A Marketing Automation project represents a break with the status quo for most organizations. For some organizations, it may represent a dramatic, stressful, and potentially disruptive change. In fact, the Marketing Automation Journey represents a new learning curve for people in your organization (and it may be a steep curve for some of your marketers). Here is the good news: It turns out that the stress points are very predictable and they can be proactively addressed to minimize their impacts. TopRight has identified the most common stress points associated with Marketing Automation projects and developed a diagnostic to help you reveal and remediate risks. Our goal here is to point out what creates the anxiety and then give you some ways to help different people on your team deal with it proactively so you can have better results.

1. @TopRightPartner
19 Stress Points Related to
Marketing Automation

2. Sponsorship Issues
@TopRightPartner
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19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
“Obviously this is going to need close coordination with ongoing IT
projects. This can be an aggressive addition to our Customer Data
Warehouse program.”
- CIO
Conditions for success:
• It’s key that executives publicly and passionately declare
sponsorship and support for the Marketing Automation initiative
• Leaders must appear to the team as “in the game” and held
personally accountable for their actions
Stress Point

3. @TopRightPartner
“Look, I know John is an important member of your Marketing team,
but I need him back. I just lost Jane.”
-Manager
Conditions for success:
• The project must be appropriately staffed with high-quality, high
performing talent to meet the business objectives
• Resources on the program should to be people who are really
important to the business
• People must support the decision once it is made
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19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Resource Draining

4. Sniping and Rumors
@TopRightPartner
3
“They say this is all about automating some of the heavy lifting that
we do today in running campaigns, but it doesn’t take a genius to
figure out that this is going to result in layoffs on the marketing
team”
-Marketing Associate
Conditions for Success:
•It’s required to have clear communications and nurture of
involvement, practicing “straight talk” and honesty
•There must be a shared understanding of the desired business
outcome and fully alignment of demands and next steps
•It’s key to communicate the importance of Marketing Automation
to the business at every available opportunity
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point

5. Scope Crisis #1
@TopRightPartner
4
“To get to the bottom-line benefits we’re after, we need to
immediately evaluate all of our existing customer touch points
across marketing, sales, service, operations and finance”
-Project Leader
Conditions for Success:
•There must be a shared understanding of the desired business
outcome
•The project staff should represent the cross-functional expertise
needed to meet the business objectives
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point

6. 5
“You’ve shown us the customer personas, the journey map and an
implementation plan that is based on a bunch of assumptions and
things that we just don’t know yet -- and you want how much money to
launch your prototype?”
-CFO
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
• There must be a mutually agreed business outcome that is
clearly defined and measurable in terms of strategic,
operational, economic and organizational benefit
• It’s imperative to build a business case for justifying the
investment and quantifying the expected return
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Test of Nerve

7. 6
“I really don’t understand why we are focusing on ‘transformation’ --
we all know that an inbound marketing approach is not consistent
with our feet-on-the-street sales strategy”
-VP, Sales
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•An agile implementation plan should in place and agreed with all
involved parties
•Decisions should not divide the group into winners and losers
•Project leader must keep team engaged and share new success
stories
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Smoke and Fire

8. 7
Wet Blankets
“The new Marketing workflow looks fine, but you are asking us to
integrate data from more source systems in six months than we’ve done
in six years”
-VP, Technology
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•Leaders must be realistic, maintaining scope, team and time in
balance
•It’s important to set up expectations and have a clear
understanding of needed business results and timing
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point

9. 8
“Wow, if we’ve got to write out the business rules for every major
exception to this Marketing process, we’ll be sitting here writing
them until next year. They’re out of their minds”
-Project Leader
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•Scope must be aligned with desired results
•Key stakeholders must have visibility of potential challenges and
operational implications
•Decisions that are already being implemented should not
frequently reconsidered
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Sudden Depth Scare

10. “I’m absolutely overwhelmed. I can’t even begin to spend enough time
with the Marketing team -- I need to dish responsibility for the project
to…”
-VP, Customer Experience
9
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•Project leader should keep the Marketing Automation
implementation moving, and maintain its momentum through to
results
•It’s important that the executive sponsor have a track record of
leading the organization through a change effort in the past
•Key stakeholders must have visibility of potential challenges and
operational implications
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Sponsor Switch

