
In this issue: Answers to last week’s Self-reflection. Why life in the ‘mid-market’ is a brutal battle for survival. And how SuperFans can help you win that battle.
Recap of last week’s post
Last week I talked about how all the firms I used to work for, or now work with, operated in the ‘mid-market’ – the most fragmented and challenging environment With 25,000 companies battling for single-digit market shares in the US.
I argued that as a ‘mid-market’ organization you absolutely have to focus on the role you play in your customers’ lives. You absolutely have to get the right product-market fit. You must be totally ruthless in your prioritization. And above all, they need to obsess about the customers who really matter.
Only once you’ve done that can you start to find the SuperFans you need not only to survive, but to thrive. Because their customer lifetime value (CLV) is so much higher than that of your other customers. As always, if you want to move up faster you have to add Value.
What framework am I using to structure my ‘personal 5 cents’, when considering last week’s questions?
Please note: I repeat this framework again and again, in every other episode of this newsletter. The idea of using Return on Marketing Career (RoMC) as a framework for career development is explained in great detail in the first newsletter in this series.
Why? Because this has served me well over the 25 years of my career, and because I find that we are all so distracted today (myself included) that unless we see something multiple times, we forget about it.
If you’re already familiar with this way of thinking, please skip this section and go straight to the next one.

My fundamental belief is that marketers who want to Move Up Faster should treat their marketing career just as we would a marketing campaign. Instead of Return on Advertising Spend (RoAS) we can measure our success by Return on Marketing Career (RoMC).
There are four steps to this RoMC process:
Step 1. Get out of your Comfort Zone as much as possible, even if that scares you because it’s new.
Step 2. Doing new things will increase your professional skill-set. That’s the only way to learn.
Step 3. A broader or deeper skill-set will increase your Value to your manager, your team, your firm and your clients.
Step 4. The higher Value you deliver in your role – now that you have a bigger skillset – the sooner you should get a raise, or a promotion.
Now that we’ve reminded ourselves about the RoMC framework - here are my personal 5 cents on last week’s post.
You do not need to read each section below.
Just scroll right down to ‘Leader (managing Managers)’, ‘Manager (managing Talent on the Rise)’, or ‘Talent on the Rise’ depending on which perspective will be most valuable to you today.
LEADER (managing Managers)
Step 1, Get out of your Comfort Zone: What if you went back to basics? All the large brands that I used to work at in senior marketing roles forgot to always bring it back to answering the question: “what customer problem are we solving”? As marketing Leaders, it’s our job, our primary responsibility, to remind our peers and our team, who we are here to serve. That is always the customer.
Step 2, Develop a New Skill: Learn how to be the biggest customer advocate, always. Be that ‘voice of the customer’ on the leadership team, the person that other execs turn to, to understand what is inside the customer’s head. This may mean being out in the stores more, joining calls with the call center to listen in, or doing informal ‘focus groups’.
Step 3, Create More New Value in your Role: Create Value by keeping your exec team and other senior team members centered on the customer. It sounds so simple, but think how often Board and ELT meetings are dedicated to silly politics, managing the feelings of those at the top, dealing with the investors’ irrational demands, or other corporate governance topics? When you always bring every topic back to ‘customer relevancy’, product market fit, or creating maximum value for the target audiences so they stay and grow our revenues, you’re fulfilling your duty as a Marketing Leader. It’s your job to do this.
Step 4, Set Yourself Up for a Bigger Future Role or a Promotion: Leaders who move up faster are clear about what value they are to bring on the exec team. Be a resource for everyone else, be that ‘voice of the customer’. That’s how you ensure that you anticipate, faster than others on the exec team, opportunities or risks around the changing needs of the market.

MANAGER (managing Talent on the Rise)
Step 1, Get out of your Comfort Zone: What if you made it your team’s focus to understand your SuperFans better? Become the standard bearers for a new way of thinking about your customers. Why do they need you? What more could you be giving them? Your Leader will appreciate it.
Step 2, Develop a New Skill: Learn how to connect with your SuperFans, in order to understand them better. Use your new knowledge to make your Leader look smarter in front of the senior team.
Step 3, Create More New Value in your Role: Create value by constantly looking out for new ways to build bridges to your SuperFans and to make deeper connections with them. Always be on the lookout for new trends.
Step 4, Set Yourself Up for a Bigger Future Role or a Promotion: Managers who move up faster turn their ideas into systems. How can you systematize the ‘personal touches’ that keep SuperFans super loyal?
TALENT ON THE RISE
Step 1, Get out of your Comfort Zone: What if you helped your Manager to find out more about your brand’s SuperFans? They’re the customers you really, really want, but they need a champion in the team to make sure there is a laser-focus on their needs and wants. Make it personal.
Step 2, Develop a New Skill: SuperFans crave contact with the organizations they buy from or give to. Could you start conversations with the best customers you have in order to find out what really matters to them? They’ll appreciate being asked.
Step 3, Create More New Value in your Role: Create value by identifying the factors that drive customers to become SuperFans. Ask your Manager to give you the responsibility of understanding your SuperFans better. It will help you find more.
Step 4, Set Yourself Up for a Bigger Future Role or a Promotion: Talent that moves up faster has superior knowledge and deploys that knowledge to add Value to their team’s, their Manager’s and their Leader’s work.
If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn.
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