What’s Not Changing (And Why That’s Your Competitive Advantage)

As I reflected on Q2 and planned our upcoming marketing initiatives, I felt like we had accomplished so much and yet not enough. 

While everyone is talking about AI, most leaders I know feel more like I did in that moment: we start out on the right track, but then end up troubling shooting and managing day-to-day tasks.

Distractions like: 

• Dashboards telling different stories depending on who pulls the report
• Sales closing deals that the account team finds out about at onboarding
• Marketing launching campaigns while sales rewrites messaging mid-pitch
  
  

All while being told they need to be doing more with AI, invest in new tools, abandon approaches that are deemed dead, etc. The pressure to move quickly on new trends and technology while managing fundamental disconnects can feel overwhelming.

As a marketing team of one, I’ve been there too. 

It’s hard to zoom out and find the root cause of issues when you’re juggling social, customer journeys, sales decks, and Slack questions. 

I've been running hard to do it all and keep up with AI, but the more I learn, the more I realize I'm being led back to more foundational elements. 

We're on an AI ride we can't get off at this point. But rather than hold on for dear life and wish for a pause button, maybe we should embrace that it's both forcing and enabling clarifying moments.

As we catapult toward a new world, take a minute to ask yourself, “What’s staying the same?” 

Those constants are your guides. Your competitive advantage. Your focus area for the next quarter. They let you move faster without breaking apart.

• Your vision, mission, and core values
• The customers you serve and problems you solve
• Connection with your team and customers
  
  

These aren’t fluff. They’re the difference between scalable growth and constant course correction.

These constants can evolve, but your need for clarity around them won’t. 

Many organizations have gotten away with skipping these constants and still grown. As AI changes how we work, sell, measure success and build trust, these once “soft” elements are becoming must-haves.

Skipping them will be detrimental. 

Our company name, Denamico, means "dynamic" in Spanish. We were founded on the principle of embracing change and helping our clients adapt quickly to technology and market shifts.

But being dynamic doesn't mean being reactive. It means having foundations strong enough to support movement in any direction.

When you know what doesn't change, you can adapt to everything else with confidence.

Here’s where to look when defining your own constants that never change.

4 Constants to Define

These aren’t abstract ideals. These are the levers that let you scale with clarity, implement tech that drives ROI, and create alignment without micromanaging.

When these constants are clarified, communicated and operationalized, they become a multiplier for your efforts across systems, teams, and go-to-market strategy.

1. Who You Serve

Why it matters: 
When your ideal customer profile is fuzzy, every handoff becomes friction. Sales targets one persona, marketing builds for another, and customer success is left cleaning up the disconnect.

Ask yourself: 
Can every team member describe our ideal customer and their primary challenge the same way?

Take action: 
If not, host a customer definition workshop with sales, marketing, and customer success to create one unified ideal customer profile (ICP) that everyone can articulate consistently.

2. Where You're Going 

Why it matters: 
Without a shared vision and definition of success, teams set different goals and dashboards tell competing stories. Vision isn’t just a leadership exercise. It’s a growth operating system.

Ask yourself: 
Do our daily decisions and resource allocation align with where we say we're headed?

Take action: 
Pull up your company’s stated vision and mission. Compare it to your team’s current goals, initiatives, and spending. Where do they align? Where do they conflict?

3. How You Operate

Why it matters: 
Your values and decision-making principles guide choices when SOPs don’t yet exist—or when exceptions arise. Without clarity here, your teams rely on personal judgment, leading to inconsistent execution.

Ask yourself: 
Are we making choices consistent with our stated values, especially under pressure?

Take action: 
Review three recent business decisions made under stress. Did they reflect your company’s values? If not, how can you adjust your team’s behaviors, communications, or training to better align values and action?

4. How You're Different

Why it matters: 
If your team can’t clearly articulate what sets you apart, you’ll compete on price and dilute your value. Positioning isn’t just a marketing message, it drives enablement, retention, and profitability.

Ask yourself: 
Can we clearly articulate why customers choose us over alternatives, and does our entire team tell that story consistently?

Take action: 
Ask three team members from different departments to describe your differentiators. Then ask at least three customers. Compare the answers. If they’re not aligned, you’ve got a messaging and positioning gap worth fixing.

Q&A 

Q: We need a better way to track our dealers separately from our direct customers in HubSpot. Our sales process, communication, and reporting are totally different for each one. What’s the best way to handle this?

A: This is a common challenge for manufacturers and companies that sell through both direct and indirect channels. The best solution will differ but here are two options. The key is to create a system in HubSpot that reflects how your business actually works, without making it harder for your team to use or report on.

1. Use the Company Type Property
For simpler use cases, create a Company Type dropdown with values like Dealer, Distributor or Direct Customer. Then use:

• Segmented pipelines
• Targeted email nurtures
• List views and filtered reports

This approach works well if the main difference is in communication or reporting, not structure.

2. Create a Custom Object
This is the most scalable and structured option because it will function like Contacts and Companies. A Dealer or Channel Partner custom object lets you:

• Track dealer-specific fields like region, tier, contract date, or certification status
• Associate each dealer with multiple companies, contacts, and deals
• Run reports and workflows tailored to your indirect channel

This set up will let you do things like track revenue by dealer, automate renewal reminders, or trigger enablement workflows based on dealer performance.

Note: Custom Objects are only available on Enterprise plans. 

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