GEEKNOTE: Marketer-In-Chief, Part Two

GEEKNOTE:  Not quite two months ago, I posted a GEEKNOTE titled "Marketer-In-Chief".  I promised you a follow-up and today's missive is  that follow-up.

In the last year and a half, we have hired not one, but two account managers / sales reps for the company with the idea of handing off marketing duties to them.  Both efforts failed, in spite of what we thought was a pretty attractive compensation package and very capable individuals.

The first rep was a bad hire.  We hadn't defined our expectations well and, without adequate direction from us, the rep didn't have the spark necessary to turn the job we offered him into what it could have been.

Our second attempt was better, but still not quite on target.  The second rep was great at creating marketing materials and closing deals, but just couldn't get into the initial personal marketing (eg. cold calling) necessary to get in the door to speak with prospects.

My partner keeps putting out feelers to try to find the perfect person we can hire to do sales and marketing and maybe the third time will be the charm.  On the other hand, I have a theory that the search for this perfect sales person is somewhat akin to the hunt for the Nessie... occasional sightings, but no proof that they actually exist.

If finding the perfect person to market our services is so difficult, maybe we need to be looking a little closer to home:  Who has both an intimate knowledge of what we are about and the incentive to get outside their comfort zone in order to grow the business?  I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the answer is "me". 

The challenge is going to be for me to spend sufficient time  to make use of what I learned in those MBA marketing classes so many years ago all the while generating enough billable hours to keep food on the table at home.  

If I am successful at meeting this challenge, then I'm not going to need to be concerned about how much time I need to dedicate to cleaning up infected computers...I can easily hire very capable techs.  In fact, I've got a part time tech right now that would like nothing better than taking over all of my bench work.

So where do we go now?  I've come up with several things that are having a positive effect:

First, I've dusted off a book by I bought a quarter century ago called "Guerrilla Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson.  I've got the first edition.  The book is now in its fourth edition.  While my copy is turning not just yellow with age, but distinctly brown, it is still a good read and I'm re-reading it with the Internet revolution of the last 20 years as a filter.  Some of the ideas in the book still ring true today.  I suppose I ought to spring for the current edition, which has been updated to reflect how the Internet has changed things in marketing.

Second, I've dedicated part of each day to working on marketing.  These efforts have already paid off with appointments where I've been able to go out and talk to prospective clients.  We are currently bringing several of those new clients onboard.  I've got more appointments scheduled for the coming week and more marketing time blocked out on my calendar.

One fellow that hangs out in some of the same LinkedIN groups as I do, Scott A. Dennison, "The Marketing Geek",  posted an article he had written that contained a gem:  "Business owners spend too much time working IN their business instead of ON their business."  The observation hit me right between the eyes.  I'll plead guilty of falling into this trap in the past, but it is a mistake I don't intend to repeat in the future.  Dedicating a part of each day on company marketing  instead of geek stuff is EXACTLY what I need to do.  If you are more interested in marketing that technology, I highly recommend Scott's blog.

I've also taken a hard look at our paid advertising, especially how paid advertising on the Internet works for us.  We will continue to invest in paid advertising, but the days of throwing thousands of dollars a year at various forms of paid advertising without being able to track results are over.

We've looked at Google Analytics for our websites and those we host for our clients for some time now.  Recently, I've been experimenting with some of the more advanced features and the results have been quite interesting.  I'm getting a much better picture regarding which promotional efforts work and which ones are duds.

I will continue to hone my "elevator pitch" and my sales presentation skills by participating in my local NPI Group.  Give me a call if you aren't in a networking group and would like to see what it is all about.

Will all of this work?  The initial results are encouraging.  I'm having some success at opening doors and I've picked up some "special project work" from these new clients that is both boosting my take home pay and more fun than cleaning up yet another infected machine.   A bonus is that I'm starting to pass off those infected machines to our part time tech because I'm simply too busy to spend all of my time on the work bench.

Will this mean a career change for me from geek to marketing maven?  Not a chance.  You can rest assured that I'm a geek through and through and I'm already working on some new projects designed to keep Gulfcoast Networking on the cutting edge.  After all, its what I do best and the Marketer-In-Chief hat is just one more aspect of what I have to do to be a successful businessman.

Are you doing anything new from a marketing standpoint?  Leave me a comment here.

As always, feel free to drop me a note or give me a call (847-2424) if you have any questions about your computer or the Internet.

Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com