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Marketing is often said to be both an art and a science, but the difficulty of attribution creates an ongoing tension.
My husband goes to the Gartner IT conference every year. Just recently, he brought me back a book on creative thinking by speaker Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.
What I read Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Quest for Mastery; It felt like the current marketing and sales enablement challenges I’ve been writing about in this series on MarketingProfs were playing out before my eyes.
I started this series thinking about the question “Sales Enablement: Good or Bad” as a roundabout reference to the “Nicolas Cage: Good or Bad” episode. community.
Does bad equal good?
Now more than ever, I feel that the bad in this equation may be just as helpful as the good in learning how to improve.
The Rise It’s so beautiful that you should add it to your winter reading list. (Especially when reading about Ben Saunders’ expedition to the North Pole, it’s easier to empathize when we’re all united while braving the cold outside.)
In the meantime, I will explain why. bad Sales enablement can also be good. “The creative process—the engine of invention, discovery, and culture—reminds us how to quickly turn so-called failures into irreplaceable advantages.” (Sarah Lewis, The Rise)
A 2% return on investment, taken out of context, isn’t necessarily great. But in a marketing context, when the math works, it’s often celebrated as a phenomenal success.
Marketing complex B2B services often means having a high tolerance for failure. That’s because his one won deal that gets done can exceed his entire quarterly budget, and often even his entire annual budget.
SaaS marketers typically have lower margins and a volume approach, resulting in faster feedback loops.
Both types of B2B marketers can benefit from a more flexible growth mindset.
If it fails, the following will happen:
- Resolve to keep trying (but no change)
- Thicken your skin so that your next failure won’t hurt as much (you’ll be able to ignore it easier)
- Let me know that this strategy isn’t working (it’s time to try something else)
We all know there’s a lot out of marketing’s control, given how quickly things are changing, such as the fragmentation of reach across countless channels and platforms.
But what you can control is how you react to failure. A third way of handling failure can lead to improvement over time.
The Rise “Masters are not experts because they bring their subject to conceptual ends. They are masters because they recognize that there are no experts.” (Sarah Lewis)
If someone says they understand marketing, they are lying.
via GIPHY
Mastery is always in the “eternal future.”
Look for ways to improve
The creative process is not about reaching a level of mastery. It’s about finding it.
And that means trying things out while exploring. “We make discoveries, breakthroughs, and inventions because we have enough freedom to take risks and fail when necessary.” (Sarah Lewis)
This seems like a very valid way to think about marketing in our rapidly changing world.
I think of marketing as a way to generate interest and encourage action. It plays out in many different ways and can often be difficult. Sometimes it can be just as frustrating as clamshell plastic packaging.
The Rise “Achieving bold goals can sometimes benefit from being out of our reach.” (Sarah Lewis)
You and I have both felt the same way when we came very close to achieving our quarterly MQL goals.
When you can’t figure out your goals, stop and understand why. Remember that this is out of your control. If you surrender to challenges enough to accept what’s out of your control, you’ll be able to focus on what you do have.
via GIPHY
Letting go of things you can’t control (email open rates mean nothing) gives you space to not only focus, but also refocus and reframe (alternatively, web track the number of last visits to your site and page views).
You can find things you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
And there’s time to play.
Ivy Ross, who launched innovation initiatives at major brands, explains it this way: “Innovation is a result. Play is a state of mind. Innovation often comes when we play.”
Grit not only propels you forward but also helps you let go
The Rise Connecting the exploration of mastery to Angela Duckworth’s work on grit and growth mindset.
“Grit is not just a simple term that means tenacity; it is the ability to stay in uncomfortable places, work hard to improve a given interest, and do it over and over again. It is an expression of invisible perseverance.” (Sarah Lewis)
Lewis went on to discuss Duckworth’s definition of grit as knowing when to change tactics, being persistent toward higher-level goals and having the flexibility to let go of lower-level tactics. Make sure you have it.
And Lewis deftly draws a line between art and the scientific process. Because both evolve from continuous adjustment.
The scientific process is an easy lens to think about continuous testing. But, Lewis points out, art provides us with “a means of enduring ambiguity long enough to decide whether to pursue a problem or stop and reevaluate.”
This, my friends, feels like the secret to becoming a successful and gritty marketer.
- Learn from both the good and the bad.
- Be open to the struggle so that you can let go of what you cannot control.
- Be curious and adopt a playful mindset.
- Realize that knowing when something isn’t working is just as powerful as making something work.
how you Want to practice becoming a gritty marketer?
Additional resources on the role of failure in marketing
How to embrace failure and improve your content marketing
Turning Tears into Gold: How to Create Personal Marketing Success from Pure Desperation
Do not panic!What to do instead if your marketing campaign doesn’t go as planned
Strategies for marketing-led growth: Marketing smarts from Amrita Mathur [Podcast]
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