Christian Klepp

Christian Klepp 

The macroeconomic challenges Canada faces in the global stage, fragmentation, risk aversion, building alliances, and closing the gap between strategy and execution, are the same challenges that B2B Marketers face every day. The macro mirrors the micro. So, what can Canadian B2B Marketers learn from the country’s macroeconomic challenges, and how can we apply these challenges to become better at what we do. Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers on the Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today, we are going to unpack the middle power playbook and look at how we can apply these massive economic insights to transition B2B Marketing from a mere cost center into a true engine of strategic growth. Let’s dive in. So, on the first of May, I had the privilege of attending a phenomenal panel discussion in downtown Toronto, titled Middle Power: Major Stakes: Canada in a new global order. The room was packed with some of Canada’s most brilliant people in policy, business, and finance, including the Honorable Bob Rae, Goldy Hyder, and Carolyn Wilkins, and the panel was moderated by CBC’s very own David Common. So, we have a lot of ground to cover, from breaking down internal silos to taking bigger creative risks. But before we dive into it, I want to let you know that this episode is sponsored by the Economic Club of Canada. Thank you for bringing leaders together and initiating these critical conversations. Let’s start with a major reality check that came out of the panel. Right, so Bob Rae said something that instantly struck with me: Canada has the capacity to be way stronger than we really are. The panel discussed how our domestic market is still intensely fragmented, impeded by sluggish project timelines and internal provincial trade barriers, we’re still acting like 13 separate economies instead of one powerful nation. And if you live in Toronto, you might know the joke about a certain rapid transit line not naming names, endless delays, shifting goals, and a complete failure of implementation, many, many, many, many years later. Tell me, if that scenario resonates with you, B2B Marketers, how often do we work at organizations where marketing, sales, product, and customer success are behaving like separate provinces? They have their own goals, their own data silos, and their own agendas. This is internal fragmentation, and it’s a productivity killer in top form. If we want our brands to compete globally, our first play from the middle power playbook is to fix this fragmentation. One of marketing’s greatest modern contributions is acting as the ultimate organizational glue. We have to break down those internal silos and drive cross-functional alignment. So, now let’s talk about avoiding the LRT trap in marketing again, not naming names, but those of you who live in Toronto know what I’m talking about. All right, so we’ve all been there. A massive campaign, as promised, deadlines are constantly shifting, the goals are moving midstream, team members got swapped out, or team members leave, and by the time you actually launch, the markets moved on. So, in today’s fast-paced environment, speed to market and agility are everything, right? We have to stop over planning, stop waiting for the perfect conditions, and we have to start executing, right, because in a messy, uncertain market, reliability is a key brand asset, so don’t just pitch a flashy vision to your prospects, show them a proven track record, a solid, reliable execution, and when the world is unpredictable, be that bb partner who actually delivers on time. Okay, and that brings us to our second big theme for the event, strategy and ecosystems. So, panelist Goldy Hyder brought up a very true point. He noted that Canada shares a 9000 kilometer border with the United States, and that is a massive structural advantage. Many countries would trade places with us in a heartbeat, at least with regards to that, right, yeah, the relationship can be challenging. It certainly is right now, as it can be with many neighbors, but we also have to learn to live with our neighbors. So, in the Canadian context, we need to negotiate in our best interest, but we also need to diversify our alliances with places like the EU, the UK, Japan, the ASEAN block, and other countries, so we aren’t overly reliant on a single market, right. And as B2B Marketers, we need to take this exact approach to our own ecosystems.

