Jessica Arent’s Post

Approach PR-Marketing, Marketing-Sales, Sales-Customer Success as if you are the customer, because at in the end it’s ALL about the customer or else your just another salesperson. In 2024 and years to come customers will become hyper aware of which brands are authentic and which are just out for quick cash. Yes I just said that, meaning $ shouldn’t be your driving force because if it is, you just built your house upside down.

Want to know the biggest mistake I see #cannabisindustry operators making? It's not understanding the graphic below 👇 I see it time and again. "We need marketing" followed by "Why aren't they closing sales." Or "Why won't this PR agency guarantee me article placements?" Or "I hired a sales team and it's working for our wholesale business, but not doing a thing for retail" The list of examples could go on for a bit... The reality is: Every. Single. Cannabis. Company. Needs. It. All. They just don't know that. They THINK they need 1 or 2 of them, and then some slick sales person promises them the world. They sign on with a marketing agency expecting sales, or a publicist expecting advertising, or SOMETHING like that. 6 months later the account rep is catching heat for it. The business owner is mad and likely hurting in the pocketbook region. The agency's reputation is damaged. Or... They hire a new CMO and expect them to run a sales team, or they hire a new VP of sales and wonder why the marketing calendar is hurting and all the article pitches keep getting rejected. Or... They hire someone and expect them to do 5 jobs, or they hire an agency and expect the same level of commitment as an employee. Or. Or. Or. Many Scenarios. Same Errors. Every Time. And it's always the operator's fault. ALWAYS. It's their duty to ask the right questions. Here's my three best tips to start you off right: 1.) Clearly explain your goals, and ensure any KPIs align with them. Want more sales? Tie success to that metric alone, and make sure you get a detailed explanation about how each planned activity drives towards that goal. 2.) Agency's scale faster, Internal Teams scale better. Early stage companies need strategy internally and to contract out the work, late stage companies need to contract out the diversity of thought (and occasionally the work). Hire accordingly. 3.) Think holistically. CROs and Rev Ops people get a bad rap for being "just another sales guy" but with some spreadsheets... and that just isn't the case. A good CRO (Even a fractional one, or an agency filling that role) is the glue that holds the front end of a business together. Find one of those and you can ignore the rest of this post. Have any other tips on this topic? Drop them in the comments 👇 Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by a former sales person who got a master's in PR (that he rarely uses) and parades around as a marketer (and somehow people believe it). 🤷♂️ Take it with a grain of salt. 🧂

It’s been 8 months since we went full time with The Playbook Agency Here’s the 8 things I’ve learned since going on this journey and the key takeaways I’d use when doing it again 🟣 Co founder skill set overlap is a challenge Me and Leo Branica are both sales leaders with a lot of overlapping skills. We realised this a bit too late and were often 2 people doing the same job, rather than being effective as 2 individuals 🟣 The product is everything You can spend a lot of time on other aspects of the business, but really your customers will live and die by the quality of your product. There are no shortcuts. 🟣 Do the thing, before you hire for it Hiring can seem sexy and feel like growth. But if you don’t hire with the processes (somewhat) built, you’re asking for trouble. Build clear SOP’s and hire lean. 🟣 Spend time understanding your time cost and delegate accordingly Sit with a spreadsheet and calculate how much each hour costs you (let’s say it’s $50) Then delegate everything that isn’t a $50 dollar task or above 🟣 Branding Helps Sales Cycles Our brand has magnetised people towards us in a way that I didn’t really consider. People trust us, we’re not like the other agencies and don’t claim to be. Spend time on marketing and making yourself “cool” to work with 🟣 Have constructive arguments We argued for about 30 minutes the other day, on moving a task from 4 day delivery to 3 day delivery (it was more a debate) but in the end we got the things we needed to sorted. Nothing happens if you both stay quiet. 🟣 Everyone is more successful LinkedIn, Instagram and so on. Everyone seems to be doing well, it’s easy to get caught up in it and get a bit disheartened It’s rarely the truth, lock in and focus on your business. 🟣 The more you progress, the more devils knock on the door to distract It’s easy to get distracted by the next new product or shiny service you can offer. Or the endless partnership offers etc. Stay focussed, don’t get distracted and only do things that make sense and genuinely progress you, not just feel like progress. ____ My names Abbas Somji👋🏽 and I run what will be the best cold outbound agency in the world ✌🏽

