Marketing is already pretty difficult. But when you can’t get buy-in from your boss, it becomes near-impossible.

So what happens when you have a bad boss who doesn’t understand what you’re doing? Well, you have to learn to communicate with them. You have to learn to market to them.

This week, we’re looking at HBO’s “Succession.” Its main character, Logan Roy, is about as bad of a boss as it gets. His toxic leadership drives a cruel culture of power, hunger, and cold-blooded backstabbing. But whether his employees – who are also his children – achieve their goals is another thing altogether.

Here to talk us through the marketing lessons from “Succession” is Tom Butta. Tom is a nine-time CMO and current Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of Airship, a mobile app experience company. Aside from being a fan of “Succession,” Butta is a seasoned content marketer who has worked to create billions of dollars of enterprise value for companies like SignalFx, Sprinklr, and RedHat. He’s also had his fair share of bad bosses.

With his help, we’re showing you how to put your message in terms your boss will understand, paint a picture of the future state, and choose the right person to pitch the idea to your boss.

About “Succession”

“Succession” is an HBO drama/comedy series that premiered in 2018. Its fourth and final season premieres March 26.The show stars Brian Cox as Logan Roy, with Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck and Sarah Snook playing his children, Kendall, Roman, Connor, and Siobhan, respectively. Matthew Macfadyen and Nicholas Braun also star in the show as fan favorites, Tom Wambsgans, Siobhan’s husband, and Greg Hirsch (lovingly known as “Cousin Greg”).  

“Succession” follows the story of Logan Roy, who is the head of the media conglomerate Waystar Royco. As he surpasses his eightieth birthday, he’s considering who will take over for him. The obvious choice is his eldest son, Kendall, who struggles to solidify his place as heir. But the remaining children also vie for the top place at Waystar Royco, pitting them against each other.

What B2B Companies Can Learn From “Succession”:

• Put your message in terms your boss will understand. You can rattle off whatever marketing jargon you want to your boss, but all the acronyms in the world may not be enough. Instead, you need to tailor your messaging to your boss. Learn what’s important to them, familiarize yourself with their priorities, and put things in terms your boss will understand. In “Succession,” each of the Roy children struggle to convince their father they’re the best heir for Waystar Royco – because they don’t know how to relate to him. The same thing happened to Butta: when his former employer was in danger of going out of business, Butta knew he needed to appeal to his boss with an idea to save the company. Butta did some reconnaissance to learn just what made his boss tick. Butta says he figured out that his former boss was a competitive salesman at heart – and that his boss was frustrated because his company didn’t have “a seat at the table” with big companies like Salesforce and Oracle. When he spent time talking to his boss to understand where he was coming from, Butta could then appeal to this desire in order to get him on board with the idea that ultimately saved the company from going under.

“When you visualize what a future state can look like, sometimes you can feel very alone in that. And so you have to figure out a way to get others to actually not just accept the idea, but in many ways make it their own. And so that means that the way in which you approach the work is to do a couple things. One is to appeal to what matters to them, and then secondly to actually use their own vocabulary and their language as you are presenting this sort of change path.” - Tom Butta, CMO, Airship

• Paint a picture of the future state for them. Don’t tell your boss what your idea looks like in practice – show them. Make it come to life. Butta had a vision for how to save his former company, but he needed to get his boss to agree. So he  mocked up two articles to look like they were from The Wall Street Journal. One said the company had gone bankrupt, and the other said the company rebounded. He showed the articles to his boss, presenting them as two paths forward. By painting the picture of two future states, he got his boss to change the company playbook. Butta pointed out that in “Succession,” “Nobody is pointing to an outcome. Nobody in ‘Succession’ has a path or a playbook. They’re just trying to advocate for themselves. And that’s why it fails.”
• ‍ Bring on a trusted partner to pitch your idea with. Behind every successful pitch is a great communicator – or two! In fact, it’s best not to do it alone. Find a partner who is whole-heartedly onboard with your pitch can confidently back you up when questions are asked. It’s also important that they’re a great public speaker – and hopefully even better than you are. Need an example? Look at Kendall Roy in “Succession.” Kendall struggles to solidify his place as successor to CEO of Waystar Royco because he’s insecure, lacks the charisma required to take on the role, and most importantly, he doesn’t have anyone to advocate for him either. Butta says, “It's not just about the idea, the logic, and the compelling evidence. It takes a certain type of an individual who can actually make it work.”

*”When you visualize what a future state can look like, sometimes you can feel very alone in that. And so you have to figure out a way to get others to actually not just accept the idea, but in many ways make it their own. And so that means that the way in which you approach the work is to do a couple things. One is to appeal to what matters to them, and then secondly to actually use their own vocabulary and their language as you are presenting this sort of change path.”

*”You can't present the idea of doing something. You actually have to present it. Like, you just have to show it. People don't have any imagination. And so you need to tell the story.”

*”It's not just about the idea and the logic and the compelling evidence and all of that. It takes a certain type of an individual who can actually make it work.”

Links

Watch “Succession”

Connect with Tom on LinkedIn

Listen to Marketing Strategies that Led to Billion-Dollar Acquisitions with Tom Butta on the Demand Gen Visionaries Podcast

‍About Remarkable!

Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.

In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith O’Neil (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.

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