Marketing consultancy

“Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were. Be candid with everyone. Don’t manage, lead. Change before you have to."

Jack Welch

There is often a need for the knowledge and support of an experienced marketing person, however this has to be balanced with the need to just get things done.

This is where I can be really useful.

I provide my skills and expertise to companies without them having to foot the bill for a full-time executive salary.

I can support in a variety of ways including:

Setting the Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy: facilitating workshops to ensure the creation of a strategy aligned with the business goals and objectives. This is a team sport, and requires the input of all the leaders. I can facilitate, validate and moderate the discussions and drive the team to a consensus.

Building the Plan: Once the strategy is set a tactical plan, with Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) to measure success, is required. Easier said than done, the wrong KPIs will see wasted activity in the wrong direction. I use my expertise to recommend channels and tactics based on what I have seen work, and not work(!), before.

Determining Marketing Budget: often contentious, often set without knowledge of what needs to be done and when. I can test the plan and budget to make sure that it is aligned to the strategy and goals of the company, suggest prioritisation, to make budget deliver a workable plan.

Recruiting the Right Marketing Talent: identifying, evaluating and bringing in the right marketing talent can be a challenge. Hiring the wrong talent for the company and culture can be costly. Content, Product, Demand Gen marketers? I can help make the right choices, developing the structure and job descriptions, interviewing and recommending the right marketing talent for the organisation’s needs.

Overseeing Marketing Execution and Performance: For ongoing clients regular reviews ensure that the team is executing against the plan to deliver the KPI's. The reviews are an opportunity to identify challenges and agree execution changes. I can present the marketing plan to investors and boards to support where there isn’t the marketing expertise in-house.

When will a Marketing consultant be helpful?

Four examples. There are many other situations where it makes sense to bring in interim support.

Coaching and developing talent - perhaps the best talent to take on marketing leadership sits within the existing workforce - a marketer that doesn’t have the leadership skills or experience; a Sales leader that wants to bring marketing under their wing, but need a coach to help them understand the fundamentals; someone from product or customer success that has deep domain expertise in the product and market, but does not know a thing about marketing. I can build a development plan and coach them through their evolution into a marketing leader.

Dealing with a strategic shift - a move to a new industry or segment, the launch of a new product, or an acquisition and how to integrate it can need additional interim marketing support to help assess what actions are required and build a plan.

Start-ups or scale-ups - moving to the next stage of growth, operating on minimal budget, an experienced Marketing executive is expensive but essential to growth. A consultant can deliver the advice to build the right foundations, the plans and coaching to ensure marketing execute to achieve goals without breaking the bank.

Improving cross-functional working – the teams are siloed and have grown organically. I can support the development and agreement for a new way of working with handshakes and hand-offs that improve productivity, removing blame culture, and supporting business growth.

Get in touch to discuss how I can help your organisation.

Jackie joined the business as we were launching a new combined brand and integrating four businesses into one.

Marketing was entirely reactive - answering to the loudest voices. Measurable impact on revenue was minimal. Jackie quickly aligned the marketing plan to the business’ overall strategy, identified capability gaps in the team, and moved rapidly to place the right talent (existing and new) into the right structure and process to deliver that plan.

A natural coach and true cross-functional collaborator, Jackie raised marketing’s game and established its role at the heart of our business.

Mike Phillips, Managing Director

Jackie worked closely with me, and my leadership team, to drive transformational change in our marketing organisation to drive a customer centric, responsive and digital overhaul across the entire organisation, working across functions, and with a focus on measurable impact to the business.

She demonstrated a tireless devotion to working closely with the people in her teams, leading them through challenging changes. A combination of strategic leadership, discipline on seeking results, focus on the customer, and a supportive coaching approach to each and every member of her team saw her successfully make the transformation a reality.

Jeremy Bevan, VP Marketing