B2BFYI #7: How to build authority as a B2B marketer

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Marketing teams don't start with influence. They earn it.

But how? How do you go from "the Twitter department" to a trusted voice in the boardroom? How do you get budget approved for the big initiatives - the rebrand, the website overhaul, the campaign that could finally break through the noise?

Kate Scammell-Anderson has spent 20+ years figuring this out. She's led global marketing functions in B2B professional services businesses, often stepping into roles where marketing had zero authority and building it up from scratch.

I’ve also had the pleasure of working with Kate over the last three years, supporting her work as a marketing leader in B2B, so it’s a real pleasure to sit down together and talk about the craft instead of the work itself.

We jump right into what actually works when you're trying to build credibility, win budget, and grow your influence as a B2B marketer.

B2B marketing leaders are under more pressure than ever. Teams are expected to deliver growth at pace, with lean resources, weak strategic and operational foundations and higher expectations from leadership. Authority is key when trying to earn trust, win buy in, secure budget and build influence, without burning out.

I hope this discussion resonates - as we explore how earning authority often centres around learning how to adapt to the language of the business, aligning marketing to growth goals and delivering visible value over time.

-Kate

Can you briefly introduce yourself and your experience, and the types of marketing initiatives you're typically seeking buy-in for?

Sure! I'm Kate Scammell-Anderson and I've been in marketing for the last 20 years, with a broad range of experience but mostly in B2B - particularly professional services.

I've worked most commonly with businesses going through some form of growth phase, whether a shift in their growth cycle or businesses still in the scale-up phase. Usually established brands, but ones that are struggling to get to the next level.

The work typically involves aligning the business to the brand, understanding competitive positioning, aligning sales and marketing, and setting a clear vision and goals.

When you first stepped into a marketing leadership role, how much authority did you have with the executive team - and how has that changed over time?

My first leadership position was a Marketing Manager role. I was on the leadership team at the time, which meant I had responsibility for the marketing function - but the function had lacked any real authority before.

There was a need to quickly figure out what was going on in terms of performance. There was a lot of hearsay about the quality of leads, and data was difficult to access. I had to manually pull data and find insights myself.

What the analysis revealed was that "leads" were not leads at all. They were simply responses of varying quality - and only a low percentage of them were actually being followed up. It was a process issue. It had to be 100% follow-up from the sales team before I could begin to look at any marketing work.

Meanwhile, sales were complaining about not having enough leads. There was a complete mismatch in reality.

I had to gain authority and build relationships, but I used data to get there. Quite quickly, I needed to give the team clear communication around what direction the marketing function should take.

Part of that was redefining the role of the marketing team - thinking about what the reputation of the team actually was. It's like a person. The department needs a good reputation too, not just the individuals within it.

What's the single biggest mistake you see B2B marketers make when trying to get budget approval or sign-off on major projects?

Not having a business and commercial view of the project. Being unable to clearly communicate the commercial impact of the project.

They can't link it back to the growth goals for the business and have a poor understanding of the impact the project will actually have.

You need to evaluate all options - including doing nothing (establishing a baseline is important for building a case).

How do you "speak the language" of the C-suite? What metrics, framing, or proof points have you found actually make a difference with leadership?

Always come back to the fact that we're looking at generating revenue and need to get a return on whatever investments are made, in the direction of the business growth goals.

Speak P&L. Talk about efficiency gains rather than "investment." How can a problem be solved? Can you concretely measure ROI?

That's the language that lands.

Can you walk us through a specific example where you successfully got buy-in for a major initiative - a rebrand, new website, big campaign? What made the difference?

Yes, great question! I worked with a global business that had grown organically. A large proportion of the business had become a major "region," but there was no consensus in terms of what the business was going to become.

My job was to sort out global marketing and brand strategy. But I had to go through a full process of facilitating agreement on what the vision even was for the business going forward. Then I had to navigate strong views on local vs. global when it came to defining the expression of the brand. By acting as a facilitator, when nobody else would, I was able to bring leadership together and ultimately make a clear decision on a direction.

The major project that followed was a rebrand and website. To solve it, I created a framework that accounted for what was local vs. what was global, then ran a global tender for an agency partner.

It was an extensive tender process to find the right partner. Being completely objective throughout was essential.

Conversely, has there been a time you failed to get approval for something you believed in? What did you learn from that?

Plenty of times. All marketers have to contend with this at some point. It's very easy to get jaded when you're fighting for budget. Appetite is often low for major marketing initiatives, and resources are lean.

There are some fights you can't win, and you'll need to settle for a compromise. If you're blocked, shift from a strategic lens to a tactical one. Carefully prioritise.

And remember - black swan events happen. Chris talks about this a lot. You might not win now, but you might win later. Timing and other variables outside your control can change over time. You might need to lose a few battles to win the war.

How do you build trust with leadership before you need something from them? Is there groundwork marketers should be laying consistently?

100%. Trust is what you should try to build from the outset.

