As Ella Fitzgerald sang in 1939 (and Bananarama reminded us in 1982), “It ain’t what you do; it’s the way that you do it. That’s what gets results.”

Now, it’s possible that those distinguished singers were not singing about B2B marketing workflow. With that in mind, I would make a slight adjustment to their statement. When it comes to getting the very best out of your marketing organization, what you do does actually matter — we must be focused on the right things. But they were absolutely correct that how you do it is equally important.

When thinking about how marketing organizations get work done, we use the term “orchestration.” While marketing leaders must focus on having the right organizational structure and marketing capabilities in place, they must also consider how to enable marketing teams to work in the most effective and efficient manner. Orchestration, which represents one of the essential components of the B2B marketing ecosystem, involves facilitating workflows that will leverage individual and team contributions that drive the most impactful results.

Regardless of the organizational models you use, three essential elements can help ensure effective orchestration:

  • A process-enabled approach that provides consistency based on documented processes and that leverages existing capabilities and infrastructure (i.e., technology and tools).
  • A well-defined engagement model that establishes clear rules of engagement and addresses how participants engage within the workflow. This encompasses transfer of materials, communication methods for critical information or inputs, requests for support, expected turnaround times, and approval processes.
  • Executive sponsorship, which establishes clear direction, expedites decision-making, and creates shared accountability that is visible to key constituents in the marketing organization.

To learn how to put these elements into practice, watch this on-demand webinar, in which my colleague Nick Buck and I show how the various elements of the marketing organization can work together to deliver seamless execution throughout the marketing value chain. We discuss the common organizational models used and the characteristics of effective marketing orchestration, which you can use to strengthen your current practices.