What Happened To The Old Marketing Guy

"Our calls are down. Our in store traffic is down. Really! And my he had the nerve to say, 'It's that time of year. Last year he said that he was why our traffic was up and now he says its not his fault it's down. He doesn't want to be held accountable for anything."  - Dave A Frustrated Entrepreneur About To Fire His Current Marketing Guy

I've known Dave for years. Great guy. Serial Entrepreneur. Smart. Driven. Hard worker. Dave believes in holding people accountable. He holds everyone accountable except his current marketing guy. Why? Because his current marketing guy hides behind printed out reports (WHO PRINTS ANYTHING ANYMORE), outrageous SEO mumbo jumbo, and claims of increased traffic. 

Dave's old marketing guy hates me. (Yup, he was current marketing guy and now he is old marketing guy.) Why does he hate me? At BellaTayla.com and ImmediateBusinessGrowth.com we help our clients from start to finish, from Strategic (Marketing Plans, Marketing Research, Sales Strategies, Individual Coaching) to Instant Results Marketing (Social Media, Web Design, Direct Mail, Writing Copy) our team does it all for our clients. Last week Dave and I were talking about sales strategies, and he started complaining about his marketing person's lack of impact, so I asked one question, "What numbers should he be accountable for?" Dave sat with a blank look on his face and started mumbling off a list. "Well, web clicks but that doesn't mean anything unless someone buys. Maybe likes or retweets but no one buys that either....I don't know maybe the number of calls and visits? But the problem is he can make all the best sites but he doesn't understand how to get my clients to buy, he is just a mechanic who can put something together but he can't build what I want. " 

That led to today's venting, a week later after he had a chance to take a look at the real marketing results not printed out reports but visitor logs, call-logs and sales reports. Dave rubbed his temples and said, "Our calls are down. Our in store traffic is down. Really! And he had the nerve to say, 'It's that time of year. Last year he said that he was why our traffic was up and now he says its not his fault it's down. He doesn't want to be held accountable for anything." That is when the light came on for Dave. he understood he had to get rid of his old marketing guy. Why? Because no matter what Dave couldn't hold him accountable for the only number that mattered, sales that can be directly attributed to dollars invested. 

Dave will be working with a new marketing firm going forward. For the record, it's not us. We brought another firm in to bid for the work. (That is a topic for another blog.) That new marketing firm knows right from the start that they will be held accountable for one thing, the number of sales they help drive.