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The successful marketing of everything from soft drinks to cutting-edge technology relies heavily on such traditional approaches as building close working relationships and observing a customer’s needs firsthand, according to Don Scheibenreif, ’92, research vice president for consumer experience at Gartner, Inc., the world’s largest information technology research and advisory firm.
Scheibenreif gave in-depth responses to students’ questions about marketing and leadership during an Alumni Breakfast event at Gleacher Center on March 10. The event was hosted by the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development and is part of a breakfast series designed to provide an informal setting where alumni from a wide variety of fields can share their career and life experiences with students.
Scheibenreif, who has held marketing leadership positions at the Quaker Oats Company, Coca Cola, True Value, and W.W Grainger, said he subscribes to the concept described in Robert Greenleaf’s book, Servant Leadership.
“I believe that, as a leader, if you provide service to the people you’re working with—the results will come,” he said. “For example, my approach to sales is that I want to understand what they’re doing. I want to understand how I can match our objectives in marketing to the sales agenda, and then I work really hard to build relationships.
“On the surface, it may seem subservient, but in the end, I got everything I wanted and more. I didn’t walk in as a marketing person and say: ‘I’m marketing and you have to listen to me,’ which is what most marketing people do. I took much more of a listening approach and a partnering approach, and I was able to get things done.”
It’s also essential for a marketer to establish a solid working relationship with the “head sales person” at one’s company, Scheibenreif advised.
“Build a relationship and build it strong, because if you have problems at the lower levels, you have someone to go to.”
Additionally, he said experience in sales makes you a better marketer.
“A lot of very successful marketers come from a sales background. I think it’s essential to understand both sides of the coin. Let’s be honest—marketing is sales. If you call on customers and understand the importance of customer relationships, then you will be a better marketer.”
When dealing with customers, Scheibenreif said there’s no substitute for on-site observations to understand a customer’s needs and to solve problems.
“Everything starts with the consumer and what they want and what they do. I found first-hand observation to be very helpful—getting people out of the office and into the environment that the consumers are in. In a past role, we brought our merchandising people with us on customer calls. We actually had them sit next to the customer as they were interacting with some of our systems and using the products we sold. When these folks were able to see firsthand what was happening, you could see the light bulbs going off in their heads on how they could do things differently.”
After leaving W.W. Grainger in early 2010, Scheibenreif faced “the worst job market in 50 years,” but was able to land his current job with Gartner by “turning the marketing lens” on himself.
“First you have to understand what makes you different, better, and more special than everybody else around you—then put yourself out there,” he advised. “I knew I was really good at building bridges between functions, managing people, and solving complex problems to drive growth. I positioned myself as a well-rounded marketer with all these experiences. An expression of that was to put up my personal brand website. It was a three-dimensional version of myself—and that’s how I put myself out there. I had my resume on it, a blog that I did, and I listed all my professional affiliations, speaking engagements, past presentations, and I had a video. When I was interviewing, the employers would go to my site and read it. I was pleasantly surprised that it made a difference.”
Scheibenreif suggested job seekers hire a professional website designer to build the site and ask friends for feedback on its content.
“Anyone can do it,” he said.
--Mary Paleologos