Magnus Marketing Blog

I cannot implore you business owners, sales people, CEO's, and Venture types to please, please hire and work with sales and marketing people who know something about your business. The worst thing any young, entrepreneurial firm can do is work with, hire, or engage marketing, biz dev, or sales people who do NOT get your industry, product, or service. Or even worse, really have very little marketing, sales, or biz dev experience at all.

This can absolutely ruin, and I mean RUIN, and company. If it doesn't outright cause bankruptcy, it can set a company back significantly. A friend of mine worked for a company with a VP who came from another discipline and ran marketing, needless to say - the lack of tactics and application caused the firm to lose visibility, hurt lead generation, and caused the loss of business. It set the company back. The company brought in consultants to help the situation who lacked the business and product knowledge which made it even worse, because the tactics were completely inappropriate to the market. The friend is looking to leave the company due to the sheer frustration being experienced - she has the knowledge and experience, but the company - like most firms want the "expert" outside opinion from the CEO's buddies. Recently, a friend of mine that has tangential technology knowledge is seeking software clients to provide sales strategy and business development services to. I don't question the sales ability, but I shudder to think about the software firm that expects this person to generate results given there is zero experience selling software which is more business driven anyway. Another former employer - one who drove a company to near bankruptcy due to his incompetence in sales and marketing and who surprised me by becoming a Director of Sales/Marketing at another technology company - lasted 2.5 years before probably being fired yet again. No surprise there. These people, just from their credentials, show a lack of knowledge. Some things, some can be learned - however, learning should occur in a respective position. People in VP/Director roles should be able to drive the effort and possess the skill and the respective industry knowledge. The friend lacking software selling should work for a mature company in a sales representative role to gain the right knowledge and training. The former employer just should NOT do anything with sales and marketing and stick to the core expertise he has.

I don't work with clients where I do not have some understanding of the business, industry, or solution (more likely some combination thereof) and have a level of certainty that I can be successful. I don't proffer my marketing expertise unless I know how to bring a company, product, or service to the market. I know people at Gartner, I was behind the scenes at Brainstorm, I did soup to nuts tradeshow coordination, collateral and web development, venture capital business showcases, email campaigns, PR,market research, advertising - I have done everything in marketing and biz dev, even closed some sales. I have sold software, hardware, solutions, professional services to every industry. My MBA enabled me to learn industry issues and how to STRATEGICALLY research and analyze companies. This knowledge, this motivation, this long experience through different companies makes me and, subsequently, my clients successful.

And successful they are with meetings and leads still being generated fairly consistently even in a tough market.

I implore you, like the big companies, do due diligence and hire sales and marketing people that get it.

Once upon a time, in the land of Management - there was a Manager, who had a team of managers and employees. He worked in the land of Management for about 3 years, one of the longest tenure Managers. Sometime around the 2.5 year mark, something happened or something changed and the Manager was not in favor with the LordoManagement. Suddenly, his division was not run "up to standard" and LordoManagement began to crack down. His dislike of Manager wreaked havoc on the Manager Team and the employees. The employees morale sunk as continually negative reports were received about the employees, down and down - affecting their own happiness and productivity. Employees were made to work harder and stay later and later to make sure that LordoManagement was satisfied. Manager racked up OT costs and blew budget because of the overtime. Manager Team was also affected with stress visible on their once happy visiages - some weird things happened, like extra Manager Team members showing up without warning - killing budget and further diminishing morale. This cycle of nitpicking and negativity continued for six months with Manager showing such signs of stress that employees thought he would have a heartattack.

One day, employees showed up and Manager wasn't there - he left they said, he was offered a fix-it period, but rejected it. Point was Manager wasn't there. LordoManagement came in and suddenly his reports were positive, even though nothing much had changed. People realized that LordoManagement had it in for Manager and took out his ire until Manager, who likely ticked him off, left the company. A new Manager is joining, one who is familiar with the company and will adhere to LordoManagement's rules and policies.

To think that the employees had to suffer with extra work, negativity, and a poor morale because the Boss wanted the subordinate out. I have seen some bad stuff and been through enough bad stuff - which seemingly never ends, but this ridicious situation takes the cake. Lesson Here: If you don't like someone - fire them and please spare the team the pain of your personality conflict.