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Backseat Driving Just Doesn’t Work

November 28, 2014 By Alex Grgorinic

Do you remember when you were a kid and you would fight for the front seat of the car?

As soon as you were old enough, you were in the scrap. Whether it was your brother, sister or the family dog, it didn’t make a difference. There was always that drive to win the front seat. Being stuck in the back seat just did not compare. The view was not as good, you couldn’t control the stereo, and if it was a 2-door, you would have to wait to be let out. The front seat just ruled supreme.

In our world today, there is change and flux that is touching all industries, driven by whatever combination of technologies that are pushing it forward. Yet, in some companies and in some industries, the marketing function seems to be stuck in the back seat. Or perhaps given very limited and temporary status in the front seat.

Yes, yes, I know, there is the closest sibling, sales. And I am completely respectful of the sales function. After all, nothing really happens until there is a sale. But to continue the car analogy further, driving visibility may not be so good in many markets. The weather may be changing rapidly. The road may not be straight. The grade may not be even. This really would be a good time to have marketing in the front seat.

Marketing is not the tip of the sword. Sales reigns supreme in that role. But marketing must be expected to look further out, and provide that needed navigational guidance for where the car is going. It’s just not going to happen from the back seat. Back seat driving just doesn’t work.

So what does it mean for marketing to be in the front seat? It means that it has to be treated as being grown-up enough to be in the front. It must be given goals and resources to fulfill its key responsibilities. And there must be meaningful metrics in place to determine whether it is safe to keep driving.

The single most important measure for marketing must be whether it is making that distant connection, with those destination points that are not yet close enough for the sales function. Those connections have to be made at multiple distances.

But it is not an easy task, and marketing is bound to make mistakes and be fooled in where it takes you. And throwing marketing into the back seat again will not make it better. Instead, it is much more useful to figure out what the errors are that have occurred. And what is the thinking, the assumptions, that has put you in the position you are? All of these things must be tracked if marketing is going to get better at its task.

At the pace of change today, it means that the road ahead is constantly changing. Marketing must take on duties from the front seat. More must be expected from it. And the learning from the journey must be shared so that it brings a synergy to the operation of the car. You are in a race out there. And you want to get to your target faster than the next guy.

Filed Under: Demand Generation

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