There is a discussion that regularly comes up in B2B companies: Do you even need a CMO? Or shouldn't marketing simply be subordinated to sales? The logic behind it is deceptively simple. The overarching goal is revenue. Marketing supports this goal. So let's attach it to the sales manager.
Academically, that is not wrong. In practice, however, it leads to a very specific result: Marketing executes what Sales currently needs. It loses its own strategic perspective.
The exact same principle applies to the relationship between marketing and communications. When communications hangs under marketing as a pure execution function, it implements 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 task: it must position its own offering in the market. The mindset is naturally directed from the inside out. What can our product do? What makes it different from the competition? How do we package these USPs for our target audience? Which pain points do we address?
This is legitimate and absolutely necessary. But it is a fundamentally different way of thinking than the one that successful communication requires.
If communication is merely an extension of marketing messages, everything revolves around one's own offering. Product updates, differentiation arguments, features. The problem is not that this content is wrong. The problem is that it is simply not relevant for external multipliers and for decision-makers who are not currently in an active purchasing process. And that is the majority of the target audience, most of the time.
Successful communication thinks from the outside in. What is currently being discussed in the industry? What is on the economic or social agenda of our customers – not as buyers, but as professionals? How can we link our offering to these topics in a way that creates real added value?
No journalist writes about USPs. No decision-maker reads trade media 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 connections and discover new perspectives.
Those who reduce communication to the mere implementation of marketing guidelines lose exactly this access. They deprive their company of the ability to build structural visibility – that is, to generate trust and relevance long before a concrete need arises.
Especially for capital-intensive B2B products with long sales cycles, this structural visibility is the decisive lever. The purchase decision does not begin here with a search query. It begins months earlier, when the buying committee forms an opinion about the market.
Anyone who is only present with product messages in this phase will be ignored. Those who stand out through content authority and industry relevance, however, 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 – disciplines that require an independent communication strategy.
No CMO would accept being simply placed under the sales manager, because they know that long-term brand work would then be sacrificed to short-term quota pressure. For the same reason, companies with complex products so often have the function "Marketing & Communications" at a strategic level.
Both perspectives – the inward-facing marketing and the outward-facing relevance building – are needed simultaneously. They must operate on equal footing to fully unfold their respective impact. Those who strategically subordinate communication may save coordination effort in the short term. In the long term, they pay the price in the form of a lack of visibility and declining relevance.
This article was about the organizational prerequisites for visibility. In our previous article, we explain in detail what structural visibility in B2B exactly means and why it is the decisive factor in complex sales.
Why should communications not be subordinated to marketing?
When communication is subordinated to marketing, it often adopts its self-referential mindset (focus on USPs and product features). As a result, it loses the ability to reach external multipliers and non-purchase-ready target groups with industry-relevant topics.
What is the difference in the mindset of marketing and communication?
Marketing primarily thinks 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 relevantly to these topics?).
Why is independent communication so important in complex sales?
For complex B2B investments, decision-makers inform themselves long before the actual purchasing process. Independent communication builds trust early on through content authority and industry relevance (e.g., via earned media), which is crucial for later shortlist placement.
Stefan is Co-Founder of EPOS and has been involved in B2B marketing and communications for more than 20 years.
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