hey!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n can we chat for a few?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well ho, ho, holy sh**t\u2026ugh, here we go again. Your fearless leader is back from annual planning and the board presentation, budget approved, and now it\u2019s go time! What are you waiting for? The plan is approved, the cash is stacked and ready to be spent, and now it\u2019s time to make it happen. Let\u2019s execute, fast!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, deep breaths. Stay with me. You can get through this. Let\u2019s break it down piece by piece and we\u2019ll have you off drinking eggnog in no time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First thing\u2019s first, you need to make sure you are demonstrating alignment with where leaderships\u2019 collective head is at. That should be table stakes, but I see it get lost in a game of \u201cbroken telephone\u201d between leadership and their managers time and time again. Hint, hint\u2026this is the sort of thing that can impact your upward mobility in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are the business objectives for 2025? Are you going for it in high growth mode, or is the name of the game keeping things lean and punching up to the category goliaths? Ask lots of questions about how the conversations with the C-Suite and the board went. You have already gotten to know your external profiles and personas well, and this exercise is no different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to understand what internal stakeholders are thinking and perceiving. After all, you\u2019re probably going to be on the hook for the documentation and maybe even the presentation of this come January.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Review the marketing budget together. Did the recommendation you made to shift money from large scale events into partnerships come to fruition? Is the paid advertising budget channel structure as it was in 2024, or does it need to be shifted around? Nuances like these will give you a strong sense of where your department leader did and did not get pushback. Where you see that something has changed, you will want to make sure that the output you generate for internal purposes reflects that. You will also want to keep notes on this to improve your reporting and recommendation framework to make a stronger case for next time. More work I know, but this is the sort of thing that will be invaluable when you reach the board room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, you got what you need from leadership, you understand any gaps in perception of spend and activities, and your eyes are on the overall prize. Now let\u2019s bridge the gap into deployment. This is where you need to join yourself at the hip with the demand generation crew. They are going to be under the most pressure for producing outcomes, and you have the knowledge and reporting structures necessary to facilitate. Remember, you do not<\/em> want to end up being on the hook to explain why your colleagues did not feel they were appropriately enabled to meet their objective. This is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are also going to want to loop in the content team to ensure expectations on production capacity are in line with demand generation\u2019s proposal. For example, if they are planning to deploy more advertising campaigns with an increased budget, you can expect they are going to be hungry for more ad creative. You want to make sure both teams are seeing eye to eye and making reasonable commitments. In my experience, this is where the most friction happens. There can be a lot of pressure to produce brand new assets on tight timelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay neutral, but don\u2019t be afraid to call out what you see as unrealistic. It\u2019s not always fun to play bulls**t caller, but it will save you (and your department) a lot of pain in the long run.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Do your best to reach a consensus, but if you can’t, don’t play tie breaker. Instead, call in leadership. It\u2019s far better to let the person who is ultimately accountable for the department make the final call. It will be both faster and decisive. Besides, the sooner you get this resolved, the sooner you can get into the graces of the holiday spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversely, if you have the two functions holding hands and singing fahoo forays, dahoo dorays<\/em> (close enough<\/em> will do) you should have enough to initiate campaign brief creation. Or, if you don\u2019t use briefs, you can move on to starting a rough draft of your 2025 calendar. This is also where you will want to loop in your other functions like Brand, Communications, Partnerships, and so on, who by now have presumably all had their own conversations with leadership about the upcoming year. What are their needs, and how does that impact your processes? Speaking of which\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assessing your templatization and SOPs are the final piece of the puzzle. How you approach these will depend on what you\u2019re currently using for project management practices and documentation. Regardless, we all know you\u2019re a rockstar, so you likely already have most if not all of this sorted ;). If not, there are lots of templates out there, and solutions like ChatGPT<\/a>, Claude<\/a>, and Scribe<\/a> are your friends!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key point is to identify whether you will need to revise any existing procedures, or build new ones. For example, the communications team may have a comprehensive key messaging plan they need to implement, and hence they need to ensure all external messaging that goes out by way of campaigns is aligned. Similarly your friends in brand marketing may have some major co-marketing partners in mind to engage, and hence they need to align them with initiatives the demand generation team is running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to triage, sort out who needs to be talking to who, and hold them accountable for whatever outputs you need.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n If you do see some work to do, that\u2019s okay, you can set it aside for now. After all, you\u2019ve been working hard. Just make sure to communicate what you see needing to be done and any potential roadblocks to your stakeholders proactively<\/em>. As in, before you leave for a break. Give them a concrete timeline to completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, let\u2019s put what we’ve covered into a handy checklist for review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you have all 5 checked off, you’re good to go. As you can see, the key to this is less about operations, and more about managing your stakeholders appropriately. This is the point I cover time and time again with colleagues, clients, and mentees. You need to shift your mindset from receiving a set of orders to herding the team. And don’t be shy to call your leadership in for air cover!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy holidays, and wishing you and your family all the best in to 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019re nearly there, friend! We have officially reached the last full week until the holidays. It\u2019s that time of year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"postBodyCss":"","postBodyMargin":[],"postBodyPadding":[],"postBodyBackground":{"backgroundType":"classic","gradient":""},"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revenue-operations"],"yoast_head":"\nInternal Marketing 101<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Stakeholder Management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Repeat After Me: Template, More Templates & SOPs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Sleigh Bells Ringin\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do you understand the business objectives and internal stakeholders?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are your departmental stakeholders aligned with you and each other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are your templates and SOPs up-to-date or marked as needing work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you identified and proactively communicated any roadblocks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does your internal documentation reflect the aforementioned business objectives and internal stakeholders perception?<\/p>\n\n\n\n