Oh I do all the marketing

Fair enough - if you have a marketing team, a marketing manager or even a part time marketer then you're already investing money that's intended to drive your business forward.

But so often we come across businesses whose sales director or some other member of the team "does the marketing". Do their days have 28-32 hours? We think not. And if that's the case, then what sales are they bringing in when they're "doing the marketing"?

Beside the opportunity cost, there's also the lack of strategic thinking and experience. Without these elements, any marketing spend is unlikely to bring in the results that could be achieved in the hands of someone who's done it before.

A recent conversation is a case in point. The individual in question had been tasked with developing a marketing strategy (along with their day job of course) - but had no money to spend on the job. On questioning it was apparent that although they had an objective - to grow revenue by 30% - they had no idea how much a customer was worth to their business, how many leads they needed to convert one to a customer, nor how many customers they needed to achieve the growth goals.

It's like going on a trip from one end of the country to the other but without a map, satnav or even road signs...