Christian Klepp 

We need to transplant that into our own ecosystems. So, first, let’s talk about living with our neighbors, right. So, your closest neighbor in the marketing context is the sales department, so sometimes that relationship is highly collaborative, and sometimes it’s full of friction, right? But just like the United States and Canada, marketing and sales are fundamentally codependent. We have to seek common ground, we have to align our metrics, and we have to encourage deep collaboration. If there is no internal alignment, organizational growth will stagnate, and that’s a fact. Second, let’s look at the middle power alliances, right, externally. So, if we’re going to be perfectly honest, most of us don’t have Microsoft enterprise level multi million dollar marketing budgets. It would be really nice if we had, though, right? But marketers don’t always need to have the biggest budgets to win. What we need is to be resourceful, right? Innovation doesn’t happen when you have abundance; it happens when resources, budgets, and timelines are tight. That constraint forces creativity, or as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. So, instead of obsessing over what your budget lacks, focus on what you can achieve with what you have, so lean heavily into strategic partnerships, co-marketing efforts, ecosystem place, and community-led growth initiatives. So, by pooling all these resources together and collaborating with non-competing, complementary players in your vertical, you can strategically outmaneuver much larger players. Now let’s dive into a cultural shift, right? That panelist Caroline Wilkins highlighted, so she pointed out that the Canadians, right, us as a people, we’re generally known to be modest, conservative, and risk-averse, oftentimes to our detriment, but to innovate and succeed in a new global order, we have to change our mindset. We have to embrace risk. We have to accept that failure is part of innovation and take greater pride in what we built. Does this apply to B2B Marketing? Absolutely, playing it safe is a curse in the B2B world, right? Because it leads to a sea of sameness, and you know what I’m talking about. Same stock imagery, same safe messaging, the same boring content, the same boring white papers. When you copy everyone else to avoid risk, what ends up happening is that you just blend into the background, you blend into all that noise that’s already out there, and you become entirely forgettable. What we need is a growth mindset where marketing initiatives are treated very much like tech products or experiments: launch, fail fast, iterate, and then adopt quickly. So, you need to take a stand in your industry and offer a unique perspective. And while you do that, Bob Rae reminded us of a classic phrase from the London Underground, mind the gap, but he added a twist to it. He said Canadians must learn to close the gap between what we say and what we do. So, in B2B, that means ensuring that your marketing strategy translates to flawless execution, so moving away from vanity metrics like like likes, impressions, feel-good numbers, and establishing real performance indicators that show what you’re actually delivering to the bottom line. And please stop being so modest. I know it’s a Canadian thing, but let’s just stop being so modest. Turn your client wins into high-impact customer success stories and video testimonials show exactly how you transformed your customers’ businesses in a positive way, and use that hard proof to build credibility in your vertical, because it’s time to start owning our wins. So, as I wrap up today, I want to leave you with a final note from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos, which the panel also highlighted, nostalgia is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just. We cannot mark it like it’s 2019 or even 2022 that almost feels like history, you in the marketing context, the market has fractured, buyer journeys have changed, technology has evolved, and macroeconomic conditions are tight, but from that fracture we can build a stronger B2B framework, right? So our ultimate goal as B2B Marketers, is to make that strategic shift from being viewed as a cost center to becoming a recognized center of growth. So, here is your actionable playbook based on the key takeaways from the Economic Club of Canada event.

Christian Klepp 

Right, so number one, reduce risk with data, don’t guess, lead with deep customer research and data to execute campaigns with clear intention, then you present that data to senior management in language that they understand, revenue pipeline efficiency, because that will help them to make informed decisions, right, in better informed business decisions. Number two, become that strategic collaborator, act like a diplomat, reach out across the aisle, as they would say in parliamentary terms, right to sales, product operations, customer success, and break down those internal silos, because real corporate productivity happens when everyone is going in the same direction and. Or three is amplify your true competitiveness, your true unique advantages. Please stop saying your biggest differentiators are your people or your customer service, right? Because every B2B company says that, and buyers don’t buy it anymore. Instead, what you should be focusing on, and focusing on it heavily, is on what your organization is uniquely good at, and back that up with proprietary data, and tie it directly to solving your customer’s deepest pain points. So, I’ll leave you with this: Canada has the capacity to be way stronger than it is, and so do B2B Marketers. Right, your B2B marketing department has that capacity to be much stronger and much better. Let’s stop over planning, embrace the risk, rely on our partners, and build something bigger and better, so that we are seen as a strategic function within our organizations. And that’s all I have for today. So, thank you so much for listening to today’s solo episode. And once again, a huge thank you to our episode sponsor, the Economic Club of Canada, for such an inspiring event. See you next time. In the meantime, take care, stay safe, and talk to you soon. Bye for now.