There’s a debate that comes up regularly in B2B companies: Do you even need a CMO? Or should marketing simply be placed under the sales department? The logic behind it is strikingly simple. The overarching goal is revenue. Marketing supports that goal. So let’s put it under the sales manager.
Academically speaking, that's not wrong. In practice, however, it leads to a very specific outcome: Marketing does whatever the sales department needs at the moment. It loses its own strategic perspective.
Exactly the same principle applies to the relationship between marketing and communications. If communications is treated as a purely operational function subordinate to marketing—simply carrying out what marketing dictates—the result is predictable and can be observed daily in many B2B technology companies: communications becomes self-referential.
Marketing has a clear mission: to position the company’s offerings in the market. This mindset is naturally inward-to-outward focused. What can our product do? What sets it apart from the competition? How do we present these USPs to our target audience? What pain points are we addressing?
That is legitimate and absolutely necessary. But it is a fundamentally different way of thinking than what successful communication requires.
If communication is merely an extension of marketing messages, everything revolves around your own offering: product updates, points of differentiation, features. The problem isn’t that this content is wrong. The problem is that it’s simply not relevant to external influencers and decision-makers who aren’t currently actively involved in a purchasing process. And that’s the majority of the target audience, most of the time.
Successful communication thinks from the outside in. What topics are currently being discussed in the industry? What’s on our clients’ economic or social agenda—not as buyers, but as professionals? How can we link our offerings to these topics in a way that creates real added value?
No journalist writes about USPs. No decision-maker reads trade publications to find out what a provider can do. The target audience wants content that helps them stay up to date in their own industry. They want to understand how things fit together and discover new perspectives.
Anyone who reduces communication to the mere implementation of marketing guidelines loses precisely this approach. They deprive their company of the ability to build structural visibility—that is, to generate trust and relevance long before a specific need arises.
This structural visibility is the key lever, especially for capital-intensive B2B products with long sales cycles. The purchasing decision doesn’t start with a search query. It begins months earlier, when the buying committee starts forming an opinion about the market.
Anyone who focuses solely on product messaging at this stage will be ignored. Those who, on the other hand, stand out through their expertise and industry relevance will make it onto the shortlist before the official selection process even begins. This authority is built through earned media, thought leadership, and high-quality owned content—areas that require a dedicated communication strategy.
No CMO would accept simply being placed under the sales director, because he knows that long-term brand-building would then be sacrificed to short-term quota pressure. For the same reason, companies with complex products so often have a “Marketing & Communications” function at the strategic level.
Both perspectives—internal marketing and building external relevance—are needed simultaneously. They must operate on an equal footing in order to achieve their full potential. Those who treat communication as a secondary priority may save on coordination efforts in the short term. In the long run, however, they pay the price in the form of a lack of visibility and declining relevance.
This post focused on the organizational prerequisites for visibility. In our previous article, we explain in detail what structural visibility in B2B and why it is the decisive factor in complex sales.
Why shouldn't communication be subordinate to marketing?
When communication is subordinated to marketing, it often adopts the latter’s self-referential mindset (focus on USPs and product features). As a result, it loses the ability to reach external influencers and target audiences who are not yet ready to buy by addressing industry-relevant topics.
What is the difference in the way marketing and communication are approached?
Marketing thinks primarily from the inside out (What can our product do? How do we position it?). Communication thinks from the outside in (What is the industry discussing? How can we contribute to these topics in a relevant way?).
Why is independent communication so important in complex sales?
When it comes to complex B2B investments, decision-makers begin researching well before the actual purchasing process begins. Independent communication builds trust early on through content authority and industry relevance (e.g., via earned media), which is crucial for making the shortlist later on.
Stefan is co-founder of EPOS and has been involved in B2B marketing and communications for more than 20 years.
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