• B2B marketers overthink technology selection and make their lives way too hard
  • Accelerate technology selection by throwing all standards, protocols and formal vetting processes out the window
  • Seventy-nine percent of B2B organizations reported a 40 percent uptick in technology after procuring 10 percent more solutions monthly

Marketing, sales and product leaders are constantly bombarded with new technologies and solutions, new go-to-market strategies, and new concepts to drive more effectiveness in their organizations. But let’s face it, marketing technology has become the frontrunner in features, functionality, vendors, categories, cool names and just plain awesomeness. And because of this, life has never been easier for a B2B marketer. In fact, there are so many choices and so much overlap in functionality that it’s virtually impossible to make a wrong decision!

By simply using the SiriusInDecisions Framework for Accelerated and Rapid Capabilities Expansion (FARCE) to add new technologies to your stack at a constant cadence (we recommend three to five per month), you can keep your marketing teams hyper-stimulated (boredom is bad) – and have their heads spinning so fast they won’t even have time to complain about the lack of training, purpose or vision. Through hundreds of client interviews and vendor interrogations, SiriusInDecisions has distilled the four major benefits of this laissez-faire, “hakuna matata” approach to combat the effects of modern marketing technology mayhem (MMTM).

  • Simplified measurement. You’ll never have to measure ROI. Instead, use KOI (keep on investing). By adding new technologies constantly, you have no real way to establish a baseline against which to measure any benefits of the new technology. Not only does this give you plausible deniability (e.g. “How can I see if the new MAP is providing value if I’ve changed it three times in the last 18 months?”), but it also provides some serious job security for the entire operations team responsible for selecting vendors and implementing the new technology. The only numbers you should pay attention to are how many solutions you’ve added and how many you will add.

  • Social capital. Marketing leaders often find themselves at networking events, board meetings or conferences with little or nothing new or interesting to say. By incessantly increasing your organization’s number of apps, systems and platforms, you’ll never run out of things to talk about. An added benefit is that early adopters of FARCE report that the majority of people they spoke with (and as high as 90 percent of board members) were literally left speechless, allowing them to more effectively dominate the conversation and increase the time they could spend speaking about all the shiny new objects aimlessly working their way into the technology stack.

  • Unbridled creativity. Another solid benefit of the “buy now, ask questions later” approach to this technology strategy is that you are offering a unicorn-laden, all-you-can-eat buffet to the organization to satisfy every individual need, inkling, nuance, whim or desire. Duplication has gotten a bad rap – more is always better. Ask yourself: Does a plane fly better with one wing or two wings? When playing Monopoly, would you rather have $1 or $20,580? Nothing could possibly be better than a marketing organization that has the world of technology at its fingertips – unrestrained by targets, SLAs, MQLs or any real semblance of measurement. Not sold? How many sonatas can you write for a piano with only two keys? Not many. By giving the marketing organization an ever-expanding keyboard of new technology, you’ll allow creativity and innovation to flourish.

  • Autonomous technology roadmapping. So, what does this mean for your technology roadmap? Well, essentially it means that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to bother with one ever again. Why try to understand a technology landscape if it’s going to change in six months, anyway? What if you put the “wrong” technology in place? In short, you can’t! There are no wrong answers when it comes to technology selection. Much like the “invisible hand” of the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, it’s better to trust the market to make these types of major decisions for you while you just sit back and enjoy the windfall. And don’t worry about the impact on your customer experience, because as more technologies refine ways to find, engage and convert new prospects, you can simply replace your old, unhappy customers with new, untainted ones.

 

Happy April Fool’s Day!