Who Should Your First Marketing Hire Be?

I get this question every once in a while directly, but I see it more in practice, and especially recently. Companies have been relying on their sales force and the founder to gain business, spur referrals, and boost word of mouth to help them grow organically, but they’ve hit a plateau or are even declining, and they have been advised that if they start marketing, they can fill the pipeline back up and start bringing in new customers. Or, they want to pivot into a slightly different customer base, and feel they can market their way into that small sliver of sector quickly, cheaply, and easily.

Some have worked with agencies on small, ad hoc projects, and think they can continue with them on a larger scale, and that an employee can manage them and drive their output in the marketing arena. So, they hire the most knowledgeable executive in marketing, but also the most expensive, thinking they can eventually grow the team under them and supplant the agency at some point, maybe even eliminate them. But the cost is scary, so they try hiring a Fractional CMO to try and manage the agency.

Any hands up as to why this doesn’t work very well?

Yes, you in the front row, you’re correct, it’s a problem of the wrong people in the wrong seats on the bus.

When you’ve been marketing for a while, and have grown an internal team from scratch, adding the FCMO on top to align things and scale up the effort can work just fine. But, the agency you likely selected to do little projects may well be suited for that, and they should stick to that. They are not likely structured to cost-effectively take on the full range of day-to-day marketing duties on a full-time, long-term basis. Not only will the strategy they’ve been tasked with carrying out have to drastically change, so will their internal team, both in size and skill set, to accommodate this new re-envisioned marketing program. Suddenly their work load quadruples, there’s a new sheriff in town giving them all new directions, new strategies, and expecting them to deliver on time, under budget and correct with minimal turnaround time.

It’s a whole new ballgame, and while it needn’t sever the relationship, it will certainly mean re-evaluating it and re-establishing a set of needs and goals completely differently from prior arrangements. It’s not a good fit any more.

A better strategy might be to bring in a pair of freelancers whose skill sets differ but intersect, and hire a consultant to do the initial research, set the strategy in place, build the plan, and let the freelancers execute, with the goal of bringing them in as an in-house creative nucleus of the new team in a few months or a year.

The other aspect that makes this situation a poor selection for a CMO, even a Fractional one, is the cost. Many founders and CEOs don’t understand the true cost of starting and maintaining an ongoing marketing program, because they’ve not had one before, just hit-and-run type sales promotions – money in, execute, money out. It’s fast, predictable, explainable and straightforward to justify from an expense standpoint.

Starting that program and keeping it running long enough to bear fruit is going to cost money – marketing’s not free, and the CMOs comp is only the barest beginning of the expenditure – because marketing isn’t an expense, it’s an investment.

You need a specified budget, set aside and ready to be spent, before you even start looking.

If you think you’re ready to start building a marketing program from scratch, and have only been growing through your sales force’s efforts, there are over 100 factors to consider. Get 70 of them correct, and you’re well on your way.

For more insights on how to get started and what’s appropriate for your business, DM me or reply in the comments – I won’t clutter your inbox with yet another marketing How-to newsletter that has no news, we’ll just have a conversation.