Why Marketing Tech Should Be on the CEO Radar

The marketing technology landscape is rapidly evolving, with new solutions promising to help companies turn prospects into customers more quickly and efficiently popping up almost daily. Smart CEOs are keeping an eye on the marketing tech space and communicating regularly with CMOs about how it is being leveraged, as it can make a big impact on revenue when deployed correctly.

Jeff Pedowitz is founder and president of marketing consulting firm The Pedowitz Group, and is an expert in the areas of demand generation, marketing operations and marketing technology. Chief Executive touched base with Pedowitz to talk about why marketing tech needs to be on the CEO radar screen, his biggest challenges as a CEO and doing business in a constantly-evolving ecosystem.

Q: Why is it important for CEOs to stay on top of marketing technology and what it can do for their businesses?
A: Marketing technology is a key enabler in helping companies truly transform into being customer-centric vs. product-centric. When applied strategically and properly, it can connect the company with the customer at all phases of the lifecycle. It scales the sales and marketing organization while providing key insights into customer needs. CEOs can gain competitive advantage by selecting, adopting and applying marketing technology.

“The landscape has proliferated in recent years, growing from a handful of solutions to thousands.”

Q: How has the marketing tech landscape evolved in recent years, and how is The Pedowitz Group responding?
A: The landscape has proliferated, growing from a handful of solutions to thousands. Venture capitalists and private equity funds have poured billions into the sector. Channels are expanding rapidly and data is growing at an exponential rate. Through it all, buyers are getting more sophisticated and it is getting harder for companies in all industries to truly differentiate, drive revenue and build meaningful relationships with their customers.

We have responded by taking a much more holistic and customer-focused approach to building out sales and marketing operations, technology and demand generation. We have thrown out the funnel in favor of a complete customer journey map, lifecycle-based approach that aligns sales, marketing and the customer with every phase from awareness to advocacy.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge for your company in the year ahead?
A: We face many of the same challenges as our customers. Talent acquisition and retention, competitive differentiation, and customer value creation. We can dial growth up and down as we need to, but if want to aggressively grow by 20%-plus and remain profitable, we need to address those challenges head on.

Q: As technology and automation play increasingly important roles in today’s business landscape, is it a challenge finding tech-savvy team members to fill positions?
A: For us it isn’t, as that’s our core business and how we help our clients. But we are continually investing in developing business and communication skills for our consultants in addition to their technical skills.

Q: What excites you most about the next five years in your industry?
A: Everything is constantly changing. Innovation is happening faster and in shorter waves of time. We are now on the forefront of AI, IoT and personalization at scale. Today’s technologies and methods can be rapidly replaced. Companies need to invest in innovation and find the right balance between agility and stability. It is a very exciting time.