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Featured Links: Measurement

	How To Work With Your Top Executives

	“Selling up is a fundamental concept. It means understanding what’s important to C-level executives and acting upon that intelligence,” says Norm Ellis, Vice President and General Manager of QUALCOMM Inc., who was keynote speaker at the recent TMCA Marketing Bootcamp in Long Beach, Calif. According to Ellis, selling to the “C” Suite means understanding the needs and motives of your company’s “power brokers:” the CFO’s concerns in finance, the COO’s operations concerns, and the CMO’s marketing challenges. “Effective management teams in today’s enterprises are made up individuals who are making decisions from the perspective of the entire business, not just their own domain,” says Ellis. “As a result, the smart marketing executive will figure out how to help link the vision of leadership with the strategy and tactics that are being executed.” Marketing pros who succeed must learn to think “horizontally.” This means from a functional or business unit perspective, recognizing interactions ranging from strategy to tactics, and facilitating and optimizing ‘handoffs,’ according to Ellis. But they also must think “vertically,” by leveraging broad experience, raising the proper questions, and understanding the linkages across organizational boundaries. “There are three things you can do to be successful,” concludes Ellis. “Act as a company steward, decide strategically where you will invest your limited time, energy and money according to management’s highest priorities, and thinking long-term, short-term, and every term in-between.”
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