Show your understanding of the context, the customers, the company. Become the oracle of the business growth trajectory. Demonstrate your capability so that it's easier to get buy-in later down the line.

Always be visibly building your own reputation. Have conversations with key stakeholders on day one, and build on them. Find your champions.

I look for allies and translators who can help me build influence with key decision makers. COO’s can be a fantastic ally - they're excellent translators because they understand execution.

Also try to understand where trust was before you arrived. The department might already have a bad reputation when you walk in the door. Get a careful reading of the room on Day One.

When you're pitching for additional budget, how do you structure the business case? What elements are non-negotiable?

The key thing is: why are we doing this? What's the outcome we're expecting? How is it contributing to the vision or growth goals in some way?

It's important to have a range of options. When briefing partners, get a range of solutions - pick and mix - so differing options can be costed out. But be clear about the pros and cons of what each "package" will achieve.

Options should be clearly outlined, along with the benefits and risks. Include your own perspective on which option is most suitable.

Don't lose sight of tying it back to business growth goals. This X helps us get to Y.

How do you handle the "prove ROI first" objection - especially for brand-building work that's harder to measure directly?

We're working on a process where the foundations need to be built first, then you scale and optimise.

Testing is important, because sometimes you don't know your ROI until you do the testing. Ultimately, you still need to build a marketing engine as a business - or, more accurately, a revenue engine where marketing drives demand and sales drives conversions to customers.

Also look at the impact of not investing in it. What happens to the business if we do nothing and let competitors lead with stronger branding, for example? What will market share look like in 12 months if we do nothing?

Relying on previous experience can be helpful too. For example: "When I was at X company, we invested in Y and got Z result." Modelling can also be helpful.

What role does timing play? Is there a right (or wrong) moment to ask for major approvals?

Timing plays a huge role. You have to read the room in terms of the commercial performance of the business and where the leadership team's priorities currently are.

There's a level of appetite for investing in new initiatives, and you need to assess what that is. This combines with your authority and reputation. If you're new, you'll have little of either, and you might need to demonstrate impact before making a big ask for more resources.

Phasing is important. For example, breaking a larger projects into simpler phases not only eases financial pressure (literally, in terms of staggered invoicing) but also makes a larger project more palatable.

Many marketers struggle to get subject matter experts and executives to participate in content and thought leadership. How have you solved this?

It's a double approach. Clarify the positive commercial impact of the content - the value of their time spent contributing - and make sure it benefits the individual contributors too.

Relationship building is paramount. Help them, provide value to them, and they’ll )(more often than not) reciproace. Buy-in and co-creation are the ultimate goals.

What's your approach to making it easy (or even appealing) for busy colleagues to contribute?

Tools can help. Either platform-specific tools like Extrovert for LinkedIn, or AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to speed up insights gathering.

Make the process clear about what a contribution involves. A leads to B leads to C leads to content published leads to feedback. Build a clear process and educate them on it.

Link it back to their own processes to make it as seamless and familiar as possible.

Nuclear option: have the leadership team build it into the HR performance review process.

Have you ever faced resistance from someone who just didn't want to be involved? How did you handle it?

Yes, absolutely! Depending on the role, there are a couple of ways to navigate it.

Try to work with any relevant adjacent roles first, then use that to show the resistant colleague the results.

A bit riskier, but you can try to build the content yourself - then show how the colleague can enrich it and help you. That shifts the dynamic.

CHRIS: There’s an old internet saying - “If you want to find the right answer fast, confidently proclaim the wrong answer.”

If a B2B marketer is starting from zero authority - new to a company or new to leadership - what are the first 2-3 things they should do to start building credibility?

What's one mindset shift that changed how you approach internal influence?

The key thing I try to live by is that you have to demonstrate value - and be seen doing it.

If you don't have access to data or anything to prove your value, sort that first.

Any books, frameworks, or resources that have shaped how you think about this?

The SOSTAC model helps me clarify my thinking and understand the business as a whole.

Understanding language helps too. Speak P&L, not strategic marketing. Read any decent business book and pay attention to the language used. Not just what they’re talking about, but how they’re talking about it.

What's the one thing you wish someone had told you earlier in your career about building authority as a marketer?

You have to sometimes sacrifice the purist perspective - the "right" way of doing things - and adapt to the pace and environment you're in, in order to build that initial trust and credibility.

Knowing when to be thorough, and what to be thorough on. When you should make assumptions and judgements. What to push, what to cut loose.

Educate who you're working with on what marketing is and what it's capable of. It's important to show empathy to colleagues in other departments - treat them like a customer. Problem-solve for them too.

Anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up?

A big career learning - and something we're under constant pressure to do - is being a one-person department. Sometimes it is too much to do everything yourself, especially when budgets are tight and teams are small.

Build relationships externally too. With peers and suppliers. You never know when you'll need help, whether that's a conversation with a professional connection or bringing in a supplier to support.

You'll burn out if you try to do everything yourself. It's tough to do the BAU and keep up to date on the wider developments in the marketing world. Good luck out there!

Connect with Kate on LinkedIn.