"We Need More Leads, More Clients! We Need Great Marketing!" But often, the business problem isn’t in the number of clients at all! As usual, I’ll share a colleague's story: The owner is focused on growing new clients. Let’s push harder, friends! We’ll launch a massive advertising campaign and flood the sales department with leads. Said and done. The marketer increases the budget: Traffic is launched, leads are coming in, the sales department is working. After a month: conversion to sales drops by 20%! Along with increased marketing expenses, hiring costs have also gone up. Three weeks later, the Head of Sales resigns. What happened? Marketing in the company was already doing well; new clients were coming in and, most importantly, closing in sales. BUT with the increase in traffic volume, the sales department physically couldn’t handle the influx of leads. The quality of processing started to fall: objections weren’t being handled, communication with clients was mediocre, and the rejection rate increased. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! Managers burn out and... turnover begins: managers leave, and new ones don’t have time to adapt and immerse themselves in the product, leading to poor lead processing and inability to close sales. New managers come in, and the story repeats itself. What do we have as a result? The flow of new clients indeed increased, with new leads coming in constantly, but the company lacks resources for processing them. Due to the large volume of work, employees burn out and leave, and their replacements need time to adapt (which, unfortunately, isn’t available). Turnover increases, and hiring costs rise. Sales targets aren’t met, the Head of Sales’ salary drops, and the Head of Sales leaves. The sales department is left without control. What should have been done to prevent this? Focus on the product, not the traffic! Initially, it would have been enough to increase the average check and the cost of the main product. Even such a simple action would have already brought the company a 5% revenue increase. Prepare the sales department for scaling: build an adaptation system, hire 5-6 more managers, and correctly integrate them into the work process. Gradually increase traffic volume, setting each manager a weekly and daily plan.

7 lessons to learn.... BEFORE becoming a CMO. 1) Learn to love sales. — Marketing rarely succeeds without the support of sales. This relationship will make or break you. You must do all you can to get on the same page. Alignment through business objectives, joint OKRs, & process. The dream is to have sales & marketing manage up to the CEO, together. 2) Strategy comes first. — Luck is not a strategy. The business needs to nail strategy and you should hold leadership accountable to this. Research, positioning, segmentation, drivers, focus. Get it on paper. This is where meaningful growth comes from. Not A/B tests. 3) Finance is your best friend. — The finance head is a critical partner for marketing. Whether you like it or not, their opinion on marketing matters to the CEO. So, put time into the relationship. Regularly share your strategy & outline the bets. You need them. 4) When all else is equal, the best story wins. — The narrative makes all the difference. A story that can align teams, persuade buyers, and create momentum. Your chance to educate with new insight and present a BETTER way forward. That’s what everyone wants. We’re all wired for story. Not facts & features. 5) The cashflow monster is relentless. — To survive, you must have BOTH short-term & long-term goals. The CEO must believe you’re the one to lead the way with marketing. A chasm you must cross. Get there by presenting both types. What’s the plan to hit today’s goals? What are you building to ensure you hit next year’s growth? 6) Internal marketing is as important as external. — Burying your head is the fastest way to get fired. The CEO doesn’t need to know every detail. But she needs to know the plan for growth and how you’re going to get there. You must overcommunicate this plan and how it aligns to business goals. Everyone should be BORED of hearing about it. 7) Get it done. — CMO’s never last 9-12 months unless they execute. Doesn’t matter if you hire internally or outsource. But the work needs to be delivered. Not talked about. Put shipping the B+ above everything you do. Then, make it better. Truth is, they won’t teach you any of this on a marketing degree. But these things will shape your entire marketing career. #marketing #saas PS. What’s lesson 8?

