PJ Morris (Fletcher Building Concrete) and Sonja Webb (OfficeMax) from the B2B Data SIG shared practical, hard-won advice for career growth in B2B marketing. Read on for six key takeaways from their round table discussion.

The latest B2B Marketing Meet up stepped away from the usual panel discussion to run three more intimate round table discussions aimed at helping marketers navigate a career in B2B marketing. With seasoned marketers sharing their top tips across managing stakeholders & Sales teams, changing marketing disciplines and deciding if you want to work client or agency side, the night was filled with many top tips. The below article is a summary of tips on managing stakeholders & Sales teams.

Managing Sales & Stakeholders

The Managing Sales & Stakeholders round table saw Sonja Webb (Head of Marketing at OfficeMax) and PJ Morris (Head of CX and Marketing at Fletcher Building Concrete) share their combined 40 years of marketing experience.

Here are the top 6 takeaways and lessons from Sonja & PJ:

1. Actively plan how you’ll engage stakeholders: To advance into senior roles, make sure you raise your profile by identifying the key stakeholders, understanding their needs and building relationships with them that have positive impact. Building a career is not just about competence but also about exposure to the right people.

2. Understand the commercials - Make sure you understand how your business makes money and how you can then translate what you want to do in marketing to commercial outcomes. This means you can align with your stakeholders’ needs easily.

3. Your communication style is key – Tailor what you say to your audience – just like you would do with any customer communications. Use confident language and avoid fillers like “ums” and “ahs” to be taken seriously. Always remember that not everyone is a marketer – drop the jargon and learn to speak their language. Whether it’s financial or operational, keeping it simple helps.

4. Don’t stoop to the level of stakeholders behaving badly - At times you will come across difficult or aggressive people in the workplace, and it’s okay to walk away to get your emotions under control as conversations driven by heightened emotions are often ineffective. Maintaining your own integrity is important – as others in the workplace are often watching and listening. Try not to be defensive, and work on finding something you can connect on. And if they’re not listening, be bold – it’s okay to ask them not to speak over you, or to keep the tone respectful.

5. Sales teams are key in B2B – Sales are some of the most important relationships you have to build. Start by understanding their processes and daily routines. Know what their goals are, and this makes it easier to show how your actions will help them sell more (and earn more commission). Make sure you know what success looks like for them, so you can align goals. Keep them informed, open lines of communication and often a test- and learn approach can help introduce new ways of doing things.

6. Embrace feedback - Feedback is what makes us all grow into better marketers however asking “can you give me feedback please” sometimes leaves people stumped or at a loss for what to say. A key technique you can use is 'Stop/Start/Continue'. Simply ask your stakeholder to talk you through things that they feel you should stop doing, start doing and continue doing. Ideally send them these questions in advance so that they can really think about it. Giving feedback isn’t an easy thing to do, so don’t be defensive. No matter how you feel about their feedback, listen openly and express gratitude for their opinions to help foster an open and collaborative environment. Feedback should be used for projects also – have regular check-ins with stakeholders and don’t leave it to the end of the project.

Source: PJ Morris, 9 May 2025