Any entrepreneur & businessman, knows that success is catching opportunities when they present themselves to you.
Once companies grow bigger, catching these opportunities become harder. And for a simple reason, the entrepreneur is no longer on the receiving end of input.
Instead of the businessman, who knows the interest of the company, and assesses the risks that comes with every opportunity, now you have sales & marketing departments.
The sales department, functions well usually, because it is staffed with sales people, who are motivated by a competitive system of bonuses, to follow on leads related to cooperation.
The marketing department, is usually staffed with few graphic designers, sometimes there’s a web/app designer, and maybe a couple more individuals for data analysis and other simple tasks related to social media and so on.
The marketing departments will have 0 serious marketer, because all pro marketers have their own agencies, work as consultants or simply do not need the salary.
For a pro marketer, there are a 1000 thing to promote and make 10 times the salary an employee makes, thus no knowledgeable marketing person would work in a marketing department.
So most opportunities are processed by employees that are bad at what they do!
When marketing opportunities land in the inbox, the people in the marketing department ignore or refuse to entertain a discussion.
Of course i am not talking here about spam mails, but rather legit leads with intro or through someone.
A knowledgeable marketer, would be able to distinguish between:
Unsolicited email about: SEO, Web and App design, Graphic design …
Legit offers from companies to expand market reach or increase user acquisition.
These employees feel threatened, they think that if a company A or a professional B, cooperate with their company, they might lose their job!
As a result, companies lose the most important edge any company can have, great marketing ideas and strategies.
I was inspired into writing this article, by a local company that have been throwing money left and right on stupid marketing and branding ideas, and yet on every occasion refused to entertain a discussion with my marketing agency.
This fintech company spent millions sponsoring top sports clubs in the UK -soccer – , US -NBA- , and even paid for a product placement in a top Hollywood movie. The branding they are getting from this could have been achieved for much much less.
However, this type of branding does not necessarily transform into users, any experienced marketer would have known this.
For a tech company, these guys fail to understand:
1- The gap between online signup and offline action.
2- Timing, as they push their brand at moments when people are focused on something entirely else.
3- Branding, their brand names are a nightmare to remember.
Obviously, they have a very bad marketing manager, and a bunch of tech guys that know little about marketing.
This company is not an exception!
We have contacted countless marketing departments, offering them to expand into new markets. Or helping them with customer or user acquisition. We mostly fall on these gate keepers, that by sheer ignorance to their own field, fail to see an opportunity, even when it is presented to them on a golden plate.
My advice, to every businessman, do not keep a big marketing department, minimize it and outsource as much as you can. The real talent can be hired, but not as employees, and this is a job where you can not grow into it.