When the hammer falls on your budget
Both Laura and I cut our teeth, so to speak, in financial services marketing for a major bank. With the benefit of hindsight, this was a phenomenal blessing. It meant that early in our careers we were exposed to what was still referred to then as ‘big data’; we learnt quickly that customer lifecycle management was as important as chasing down new customer acquisition; and nothing gets your ‘influential communication’ skills polished like navigating a massive matrixed organisation of 26,000+ employees.
But lately I’ve been reflecting on the other gift it gave us. The time-honoured art of ‘doing more with less’. It felt like every year, our targets went up at the same rate that our budgets went down. I remember clearly the time that the entire marketing team was asked to spend absolutely nothing for a whole quarter. In the beginning, your instinct was to rail against the unfairness of it all. How am I supposed to do anything with this measly budget?! But with time, experience, and greater commercial awareness (understanding the JAWS ratio was a huge lightbulb moment for me in my 20s), my perspective on the situation changed. And I actually… shock horror… began to kind of enjoy it.
Adam Morgan & Mark Barden coined it beautifully. Resolving what seems like an impossible challenge- getting the same or better performance from a diminishing budget can be, as they put it, ‘a beautiful constraint’. Refusing to give into the instinct to pull back on your original ambitions, and instead re-doubling your resolve to find a way to do it through bolder, creative, lateral thinking, can be the best kind of super-stretchy, brain-bendy challenge.
Economies and business conditions around the world at the moment, are in general, a bit of a shit show. So it’s highly likely that if you’re a CMO or similarly titled Marketing leader, the hammer has already fallen, or is about to, on your precious budget.
So if your marketing dollars have been clipped beyond just the split ends, we’ve compiled a few hints and tips, to help you out, and maybe- just maybe -enjoy the process a tiny wee bit.
Assemble your best and brightest, it’s hackathon time! We’d suggest no more than 5 people ‘in the tent’ if you can. Your direct reports obviously, but also think about who in your team has creative problem-solving in their DNA. In CliftonStrengths terms, you’re looking for people who are high Positivity and high Strategic/Ideation. And make sure you’ve got folks that problem-solve from either end of the spectrum. Maximisers will be up for a total revolution, and Restoratives will want to work with what’s already there. They’ll balance each other out.
Check yourself, before you wreck yourself. Does your long-term strategy still hold? Or has the business or external environment changed so substantially that your strategy needs updating? This is critical to assess before you start making decisions about what to preserve and what to re-imagine. Nothing worse than realising a few months down the track that something you thought was essential, is actually just a nice-to-have.
It ain’t personal; remove the emotion. Easier said than done, we know! Especially if say, you’ve spent 12 months building a completely new brand platform and phenomenal launch campaign and are about to roll it out with huge fanfare (um, yes… true story, thanks for nothing pandemic!). Emotions play with our ability to be rational and make tough calls based on judgement rather than feelings. And if you really can’t zoom out and emotionally detach, bring in a trusted, experienced third party who can give you that much needed perspective.
There is nothing new under the sun. Ask someone who’s been there before. In this day and age, you’re definitely not the only one facing this challenge. Turn to your network, seek trusted counsel, ask for advice, ideas, support, a sounding board, walk the block with your mentor. You’re not looking to them for ‘the answer’ per se- but they might give you valuable insight into how to approach the problem.
Be honest, provide certainty. Your wider team always knows more than you think they do. Being as transparent as you can is key. If you can’t provide certainty on what will change, what can you provide certainty on? The timeline? The rationale? Your decision framework? Context is invaluable. And it’s not all doom and gloom- never underestimate the power of doing time as a team in the cost-reduction trenches, neck deep in spreadsheets and scenario planning till your eyes burn. Some of my deepest work-founded friendships were formed in this very place.
And if you’re still feeling unsure and need an ear, or a hand- give us a call. We’ve got the battle scars and the know-how to help get you through, without it turning into a case of budget-death-by-potato-peeler.
NB. If you’re in a situation where the cuts involve impacting your people- we’re so sorry. There’s no way around it- that bit sucks and is zero fun. Like everyone else- particularly in technology- we’ve been watching our LinkedIn feeds fill with heart-breaking stories of mass layoffs. But if it helps at all- we’ve lived through many of those situations too and we’re always happy to chat about how to make it easier on your team- and you. Hit us up.
