Shaping an Impactful Global Marketing Organization in Measurement and Instrumentation Sector

Industries Profiled:
High Tech; Medical Device; Pharmaceutical; Health Care; Technology; Science; Biotech


Companies Profiled:
Agilent Technologies; Bruker; Merck; PerkinElmer; Sigma-Aldrich; Thermo Fisher Scientific; Waters

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 7 marketing leaders at 7 companies through a benchmarking survey instrument and interviews.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Reporting relationships at marketing organizations
• Marketing roles and responsibilities
• Roles and types of managers in your marketing organization
• Marketing resource allocation
• Marketing training and development
• CRM utilization and oversight
• Marketing and sales relationship
• Marketing planning process

• Centralized teams are responsible for most aspects of marketing strategy and brand marketing. Additionally, centralized teams are likely to lead marketing operations, PR, marketing communications and production.
• Decentralized teams are responsible for sales, services, product strategy and business development.
• Commercialization, short & long term market modelling, technical communication and new and existing product support is a share responsibility of both centralized and decentralized teams.

• All companies use a CRM solution for marketing. Eighty-three percent use Sales Force and only 17% use SAP. Eighty-three percent of companies are satisfied with the CRM solution they are using.
• At a majority of companies, it is not mandatory for field staff to fill in all notes from calls. At all companies surveyed, marketing has full access to customer information in their CRM database.

• Marketing organization is structured primarily as a combination of centralized and decentralized teams with marketing, sales and service organizations reporting to the same person.
• At a majority of companies, product manager has an input on most of marketing activities. Product marketing managers tend to work on promotional and distribution strategies.
• Average marketing budget is $47 million with 368 marketing FTEs. Most of the regions have flat marketing budgets and only Asia Pacific is consistently growing.
• The majority of hires have a traditional marketing background. Only half of companies surveyed provide formal training for hires with non-traditional backgrounds. While they appear to be at a disadvantage, one year down the line, hires with non-traditional backgrounds appear to be more successful.
• For a majority, marketing and sales are loosely aligned.
• Marketing plays a critical role in building the annual operating plan.

I.	Executive Summary: Insights, Opportunities & Analysis	pgs. 3-6
	Study Structure & Design
	Universe of Learning: Benchmark Class
	Recommendations
II.	Structure, Reporting Relationships, Roles & Responsibilities	pgs. 7-19
	Structure of Marketing Function
	Reporting Relationships
	Roles & Responsibilities
	Managing Digital Marketing
III.	Marketing Resource Levels & Allocation	pgs. 20-31
	Revenue Geography and Growth Trends
	Staffing Levels and Growth Trends
	Marketing Levels and Allocations
IV.	Training and Development; CRM Utilization & Oversight	pgs. 32-41
	Marketing Background of Staffs
	Training Duration
	Training Program for Non-Marketers
	Usage and Satisfaction of CRM
	Access of Marketing Staff to CRM
V.	Marketing - Sales Relationship and Market Planning	pgs. 42-51
	Function of Sales Force
	Frequency of Interaction Between Sales & Marketing
	Involvement of Marketing in Annual Planning Process
	Changes Required for Marketing Operation
VI.	Participant Demographics	pgs. 52-53

• Whether participating companies have a single head of marketing who is responsible solely for marketing?
• Role of the person to whom the head of marketing reports
• Reporting of marketing, sales and service heads
• Structure of marketing function
• Marketing leadership roles and their reporting
• Roles/responsibilities that are part of marketing at participating companies, as well as where in the organization they are carried out
• Organizational management structure - product managers and product marketing managers
• Reporting of product managers
• Responsibilities of product managers and product marketing managers
• Responsibilities of market segment / vertical market manager
• Participating companies’ approach towards digital marketing

• Percentage of revenue generated from each geographical region in 2017
• Expected annual revenue growth rate in each region in 2017
• Participants’ total marketing budget in the most recent fiscal year in USD
• Expected change in the number of marketing FTEs over the next three years
• Estimated percentage allocation of marketing FTEs by region supported
• Budget allocation on headcount-related expenses, such as compensation, benefits, education and training, space, travel, and telephone
• Percentage allocation of marketing budget by region
• Expected change in marketing spend over the next three years – by region and by activities
• Percentage of marketing budget dedicated to the listed activities

• Percentage of marketing staff having traditional marketing backgrounds, such as undergraduate marketing degrees, MBAs, or previous marketing experience in B2B and B2C marketing roles
• Number of days of training/development provided to staff on average per year
• Whether participating companies have a formal marketing training program for non-marketers, such as sales professionals and those with science-related backgrounds, who join the function?
• Effectiveness of employees with different backgrounds - traditional marketing background, a scientific or engineering background, field sales / service background - after one year in a marketing role
• Whether rotational development program is in place for marketing staff that places them in the field for sales experience?
• Customer relationship management (CRM): usage, software and satisfaction level
• Mandate on field completed call notes
• Marketing access to customer information in CRM

• State of Marketing-Sales connectivity within benchmark companies
• Frequency of sales follow up on leads provided by marketing
• Channels of field sales force
• Frequency of sales input to marketing programs
• Qualifiers used by marketing team to determine the quality of leads to be provided to sales team
• Annual operating planning process and involvement of marketing organization in the process
• Involvement stage of regional and local marketing organizations in the operating planning process
• Improvement opportunities for marketing organizations