Joonas Hakkarainen
As marketers, we know our impact is long-term, so why are we often trapped in short-term plans and tactics? At our second Executive Roundtable Helsinki in 2025, the main topic was “Leading marketing function with accountability, not outputs”. Discover, what was the consensus among senior marketing executives and how to tackle the conflict of long-term impact and short-term planning.
Mastering the internal game
In B2B, 'sales is king' often means marketing faces a barrage of requests, sometimes well-intentioned but not always aligned with long-term goals. They might be based on old images about marketing and stakeholders’ previous experiences about what marketing has been. HiPPO theory might exist. The question is, do requests or questions about ordering pens, mousepads or arguing about music in a LinkedIn ad support the long-term vision and goals marketing has in supporting business outcomes?
Creating accountability within a marketing function starts from a strong vision. To have a tool to say no to different requests and prove marketing’s impact requires understanding of business and its priorities. Once a marketing approach is tied to them and planned based on the bigger picture in mind, it gives marketing leaders and teams a tool and reason to say no. Marketers believe their provided impact should be evaluated on a long-term basis. Still, marketing is planned year by year. The vision is your tool to align long-term vision and expectations and cascade the yearly plans from there. And also form the story in an understandable way to the business, speaking their language and showing we understand your priorities and are rowing in the same direction.
The consensus around the table was that marketing functions must prioritize internal marketing to showcase their value. We should better show and in some cases teach what we do and why. And make our work visible. That might even require targeting some activities internally with a small budget.
Benefits of creating accountability within the marketing function
Marketing departments in large B2B organizations have different ways to organize themselves. Some have internal agencies supporting different regions, some have outsourced all creative work to agencies and have project managers to coordinate the work, some have internal specialists, agencies and freelancers. And so on.
We discussed at the event about leading restricted autonomy. You have a clear end-goal and want to achieve the targets and at the same time want to give your team freedom to do their work and utilize their expertise without micromanaging. But at the same time many leaders are to some extent involved in operating marketing as well. Balancing that is not always easy. That’s where a clear vision for the future and a strong yearly plan comes to play. Once there is a clear end-state in mind and it’s shared by all (and potentially split to the quarterly, monthly and campaign-specific targets as well) you can increase accountability within your team and function.
Based on our and participants’ experience, ambitious targets and clear, goal-oriented roles motivate teams and embrace high-performance culture. At its best, it gives energy and inspiration to every team member and is also a great tool to recruit potential employees.
So, what does accountability really look like? We define it as ownership and responsibility for a specific area or outcome. This means ensuring the success of an activity, even if it requires coordination or delegation.
Example of accountability in action:
Instead of being responsible for webinars, the person is responsible for engaging 80% of strategic customers with marketing every quarter through webinars.
Speaking of webinars, watch our recent webinar recording of the same topic and learn more.
If marketing was stopped today, what would happen?
A provocative question but it’s a good tool for us marketers to think about the impact we provide. And to think it through accountability and outcomes rather than just tactics or actions. A common view around the table was that in this scenario, no one would probably notice the drop in results and impact right away. In complex industries, where sales cycles are long, a drastic decrease won’t likely happen overnight. More likely it would take at least one year to see the effect. Today’s success is based on years of hard work.
First answers to the question at the event were related to actions. There would be nobody creating content, ensuring visibility and reach, executing activities such as running ads and events. Those might all be true. However, if that’s the only thing we see marketing accountable for, the view is too narrowed. What is the business benefit or impact that wouldn’t be achieved if marketing was stopped today? This exercise often reveals a gap: we focus on activities, but the true value is in the long-term business impact. A consensus around the table of the main benefits that would be missed if marketing was stopped today were:
- constant touchpoints with the brand
- target audience will answer your calls
- retention among customers and employees
More information
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