A growing business needs sales more than anything else. Your connections may have worked in the beginning, but eventually you'll have to invest in marketing. You have two choices: 1. Hire a CMO, give them resources, and hope they will do what's best for your business.  Problem: As a fledgling business, you can't afford a CXO, or aren't ready to hire someone with whom you've no rapport. 2. Hire a marketing professional on a budget.  Problem: This person might be cheaper, but you get what you pay for. They are unlikely to have the experience, or even capability to help you reach even one fifth of your goals. If they're quite junior, very naturally you will not trust them to make the big calls, and will give your own "expert" opinion in their marketing plans. This is a recipe for disaster. There are now two people, who both don't know much about marketing, that are trying to grow a business. * shudders * So, what's a new business got to do? Here's an idea that the fast moving world is embracing. Fractional CXOs. The world is remote, more accessible. We all know that your job is not a marriage, and you get in, do the work, get out, get the reputation (and $$$). Some people skip work bit, but that's another issue. So the world is embracing the concept of FRACTIONAL CXO. Fractional CTOs, fractional COOs, fractional CMOs, you get the idea. So who is a fractional CMO? It's a person with the skills and experience of a full time CMO, whom you can't afford full time. You hire them for a few hours every week, for a stated number of months (6-12), with an agreed upon impact. They make the plan, share it with you, and they set out to achieve those goals for you. They're not married to your company, they're committed to the goals and the plan they put forward, that you agreed are what you need. And off you guys go. Here are some people whom I think will make excellent fractional CXOs. 1. Adi Abdurab CMO 2. Asad Babur COO 3. Aatir Abdul Rauf Chief Product Officer 4. Umair Rafique Cheif Data Scientist 5. Syed Wahaj Ali CTO Tag any other capable C-people you know could help the growing organizations.

7 lessons I wish they’d taught me… BEFORE becoming a CMO. 1) Learn to love sales. — Marketing rarely succeeds without the support of sales. This relationship will make or break you. You must do all you can to get on the same page. Alignment through business objectives, joint OKRs, & process. The dream is to have sales & marketing manage up to the CEO, together. 2) Strategy comes first. — Luck is not a strategy. The business needs to nail strategy and you should hold leadership accountable to this. Research, positioning, segmentation, drivers, focus. Get it on paper. This is where meaningful growth comes from. Not A/B tests. 3) Finance is your best friend. — The finance head is a critical partner for marketing. Whether you like it or not, their opinion on marketing matters to the CEO. So, put time into the relationship. Regularly share your strategy & outline the bets. You need them. 4) When all else is equal, the best story wins. — The narrative makes all the difference. A story that can align teams, persuade buyers, and create momentum. Your chance to educate with new insight and present a BETTER way forward. That’s what everyone wants. We’re all wired for story. Not facts & features. 5) The cashflow monster is relentless. — To survive, you must have BOTH short-term & long-term goals. The CEO must believe you’re the one to lead the way with marketing. A chasm you must cross. Get there by presenting both types. What’s the plan to hit today’s goals? What are you building to ensure you hit next year’s growth? 6) Internal marketing is as important as external. — Burying your head is the fastest way to get fired. The CEO doesn’t need to know every detail. But she needs to know the plan for growth and how you’re going to get there. You must overcommunicate this plan and how it aligns to business goals. Everyone should be BORED of hearing about it. 7) Get it done. — CMO’s won’t last 9-12 months unless they execute. Doesn’t matter if you hire internally or outsource. But the work needs to be delivered. Not talked about. Put shipping the B+ above everything you do. Then, make it better. Truth is, they won’t teach you any of this on a marketing degree. But these things will shape your entire marketing career. #marketing #b2bmarketing PS. What’s lesson 8?

