Here’s our ask of 2026 planning season – please approach planning less like pitching and more like co-authoring.
Your consultants and sales teams don’t want another “marketing vision.” They want a growth plan that sounds like their world, clients, sectors, opportunities, risk. When your language shifts from campaigns to contribution, from awareness to advantage, everything changes. Suddenly, marketing isn’t “nice-to-have” – it’s integral to how your organisation wins.
This is where storytelling meets strategy. Show your sales and consulting teams how marketing will drive margin, not just mindshare. Demonstrate how reputation converts into revenue. And bring them into your 2026 process early, not to rubber-stamp, but to shape. When these teams see their fingerprints on the plan, you don’t have to fight for buy-in. It’s already theirs.
Yes, it can slow a planning process. Yes, it’ll make it messier. But it’s also stronger.
A plan built with your key stakeholders is the only kind that survives contact with reality.
2026 will reward the marketing teams who know how to speak two languages at once, creative and commercial. The bridge between those worlds? That’s where influence lives.
Before you finalise your 2026 plan, get a clear view of what’s working (and what’s not).
Take the MarketIn-HR Marketing Diagnostic to benchmark your marketing effectiveness: https://marketinhr.scoreapp.com
