In this Q&A, McNeal shares his experiences, vision for the future of marketing technology, and some of the projects that inspire him every day.
Michael McNeal, Centric Consulting’s Salesforce capability lead, has a wealth of experience in marketing, consulting, product development, and project management. He brings a unique blend of engineering, business, and marketing expertise to his position, which he uses to build tailored solutions for clients.
Tell us about your career trajectory, including how you landed in consulting and, more specifically, how you became focused on the Salesforce side of consulting.
My career has been interesting. I graduated college with an engineering degree, and after a few years working as an engineer, I saw that even technology fields are marketing driven. That led me to go back to school to earn a master’s degree in business with a focus on marketing and operations.
After business school, I worked at several startups in industries like video games, encryption, and online learning. These experiences enabled me to wear many different hats, including marketing, operations, and product development, where I gained a broad perspective of how companies operate and the interconnected relationships between areas of the business. This continues to serve me well now as a consultant.
My relationship with Salesforce started when I joined Centric to help with its ongoing work at a large technology company – one for which I had previously consulted in a different capacity. The company uses Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) to communicate with its clients, and my role enabled me to do both strategic and operational work with them while learning SFMC.
What does your typical day look like?
A “typical day” is anything but typical, since every day is a bit different. I am doing a mix of client delivery, business development, account management, practice management, and thought leadership.
Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a client on their initial SFMC implementation. This has allowed me to work in the platform, assist in educating the client, and do some aspects of project management for the implementation.
At the same time, I continue to work with several existing clients to help them plan new Salesforce projects, and I’m working on two potential new Salesforce implementations for Salesforce Data Cloud and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (previously called Pardot).
How do projects take form?
For me, a project often starts with a lead, which could come from the website, an introduction from a business unit, or from our Salesforce partnership. In these cases, I meet with the prospective client to understand their needs, create a proposal, including scope and price, and, if it is well-received, write a statement of work (SOW) for the project.
Once the SOW is signed, I may have a role in account management, project management, delivery, or combinations of all three.
The timing of many small to midsize SFMC implementations is in the three to six-month timeframe, depending on the complexity of the implementation, the capabilities of the client, and if there are any hard deadlines to hit (such as a contract expiring on an existing product they are using for similar capabilities). This enables me to work with multiple clients through the course of a year and even though the SFMC platform is common, each one has their specific goals and use cases, and that variety and learning is something I enjoy.
What is the biggest challenge for marketers today?
The biggest challenge for marketers today is deciding on the most effective marketing strategy and then operationalizing it. While the former part of the question may be a bit easier to answer, the latter part involves technology, processes and people.
Today’s technologies not only execute marketing tactics but can, based on their capabilities, play a key role in your strategy. For example, Salesforce platforms can provide advanced, multi-channel AI-orchestrated customer journeys at a one-to-one level using real-time data and insights. But that’s not achieved in a single step.
When it comes to realizing and operationalizing the marketing strategy, it often involves multiple parts of the organization, solving data issues, and revising processes. Because of this complexity it’s important to realize not every piece has to be done at once (nor is it often possible), so having a defined roadmap is important to help plan and prioritize work and projects to achieve the end goal (and show marketing value along the way).
How has Salesforce evolved to meet this challenge?
Salesforce is always changing to meet the needs of the marketer and the expectations of their end customers. It goes far beyond merely providing technology and supporting the people and process aspects necessary to succeed.
Related to the people component, Salesforce provides a free online learning management system, Trailhead, to enable learning to use its products, a formal certification program, and a robust online community for clients, partners, and any individual interested in Salesforce.
From the process perspective, Salesforce products are designed to support best practices with their functionality and out of the box workflows and automations to do so.
Additionally, Salesforce shares industry-specific best practices on the use of its platforms, along with client success stories and customer success plans with strategic guidance.
What is the most exciting project you’re working on right now?
The most exciting project I am working on is one in which we are doing something that hasn’t been done before using Salesforce Marketing Cloud to elevate customer experience. While I can’t say much right now, I can share that it’s with a long-term client we’ve developed a great partnership with, and that has been very progressive in both how they look at customer experience and how they use SFMC.
Over the years, we’ve helped them use the platform capabilities to deliver award-winning client experiences, and this project has the potential to do that again.
Are there any unique or interesting use cases for Salesforce that you didn’t expect?
Yes, we have done numerous projects with interesting use cases, including:
- Developing the Salesforce platform to send in-product messages to help users as they are using a client’s software product – and delivering the messaging within the client product user interface.
- Changing the approach used to measure the impact of marketing by looking at the impact of customer experiences across their lifecycle of interaction with the brand.
- Using Salesforce Marketing Cloud to deliver internal messages for clients for use cases such as new employee onboarding. Many companies onboard customers to their products or services with a “welcome journey,” and this does the same thing for new employees.
What inspires you? Do you have a favorite quote that you live by?
I love a good challenge, and developing and sharing solutions to these challenges inspires me. This relates back to my education as an engineer and the adage: “How do you get an engineer to do something? Tell them it can’t be done.”
I have also found that as I become more experienced, I am inspired to learn from others and share my knowledge and experiences, leaning into “lifelong learning.” I believe these traits lend themselves to being a good consultant and help in your personal life.