I’ve realized that September is the toughest month in B2B marketing.

Just as the Summer months come to an end, you get hit with a perfect storm of demands.

• You have to put up your best numbers of the year to cap off Q3

• You have to nail down your budget, forecast, and campaign plans for the holiday-loaded Q4

• And you have to work with executive leadership as they go through the annual planning process for next year

I’ll be honest — I’m feeling the pressure. Especially with market conditions continuing to look less than stellar.

But let’s not get stuck in the doom and gloom.

As we move into September, I’m thinking about how I can be more proactive and get out ahead of the planning season challenges. And I’ve come up with two main ideas.

First, I’m going to set aside some dedicated time for big-picture thinking — as in, actually blocking off my calendar for it.

It’s easy to get caught up in the tactical, day-to-day work necessary for hitting the numbers as Q3 comes to a close. I’ve certainly been guilty of letting that focus bleed into broader planning processes, which limits my ability to think outside the box about how our team can break new ground in the coming months and year.

During the planning time blocks, I’ll be reflecting on a few key questions:

• Where were my resources most strained over the last quarter or two?

• In an ideal world, what kind of resources would we add to fix it moving forward?

• What opportunities do we have to improve collaboration within the marketing team and across functions?

• Are there any big swings I want to take in the coming months? How can I start planting seeds to get buy-in?

These aren’t revolutionary questions by any means. But giving myself ample time to think through them is going to put me in a better head space through planning season.

The other thing I’m doing to alleviate some of the planning season pressure is reminding myself not to undersell the value of consistency. Not every idea for your upcoming plans has to be a never-before-seen project.

Doubling down on what works and improving even incrementally can deliver outsized business results. I think everyone inherently knows this, but you need to sell it to your stakeholders — which I’ve often fallen short on. Taking more time to build those arguments will give me a much stronger foundation for planning.

We’re all in this together, so I’d love to hear how you’re approaching planning throughout September. Any tips for making the process as smooth as possible?

Best of luck to you and your team. We’ll make it through.

— Joe Michalowski

Featured content

Direct with Jeff Cypher

I loved what Corrina Owens said when promoting this episode — “it wouldn’t be a marketing podcast without an AI discussion.” There’s so much uncertainty around AI for marketers, but I think we can all agree that the potential is massive. The insight from Jeff Cypher, Productivity Professor at ZenPilot, might give you a push in the right direction to maximize AI’s value for your role.

Feels pretty safe to say that most of us will touch on video at some point during planning discussions. Whether it’s a discussion about where to start or how to improve, measurement of success has to be a piece of the conversation. Love this point from Josef Newton about the importance of qualitative signs. Direct attribution is great — but if it’s all you rely on, you’ll miss out on some great additions to your marketing strategies.

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— Joe Michalowski

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