The Geehan Group recently hosted a B2B Executive Roundtable in Palo Alto, California, where our Founder and CEO, Sean Geehan, moderated a discussion with special guests Brad Brooks, VP Enterprise Marketing, Juniper, and Greg Jorgensen, past-CMO of Verisign.  In characteristic Geehan Group fashion, an intimate group of about 20 executives enjoyed a convenient, casual and socially-appealing venue—Zibbibo Restaurant—while participating thought provoking panel discussion, executive networking and, of course, a California infused wine tasting experience.  

The Theme:  Sean’s pending book release “The B2B Executive Playbook” helped carve the theme of the meeting around advancing business relationships from transactional vendors to strategic partners/trusted advisors—while reaching decision makers.  Sean moderated a lively discussion in which the audience asked stimulating questions and openly discussed panel responses.  The top concepts that resonated with me included:

“C level executives don’t have a ‘like’ button for you.”
Brad Brooks, VP of Enterprise Marketing at Juniper responded to the question of social media hype when it comes to the C level.  As is the case with most B2B companies, and following Pareto’s 80/20 rule, Juniper earns a large percentage of revenue from a small percentage of customers.  Most importantly, though, is that the C level executives in these top accounts are conservative:  So they don’t use a “like” button to click and review for input, instead they call their “friends”—peers in this case—to seek advice and input when making decisions.  Understanding this level of customer advocacy, Juniper knows they must build a strong relationship with decision makers.  To do so, as Brad noted, first requires establishing a foundation of trust.  For Juniper, this means they are always open to discussing and resolving customer issues, faithfully earning that trust over time.
 
”Centralize to gain benefit:  Decentralize to execute.”  
One of the most important aspects for a CMO to address is determining when to centralize and when to decentralize, as Greg Jorgensen, past CMO of Verisign, pointed out.  Because B2B relationships and sales typically occur at a regional level, the execution of marketing and sales programs needs to be delivered on a local level.   Greg noted, “The corporate function is best left to delivering in areas where process, consistency and cost savings can be maximized to the benefit of both the corporate centralized function and the regional decentralized function.”  And then let the region manage the delivery aspect of the program with the customer.

“Beware the ‘Sins of Wealth.’” 
Brad also stated, “Successful organizations can enjoy the ‘Sins of Wealth’ where financial success allows for missteps in B2B marketing execution.”  Spending for PR can quickly grow as a bloated organization misinterprets marketing awareness campaigns as the only metric for success—while neglecting the nurturing and rewarding of decision maker relationships.  “Balance is important … and determining who to influence is the responsibility of the savvy B2B marketer.”   A day will come when the relationship with the decision maker is paramount to retaining and growing your business.

“What a great event! The targeted attendees (marketing leaders), level of dialogue, intimate setting and open interaction was an experience to repeat!  And I loved the wine tasting networking where I could identify the common connection points to others I met.” – Maeve Naughton, Fortinet

There were many more comments from our panelists and contributions from our attendees worth taking back to reflect on and implement, but not enough space to capture here today.  Thank you to our panelists and attendees for joining me, Sean and Karen Posey in this engaging executive experience!