A few months after leaving my last job to start a marketing agency, I totally bombed a sales call with a “perfect fit” client. To be fair, I never expect every prospect I speak with to become a client. If someone isn’t a good fit for my services, I’ll gladly point them in another direction. But this prospect WAS a great fit (they represented my ideal client perfectly). And the problem they needed help to solve aligned perfectly with the service I was selling at the time. So why didn’t they say yes to working with me? Because even though I could see clearly that I could help them. They couldn’t see any proof that I could. I didn’t have any client testimonials or case studies to show them. In the end, I didn’t get the sale. A few weeks later I saw that they hired a competitor with more social proof on their website. But even though I didn’t get the sale, I got a valuable lesson that was worth so much more. That prospect taught me that a buyer needs to see proof that we can do what we say we can do. We can’t expect them to “take the risk” of hiring us without that proof. They need to see the evidence. Over the next few months, I added client testimonials to my website. Since then, I’ve never been asked for “proof” that I can do what I say I can do. So there you have it… proof that social proof works =) Have you ever lost a deal to a competitor because you lacked social proof? Feel free to share your experience below 👇 #b2bsales #b2bmarketing #contentstrategy

🌐 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝? 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦! 🚀 Dive into the future of staffing success that's rewriting the rules. Are you ready for the revolution? 💼💰 Then this post is for you 🫵 Ever dreamt of making daily sales without a traditional sales team? Well, I'm living proof that it's not just a dream but a thriving reality! Let me introduce you to 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 – 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟: 🔍 Passionate Recruiters 📝 Diligent Contracts Managers 📢 Creative Marketing Specialists 🌐 Tech-Savvy Website Developers 📑 Detail-Oriented Licensing Officers 📄 Meticulous Documents Team And here's the magic: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬? It's all about building a brand and embracing the power of clear marketing from day one. So, how did I achieve this? 1. I optimized my 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞 – a personal touch goes a long way. 2. Created a 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 – a space where clients connect and collaborate effortlessly. 3. 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 – posts, live sessions, and personal messages, creating a genuine bond. 4. Provided a 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥– for those who resonate with my approach. 5. On the call – a chance to connect, understand needs, and close the deal seamlessly. 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞 💥 It's not rocket science; it's the art of simplicity in social media. This approach attracts leaders, not just curious onlookers. No more chasing after freebie seekers! If you're yearning for a shift in your business dynamics, I invite you to book a call. Let's talk about the transformative power of Attraction Marketing. This process has not just changed my life; it's about to change yours! Your journey to a new and improved business starts here. 🚀💼 Click on the below link and book a 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 with me: 👉 https://lnkd.in/dT-dhZ7r Looking forward to connecting with you and revolutionizing your approach to sales and marketing! 💪💬 #StaffingAgency #AttractionMarketing #BusinessTransformation

I feel like a sales guy can be a good marketer. Many times, companies hire people straight out of college or promote folks from other departments for marketing jobs, even if they don't know much about sales and marketing. I'm talking about sales because a good marketer should know how to sell stuff and connect with customers directly. Here are a few reasons why I think a salesperson can do well in marketing: 1. Real-Life Experience: Someone who has worked in sales and marketing on the ground understands the market, emotions, and situations. Remember RANCHO from "3 Idiots"? 2. Thinking Smart and Being Creative: Marketing needs you to be creative and smart. Salespeople, dealing with daily challenges, can make quick decisions in tricky situations. 3. Research Skills Research is a big deal in marketing, and salespeople are good at checking things out before talking to clients. They know their way around research. 4. Storytelling Skills: Sales guys are great at telling stories and making clients believe in their imagination. 5. Managing Money: Salespeople are good at managing costs. Unlike some marketing teams that spend a lot on ads that don't make sense, sales folks know the value of money and can negotiate well. 6. Finding Leads: At the end of the day, marketing is about boosting sales. Those who've worked in sales know how to generate leads and close deals. I think sales guys have what it takes to be good marketers. That's just my take, though. What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts, and let's learn from each other. #SalesAndMarketing #MarketingSkills #RealWorldMarketing #SalesExperience #CreativeMarketing #SmartDecisions #MarketResearch #SalesSkills #Storytelling #SalesSuccess #CostEffectiveMarketing #BudgetManagement #LeadGeneration #SalesDrivenMarketing #SalesAndMarketingDiscussion #ShareYourInsights