
Sideminds helps marketing leaders excel
Sideminds helps marketing leaders excel
The marketing leadership role has become more complex and more challenging than ever.
It is a tough role, which is getting tougher and Sideminds helps marketers excel through coaching, in the moment advice, expert mentoring and key project delivery.
Our Services
Coaching

Mentoring

Advising

Delivering

Our Approach

Our Approach
Sideminds helps the marketing leaders excel through coaching, advising, mentoring and in some instances, delivery of key marketing projects.
Our approach is tailored to the marketer and the challenges they face. We understand their needs and apply our personal experience from being senior marketing leaders and business coaches. This typically involves unlocking their potential in key success areas we called ANCHOR Factors, where ANCHOR is an acronym for 6 pairs of essential marketing leadership capabilities and behaviours. The 6 areas were defined after studying the behaviours of senior marketers and understanding what made some successful and others not.
ANCHOR Factors underpin how the marketer performs and their sequence and overall strength gives each marketers their unique genre – connector, operator, disruptor and explorer or CODE for Short. This is a little like Myers-Briggs and explained in the book The Marketing Leader’s Code.
Click the side arrows on the ANCHOR Factor interactive table below to discovery more about each ANCHOR Factor and read case studies.
ANCHOR Factors
EXTERNALAUDIENCE INTERNALAUDIENCE
Change
Change
Embraces the CEO change agenda, finds ways to rapidly test new approaches and evolves the way of working. Encourages entrepreneurial thinking and break up siloed thinking. Adapts quickly, responds to change easily and copes with obscurity. Sensitive to the external market.
Consistency
Consistency
Establishes effective working practices, ensuring stakeholders and informed and individuals understands their operational freedom. Follows the business plan, monitoring progress and ruthlessly prioritises activity. Innovation is controlled and purposeful.
Ambition
Understands the natural homeostasis and works with the CEO to bring their business ambition to life and push the business forward. Tests new ideas and helps change areas which are sub-optimal and reinforces areas which need consistency.
Challenge
Challenge
Drives debate and discussion across the Leadership Team. Strong advocate for the customer and prepared to stick their neck out for what they believe. High resilience and persistence. Uses data smartly and in an unbiased way to make a point.
Unity
Unity
Builds trust and influence, establishing key relationship and alliances with the Leadership Team, so critical jobs get done. Constructively drives project prioritisation. Ensures discussions are brought to a conclusion, so clear unified messages are delivered to the wider business.
Network
Navigates the Leadership Team effectively and ensures the right discussions are held and the right activity gets done. Skilful at knowing when to challenge and when to create unity for the wider business benefit.
Assertive
Assertive
Sets exacting standards, builds a high performing team and holds people and agencies to account. Confidently makes organisational changes to deliver strategy. Clears the way in the wider business for the marketing team deliver their goals.
Supportive
Supportive
Builds team capability and creates a strong team culture with everyone having a clear role and responsibility. A good listener and role model. Creates a safe environment that encourages learning and growth. An authentic leader, with a clear sense of purpose for the team.
Capability
Creates and maintains a high performing marketing team. Makes assertive decisions about the team and agencies and is a skilful situational leader, who is supportive and helps talent feel valued and grow.
Creative
Creative
Turns business issues into creative opportunities. Uses data as a springboard for insight discovery, creativity and vision. Makes customer touchpoints high-quality customer experiences. Inquisitive and curious, interested in customers, the wider market and the headline opportunities new technology can bring.
Analytical
Analytical
Rigorously uses data and logic from multiple sources to inform decision making. Keeps the company honest with its data and ensures marketing metrics are tied to business metrics everyone understands. Finds ways to enrich data and scenario test. Detailed interest in the performance or revenue benefits new technology can bring.
Headspace
Moves comfortably from using their left brain, full of data and detail, to their right, full of images, concepts and connections. Combines analytical skills with creative aptitude and flair.
Connection
Connection
Creates long-term customer demand by developing a brand with a clear value proposition which is memorable, relevant and distinctive. Goes beyond the rational to build affinity and emotional connection. Develops compelling retention programmes for different audiences.
Conversion
Conversion
Uses direct response and optimisation techniques across multiple media channels to covert active audiences. Understands different customers’ buying journey and uses media throughout the funnel to enhance sales conversion. Carefully manages acquisition costs and maximises short-term return.
Output
Focuses on priority audiences and effectively manages the marketing activity throughout the marketing funnel. From building brand connection higher up the funnel, through to the conversion and retention lower down the funnel.
Long-Term
Long-term
Engages and aligns the Leadership Team in the development of a long-term plan with clearly defined goals and growth opportunities. Defines long-term ways to build value (innovation, M&A). Creates a compelling clarion call and storytelling for the business and investors.
Short-Term
Short-term
Gets to the root cause of performance and responds quickly. Accelerates activity to gap fill. Street fighter attitude who finds tactical growth opportunities. Focuses effort on highest returning activity to deliver the annual plan. Tests new channels and rapidly adjusts activity depending on performance.
Results
Vigilantly monitors performance in year and responds with short term initiatives to boost performance. Looks for future revenue opportunities and develops the long-term plan with key stakeholders.
Click a row for a description or click to see a case study
Discover your ANCHOR Factors and Marketing Leader’s CODE
What type of marketing leader are you and what does the business need?
Are you a Connector, who prioritises close relationships with the CEO, Leadership Team and wider business?
An Operator, who is into the detail, analysing data and maximising sales?
A Disruptor, who is opportunistic and thrives on change or an Explorer, who is strategic, insightful and
brand-centric.

Connector
High relationship orientation with the CEO, Leadership Team and marketing

Operator
Analytical and data led, with a strong skill set in driving conversion and short term sales

Disruptor
Entrepreneurial and opportunistic, externally focused and assertively drives change

Explorer
Strategic, insightful and looking at building the longer term business growth