I've heard this asked repeatedly over the last weeks. Do we need to do marketing? We are only a small business with little money - do we need to do marketing? We don't want to become a huge business - do we need to do marketing? We are an engineering company that get all our work from government contracts  - do we need to do marketing? We are only a holdings company - do we need to do marketing? Notice the question isn't "should we do marketing" or "why should we do marketing" but "do we need to do marketing"? It is almost cynical in its assumption. The question really hides a statement; a conviction that "we don't need to do marketing". We, in our situation, don't need to - we can save that money. I'll leave it to you to decide whether you need to do marketing, or not. My interest is in how you come to your conclusion. How do you decide whether or not your business needs to do marketing, or not? Here are some tho

First, let’s get one thing straight, as a business owner you can’t complain about marketing not delivering results if you haven’t kept to your end of the bargain and allocated a budget. The marketing budget sets the rules of the game – it makes it possible to measure - to some degree of accuracy - that magical number called “return on investment”. Everyone wants ROI on marketing spend, yet few know what they plan to invest, i.e. a marketing budget. But how do you set a marketing budget? This is another piece of the puzzle that is often neglected by business owners quick to criticize marketing performance: a marketing plan. The marketing plan should describe the desired results expected from marketing activities and how these ties into overall sales targets. Only now can the marketing budget be set. A plan informs the budget and allows you to do what is called “zero-based budgeting”, meaning you to build the budget from the ground up based on what’s needed to achieve the goals. This i

A startup business only grows when there’s an investment in the business, but as a founder, how do you invest when cashflow is still unpredictable? This is the catch 22 that many business owners face. The obvious answer is to grow sales and then use the additional cash to build the business, but interestingly, this is often not the best option. More sales equal more operational challenges, especially on the back of existing capacity constraints in growing businesses. Simply boosting sales can kill the company. So what’s the answer? How do you invest in the business when money is scarce and additional sales unwanted? The answer lies in betting on market demand, rather than sales. There is a comfort to be found in knowing that your services are in demand, even if there are no sales. Demand is what makes the phone ring and therein lies the confidence that you can invest in your company. Never mind sales; healthy demand allows you to live in the future. But how do you raise

The holy grail of doing business is building a brand. No matter the industry or the type of business you are running, ultimately, every entrepreneur wants a brand. This is a universal desire whatever the personality of the owner. From the most analytical engineering types to the exact number or creative types - all entrepreneurs want a brand. This desire is especially interesting if you consider the constant debate around sales versus marketing. Strong opinions persist in favour of each, yet everyone seems in agreement about one thing: the power of owning a brand. But brand-building is not easy. It requires counter-intuitive thinking that does not come easy to the business owner pressed for cash and looking for the shortest route to selling the company. It is this combination of difficultness and desirability that makes building a brand, in my opinion, the top challenge for entrepreneurs in the coming year. Building a brand requires a disciplined approach to design, messaging,

Aggressive, clean-cut business objectives. That's what the CEO of a successful medium-sized company recently shared with me about the business he leads. It's impressive when someone makes deliberate bets on the future based on a strong sense of where things are and where it's heading. Statements such as: "This is where we are now. This is where the world is going. This is our customer. This is our competitor. This is our key advantage. This is what needs to happen over the coming months to get from here, to here." This leader had strong views on these topics and clearly articulated them, not in a boastful way, but in a monotone, calm way. It was impressive. Probably the most exciting thing is just how determined they were to compete internationally, but basing themselves in South Africa because they see it as part of their competitive edge. It was a refreshing change from the typical negativity. The experience made me realise the opportunity for South Africa

It's taken me five years to get to a point where I can confidently tell people what I sell: I am a marketing consultant. I sell marketing plans. Five years. Why so long to figure out something seemingly so basic? Because at first, I wanted to be fancy. I couldn't imagine that merely being a marketing consultant, selling marketing plans, could be anywhere near good enough. Admittedly, I wanted to dress it up in fancy language. The funny thing is that despite not having a clear name for it, I had an elevator pitch that beautifully described the value I added. Strange how it is somehow easier to spin a 30-second story than give it a concise name! I find many business owners have a similar problem. After tweeting my initial thoughts around this topic in the past week, someone responded saying it took one of their clients two years to figure out how to name what they sell! The challenge is clear, in two seconds (not thirty), answer me this: What do you sell? It is

It's fascinating to think about how you can sell one thing, yet meet many needs. As a kid, I enjoyed kicking a ball in the park, and that one ball did many things for me, depending on the day. I got rid of frustration, energy, cleared my head, managed boredom or played with friends. One ball; many needs. As businesses, we typically sell only a handful of stuff, yet the number of potentially different needs we meet for our customers are many times more. It is this idea of "what need do you meet for your customer" that sits at the heart of marketing and sales. Only by getting to the real problem; the genuine desire that they have can you successfully sell your offering at the optimal price and grow the business. The challenge many businesses experience is they don't know how to get to the heart of the customers' needs. You certainly can't get there through "sales mode". Instead, you need to listen to customers, talk with them to understand thei