11. “Look, I’m responsible for the bottom line around here, so I’m going
to call the shots”
-Business Unit Leader
10
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•The sponsor should have a scope of authority, power or influence
commensurate with the scope of change involved
•Leaders must demonstrate the ability to take decisions, make
things happen, influence others and keep the team engaged
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Ownership Struggle

12. “Okay, if we try to do everything in this project plan, we’ll need 26
prototyping teams, 7 pilot processes and over 50% of the company
working on this half-time.”
-Project Team Member
11
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•The project should be realistic, with scope, team and time in
balance
•It’s key to manage expectations and energy, balancing work and
play to keep the team engaged
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Scope Crisis #2

13. 12
“This is not the way to run a high performance marketing team and
it’s certainly not the way we got here”
-Business Unit Leader
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•Leaders need to be highly credible and command organizational
respect
•Leaders should take personal responsibility for managing any
major conflicts raised
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Informed Resistance

14. 13
“The inbound marketing strategy and marketing technology initiatives look
very promising but I’m going to wait and see how things develop before I
commit more attention to this effort for my business”
-Business Unit Leader
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•Expose PASSIVE commitment – Secure ACTIVE commitment
•Executives should publicly and passionately declare sponsorship and
support for the Marketing Automation initiative
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Passive Commitment

15. 14
“We were supposed to increase the quality and the number of Sales
Qualified Leads by 5x. After six weeks, we’re actually seeing fewer
leads, lower productivity and our best sales guys are grumbling”
-VP, Sales
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•It’s crucial to have a clear understanding of needed business results
and timing
•The scope of the Marketing Automation project must be
appropriate to obtain the business results desired
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Early Results Disappointment

16. 15
“I can’t believe they’re still not entering correct data about
customer interactions and continuing to waste our time -- these guys
just don’t get what we’re trying to do with this project!”
-Project Leader
@TopRightPartner
Conditions for Success:
•The project must be appropriately staffed with high-quality,
high performing talent to meet the business objectives
•Leaders should have the ability to deliver criticism effectively
•It’s important to practice “straight talk” and honesty
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Real World Shock

17. @TopRightPartner
16
“It’s working for that business unit. I want to know why it isn’t
working for all of them!”
-CEO
Conditions for Success:
•It’s important to have a performance evaluation process in place
•Stakeholders should have a clear understanding of needed business
results and timing
•Each kind of business may have a different result and should have a
customized performance measure. The scope must be aligned with
desired results
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Shock over Early Failures

18. @TopRightPartner
17
“I think we need to take more time to understand this breakdown in
that business until before we go any further”
-Business Unit Leader
Conditions for Success:
•Leaders should have ACTIVE commitment for a successful
implementation
• It’s important to have a clear communication of purpose, timing
and process of change
•Decisions must be made with an understanding of implications
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Implementation Crawl

19. “I took this job because I liked being able to do my own thing –
coming to work is never going to be the same again”
-Marketing Associate
@TopRightPartner
18 Conditions for Success:
• Employees should see the reasons for change and become active
adopters
• It’s important to have a clear reward and recognition for value
creation to keep team engaged
• There should be communications on the importance of Marketing
Automation to the business at every available opportunity
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Pain of Change or Loss

20. “We better let this new lead nurturing campaign run a few more
months before we can be clear on how well it works.”
-Project Leader
@TopRightPartner
19 Conditions for Success:
•It’s important to have a clear definition of what success looks like
•Key executives and stakeholders must be fully aligned on the
priority of the effort and achievement of intended outcomes
19 Stress Points Related to Marketing Automation
Stress Point
Evaluation Avoidance

21. @TopRightPartner
A Marketing Automation project can be a journey with many ups and downs… But the
stress points on the journey are predictable and can be managed to assure success.
In fact, success in Marketing Automation goes way beyond just choosing the right
vendor. You need to have the Five Conditions for Marketing Automation Success to
maximize your ROI.
Click here to take the online assessment now and evaluate your current situation, so
you can take appropriate action to have all the conditions in place for a successful
Marketing Automation implementation.