It sounds pretty obvious but how many marketing teams actually do what Stephanie Buscemi, the new Chief Marketing Officer of Salesforce, says and puts the client at the centre of everything they do?

Do you really go out, listen to and understand what your clients' needs and pains are? Only when we start doing that can we begin to build our services or products to truly meet their needs.  

So how does a marketing team understand their clients' needs?  They can try and read up about it and research it online, they can carry out some form of market research or consultation with their clients (I always find this a little bit staged) or best of all they can ask the people from within their own business who actually meet with the clients and have built a relationship.  Whether that be a sales person, a business development team, a professional or a consultant.  As marketeers we need to stop guessing what we think our clients might need and ask the people who actually know and understand from within our own business.

Combining marketing with the client facing team can be extremely powerful and it means that, as a marketing team, we can be much better at solving those business issues and educate the clients in a way that positions us as the continued "go-to" expert and trusted advisor. 

When they are ready to solve those issues, then there is no better person to deliver that message back to the client, than the client-facing person who has built that relationship.

As marketing teams we need to listen not just to clients but those in our business who speak with the clients every day and give them the tools and resources to service those key clients.