Podcast Summary: B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt – Episode #210: Strategy | Building a Marketing Operating System with the Team at Tenon
Introduction
In Episode #210 of B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt, host Dave Gerhardt engages in a deep dive into the complexities of building a robust marketing operating system. Joined by the Tenon team—Ben Pearson (CEO & Co-Founder), Jessica Skovira (VP Marketing), and Hannak Rankin (Growth Marketing Manager)—the discussion centers around creating efficient systems to manage marketing workflows, align goals with business objectives, and enhance team productivity. Released on January 13, 2025, this episode offers actionable insights for B2B marketers aiming to streamline their operations and drive measurable growth.
1. The Necessity of a Marketing Operating System
Dave Gerhardt opens the session by highlighting a common pain point among marketing leaders: managing the overwhelming number of tasks and requests that come their way. He states, “The high-performing marketing teams… have a system behind the scenes, an operating system, something that helps them manage and plan their work” (04:30).
2. Aligning Marketing Goals with Business Objectives
A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the critical importance of aligning marketing goals with overarching business objectives. Jessica emphasizes, “Marketing should be aligned and measured against the company objectives. It completely changes the way marketing operates” (17:12). Dave reinforces this by illustrating how misalignment can lead to burnout without achieving meaningful results: “If the company is in the red, marketing can never be in the green” (17:12).
3. Campaign Planning and Taxonomy
The Tenon team introduces the concept of campaign taxonomy as a means to organize and prioritize marketing efforts effectively. Hannah describes the approach of having an evergreen campaign that remains consistently active to “keep the lights on” while also allowing flexibility for targeted, time-bound initiatives (21:22).
Dave shares his experience at Drift, where they maintained an evergreen campaign around conversational marketing, ensuring that all marketing activities were aligned with their core mission (20:37).
4. Prioritization and Use of Playbooks/Templates
Jessica and Dave discuss the importance of developing playbooks and templates to standardize processes, which facilitates scalability and reduces dependency on individual team members. Dave remarks, “If we can just take a step back and slow down and, like, productize this, then we can scale better” (30:26). Hannah adds that templates not only streamline tasks but also serve as training tools, enabling new team members to quickly get up to speed (29:20).
5. Handling Dynamic Environments in Startups
Addressing the challenges of frequent changes in startup environments, the team advocates for flexible planning methodologies. Hannah suggests implementing “staycations” or pauses to allow teams to reset and adapt to new priorities without losing momentum (34:07). Dave echoes this by recommending shorter planning cycles, such as monthly plans, to accommodate rapid shifts (35:00).
6. Sales and Marketing Alignment
The conversation underscores the necessity of synchronizing sales and marketing efforts to prevent miscommunications and ensure unified goal attainment. Dave advises presenting marketing and sales plans collaboratively to foster a sense of partnership: “How can we present this together as one unit?” (41:23). Ellen adds practical rules to manage sales requests, emphasizing transparency and collective prioritization (40:49).
7. Budgeting and Resource Allocation
Ben Pearson highlights the importance of creating budgets that realistically reflect marketing goals. By “driving the math backwards,” teams can ensure that every budget line item aligns with strategic objectives. Hannah concurs, advocating for the elimination of non-contributory expenses to maintain financial discipline (43:02).
8. Setting Brand Goals for Pre-Revenue Companies
Addressing the challenge of setting measurable brand goals for pre-revenue companies, Dave suggests focusing on tangible metrics like free trial sign-ups as initial benchmarks. Ellen recommends linking brand activities to business goals, even if direct attribution is challenging: “Do we know how this affects revenue? Absolutely” (47:33). Hannah further emphasizes the broader impact of branding on aspects like talent acquisition and company culture (48:22).
Notable Quotes
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Dave Gerhardt: “The high-performing marketing teams… have a system behind the scenes, an operating system, something that helps them manage and plan their work.” (04:30)
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Jessica Skovira: “Marketing should be aligned and measured against the company objectives. It completely changes the way marketing operates.” (17:12)
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Hannah Rankin: “We are measured on business goals, not meeting our marketing goals because that's why our marketing goals exist.” (16:22)
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Dave Gerhardt: “If we can just take a step back and slow down and, like, productize this, then we can scale better.” (30:26)
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Hannah Rankin: “We need to make it so that when things come at you from everywhere, all at once, you can facilitate trade-off conversations.” (22:55)
Insights and Conclusions
The episode reinforces that a well-structured marketing operating system is indispensable for modern B2B marketing teams. Key takeaways include:
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Systemization: Implementing systems and templates to manage workflows enhances efficiency and scalability.
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Alignment: Ensuring marketing activities are directly tied to business objectives prevents resource wastage and aligns team efforts towards common goals.
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Flexibility: Adopting flexible planning cycles and incorporating pauses for adjustment helps teams navigate dynamic market and business conditions.
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Collaboration: Fostering a collaborative relationship between sales and marketing departments ensures unified strategies and effective execution.
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Measurement: Developing clear metrics tied to business outcomes enables teams to assess the impact of their efforts accurately.
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Continuous Improvement: Regularly revisiting and refining processes ensures that the marketing operating system evolves with the team’s needs and market conditions.
By integrating these principles, B2B marketing teams can build resilient, adaptive, and goal-oriented operations that drive sustained growth and success.
Additional Resources
Listeners are encouraged to access the marketing toolkit and resources provided by Tenon through their website, tenanthq.com, and join the Exit Five community at exitfive.com for further support and networking opportunities.
Timestamp Reference
For detailed references, timestamps have been noted next to corresponding quotes and sections in the summary.