If every acquisition feels like a scramble, the problem isn’t your team. It’s the muscle your company hasn’t built yet.
Midmarket companies often grow through what I call reactionary acquisition.
A new deal knocks. You answer.
It’s usually messy. Fast. And totally optimistic (often a grizzled owner who’s tired of the running-a-business-grind comes forward, wanting to cash out). And your company responds.
Nobody gets much lead time.
Eventually, the process matures.
Ops starts mapping integrations. Maybe a project manager steps in.
But even then, the chaos you thought would go away, doesn’t fully stop.
Because you don’t get to choose when a seller is ready. Or how smooth the handoff will be. (Or frankly, how organized or committed to the timeline other departments are.)
The only thing you can control is how you respond.
Marketing leaders do have a unique edge.
You’re used to ambiguity.
You live in the tension between fast-moving priorities and long-term strategy.
You know how to keep things moving, even when the ground shifts beneath you.
But that strength can also be a trap.
Personal resilience will only take you (and the team) so far.
At some point, you need a repeatable system that helps you move through disruption, not just survive it.
A plan that defines how marketing is going to show up that makes acquisitions less chaotic and gives your team something solid to stand on.
You’d be surprised how many departments wing it through dozens of acquisitions.
That’s the shift I’m helping a client make right now. (A peek under the hood…we’re focused on two major areas – one being a Decision Making Framework, the second a brand architecture – that will make downstream acquisition decisions about a hundred times easier.)
It’s not about predicting the next acquisition.
It’s about being ready for any one of them.
You can’t always have control over when disruption hits. But you can build the structure that helps your team weather it.
I go deeper on this in this month’s Elevated – my monthly letter for marketing leaders in the thick of big company growth.
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Catherine Hamilton is a strategic marketing advisor who’s been where today’s Marketing leaders are: responsible for driving growth, aligning with Sales, and answering to a CEO who wants results yesterday. Today, she helps VPs and Directors of Marketing navigate The Big Leap from being perceived as a service department to a professional function that drives growth (often part of regional traction to national ambition) by providing the clarity, structure, and strategic roadmap to lead with confidence.