that’s even more of a reason to work at your own pace, not someone else’s. Some days will need more push than others, but those days get more doable if the default pace is where it needs to be.
Every business, every department, every team has to have its own ‘drummer’ to keep things going at the right tempo. As a demand gen partner to our clients, WE are the drummer keeping that steady flow of leads rolling. Do you know who your drummer is?
As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.
Looking forward,
Rick
Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat