FOMO on What's Possible?

If your LinkedIn feed and email inbox is overflowing with growth hacks and snake oil advice, Ian has some advice...

As a commercial leader, whether you’ve just launched your start-up or are responsible for “the number” for something more mature in the market - you no doubt have an inbox full of folks offering a quick fix, hack, or latest AI doohickey that will fix whatever ails your pipeline. 

Whilst this tsunami of emails is annoying, you have a nagging feeling that, in amongst all this snake oil, there might be something valuable that could be the very thing that will unlock your go-to-market challenge, and as a frisson of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) rises in your gut you wonder if this is the wrong time to be a luddite ignoring all this noise and maybe you should take a look.

Of course, just by taking a peek, replying to an email, or taking a demo, suddenly that email attention-demanding tsunami turns into whatever is bigger than a tsunami, as now you have indicated to the world of hungry business developers you are open to something new. 

Plenty of blog posts at this point would be the prophet of doom and warn you against such unsolicited advances, empathize with the inbox problem we all have and bitch about spam.

But I think you should trust your instincts, the discipline of sales and marketing is ever evolving, and yes, some of these approaches from robot email autodialers trained by inexperienced business developers are clumsy (at best), but it does not mean that there are not some great solutions out there.

New AI technologies, social media engagement strategies, or just hiring a specialist skill your team lacks, could make a difference.

The challenge is sifting through the crap to find them. 

And who’s got time for that?

I suspect it’s not just these new folks trying to elbow their way into your inbox attention, you probably have a portfolio of tools, agencies, freelancers and are wondering if they are offering the value they once did, if they have their finger on the pulse on these new ways of working and if it’s time for a change, or maybe, if you need them at all.

According to research by Hubspot, up to 50% of marketing spend goes on technology, agencies, and external skills; the risk and opportunity of getting this right is critical to the effectiveness of your sales and marketing. 

According to the often-used quote from industrialist and marketing pioneer John Wannamaker, he knew 50% of his advertising was not working, he just didn’t know which half. Back then, that was just his external advertising costs. Imagine if he had the complex budget of a modern marketer - do you know what percentage of your spend is not paying the bills?

Plus, it’s not just not doing enough with what you have, a well-timed jump onto the crest of a new technological wave could gap your competition.

So, maybe time to take stock, review what you need, what you have, and take a look at the art of the possible. 

And, if you don’t have time, maybe we can help.