GUEST BLOG: Marketing for MDs

By Bryony Thomas, founder of Watertight Marketing

Most businesses I’ve worked with have tried a number of marketing activities over the years. And, most have already worked with various outsourced specialists, but still weren’t seeing the sales results they wanted.

If, time after time, marketing fails to deliver; it might be time to ask a difficult question:

Is it you – the MD or chief executive of your business – who’s holding your business back?

As I’ve moved from the big corporate marketing director role into supporting growing businesses, I found myself spending the first weeks of an engagement working not as a marketing consultant, but as a marketing confidante. Bringing the MD up-to-speed on how marketing really works, so that they can make great marketing decisions, and lead a process of change to being systematic about marketing that support their growth plans.

The difficult thing for an MD to realise is that he or she may not know enough about marketing to take the business to the next step. Here is a rundown of the red flags that may indicate that it is the MD that needs to up his/her skills.

1) You, as the MD, operate at arm’s length from your marketing people and suppliers

Ask yourself: Would you rather someone just ‘took the problem away’ and got on with the marketing stuff without you?

This almost always means the marketing will lack an essential ingredient – your vision and personality.

2) Frustration that strategic marketing initiatives don’t pay back quickly

Ask yourself: Do you focus on the quick wins?

This usually manifests in an exhausting cycle of yo-yo sales results, often at the expense of sustainable revenues and growth.

3) Tactic burn – jumping from one marketing tactic to the next hoping to find one that ‘works’

Ask yourself: Have you tried a lot of different things, like telesales, PR, social media, etc. and been disappointed with the results?

It is often the case in these circumstances that the brief wasn’t tight enough, or the next steps in the marketing operation weren’t in place to capitalise on this investment.

4) Unable to apply marketing concepts in practice

Ask yourself: Have you ever been on a marketing course, or read a book/blog, then not really been sure what to do when you get back to your desk?

There’s a huge difference between knowledge and know-how, that only experience will ever teach you.

5) Unclear about how and why the marketing tools and techniques your businesses uses were chosen

Ask yourself: Are there things on your marketing budget for which you couldn’t explain the rationale?

The very best marketing budgets are presented in a way that makes the sales-focussed rationale of every marketing pound immediately obvious.

6) Belief that marketing is all about filling the top of sales pipeline

Ask yourself: Do you see marketing principally as driving awareness and lead generation?

The most effective marketing starts at the bottom on the sales process and works up, ensuring there’s a tool or technique to support every step of a buying decision.

 7) Unaware or un-bothered by for the negative impact cold sales techniques or mass marketing can have

Ask yourself: Would you consider employing a salesperson on commission a safer investment than a marketing initiative?

In an increasingly connected world mass marketing techniques that irritate the mass to reach the few come back to bite with poor word of mouth.

 8) Poor previous experience when having worked with a marketing consultant

Ask yourself: Have you worked with one or more marketing consultants and been disappointed?

The best consultants are strategic partners to your business, the journey you go on almost certainly means you should end up as friends.

9) Poor previous experience when having worked with outsourced marketing suppliers

Ask yourself: Have you outsourced work like copywriting, web development, graphic design, etc. and been disappointed by the results?

Again, the issue here is often the brief or the expectations from the outset. Getting great work for talented suppliers means giving them great direction.

 10) Marketing is perceived as an expense to the business

Ask yourself: Overall, is marketing a cost to your business?

If your marketing is delivering sales results, and you can see cause and effect, your marketing budget is essentially unlimited.

If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then it may well be time to work on your own understanding of marketing, so that you can lead it for your business.

In every engagement where the MD has honest enough to accept that they may have knowledge gaps, and been open to actively learning about marketing, at a strategic and practical level, the effect has been phenomenal. Both for them as individuals, and for the long-term health of their business.