Aside from management wanting their marketer to be really productive, the challenge is always for the marketer to generate referrals to the tune of about $1mil each year. We work with many marketers that do this and what it takes is determination, passion to succeed, and working with a quality coach each week.
When you think about it, a marketer that generates even a half million dollars a year, is bringing in profit of around $250k or more. A good, qualified marketing coach or advisor will cost you about $20k each year. Not a bad trade off of cost vs profit! In reality, your marketer should be coachable to generate closer to a million dollars – going into year two.
So, What Makes A Marketer Productive?
There are numerous things that help make a marketer productive and generate good revenue for your firm.
First and foremost, simply put good marketers are strategic with their time and resources. Good marketers are important because they help businesses create long-lasting and profitable relationships with their clients. Good marketers know how to navigate the nuances of a changing field, (and the restoration field IS changing). They have to manage different aspects of marketing and understand how those aspects interact. We can develop these characteristics and the many other skills that make a good marketer with practice and work experience.
Here’s a short list of things to look for, when hiring a marketer:
- They need to be focused,
- Be good at active listening,
- Be good at storytelling,
- Know their customers and markets,
- Show good time management skills,
- Manage large workloads,
- Create memorable client experiences,
- Understand their competitors,
- Set clear and actionable goals,
- Be able to adapt to changing client needs,
- Have good observational skills,
- Be accountable to themselves and the company,
- Readily complete daily and weekly reports,
- Track activity in a CRM,
- Willing to accept a lot of rejection,
- Understand and use social media,
- Have good communication and computer skills,
- Work with management to set goals and targets,
- Know how to nurture relationships,
- Develop a “trusted advisor” or Maven strategy.
- Have a desire to keep learning new marketing strategies,
I’ve listed a lot of items that marketers must be good at – or at least be willing to perform! All too often, several of these on the list don’t exist with the marketer, and we have to teach them each of those things. Take the item “willing to accept rejection,” if they can’t hear a “NO” graciously, and realize it’s probably not directed at them personally then they aren’t the right candidate for the position.
Most marketers don’t know exactly what their role and responsibilities are, and certainly don’t know how to interact and engage their “internal” staff. I’m specifically talking about ALL the employees in the firm. If you don’t have believability and credibility, you aren’t going to build vital relationships – which are based on trust.
Humans can’t actually multitask. We think we can, but we can’t. We can only focus on one thing at a time. What we mean by multitasking is focusing on one thing for a period of time (as needed), then on another and another, etc. When you hear someone saying they are multi-tasking, they’re hurting themselves and you. Marketers should schedule time for performing certain tasks. If marketers get “caught up” in doing considerable admin type projects then either you’re dumping the wrong things on them, or they prefer to be behind the safety of a desk.
Great marketers construct their marketing strategy around client needs, and one way you can recognize these needs is by producing a customer persona. This persona tells you how, when, and where to impart your target audience.
As marketers, we all work hard to relationships for our owner or client, but it can be tough to stay on top of everything we are accountable for. Luckily, there are a few modest tools you can use to be an extra productive marketer and use your schedule much more effectively. Regardless of which of these methods work for you, by applying these approaches and suggestions to your workload, you will see more productivity and improved task completion on many levels.
By Dick Wagner, Co-Founder The CREST Network, LLC
Nationally recognized coach, consultant, trainer, and speaker
Creator of the renowned PREP™ pre-disaster program
Owner of AskDickWagner.com BLOG
Copyright© 2023 The CREST Network, LLC
All Rights Reserved
Marketers are usually – at least partially – judged on how many visits and clients they call on. Typically, sales estimators, and often even senior project managers are tasked with going to a job site, evaluating, and assessing the loss, often writing a scope and or estimate and getting an agreement in writing with the property owner. They are judged on the closing ratio.
on the internet trying to fill the position of marketer, but they advertise for a salesperson. There’s a very confused public regarding exactly what position you are trying to hire. You usually get the wrong applicant. Salespeople generally do NOT make good marketers and conversely, marketers don’t make good salespeople.
At the CREST Network, we administer those assessments and assist with the interview process so you can have another opinion. Many owners, when interviewing, hire someone “just because they like the person.” That person can say all the right things at an interview and then bomb terribly in the position. Having another set of ears and eyes on the candidate can prevent making a hiring mistake.
The simplest way to know what questions you should ask to evolve from doing your research on that client and their industry. You can’t really ask intelligent questions unless you actually know something about them and their business!
So, who is the real client – the homeowner or business that had the loss, or the insurance company? I think we will ALL need to be planning on how our services can be afforded by the end-user because one day there will be premiums but there will be few payments just like in the medical world.
company’s “stockholders” in their retirement investment funds.
survive without the US. The insurance firms are not paying for XYZ’s services out of their profits they are paying for XYZ’s to increase THEIR (the insurance company) profits by cutting YOURS (you, your wife and children, your kid’s college, your fishing vacation trip)
them. My ideas are a strategy that is used by hundreds of marketers all over the country with great success.
Yes, it’s quite a challenge to think only about “what you can do for your clients client, but until you get into that mindset – you’ll come across as salesy or worse. For most of us, that mindset is a big struggle to achieve because we are in the mode of “getting jobs.” Our boss or owner wants you to get more referrals so he or she is constantly pushing you to do this – even reminding you of how many referral you got last month!
I have 1700+ ‘friends’ on Facebook and 3300+ connections on LinkedIn (and 600+ on my Twitter account), and the worst thing I can do is promote myself or my company! My posts and content on my Blog or other social media accounts must never be salesy and talk about ‘what I do.’ Nobody wants a commercial or promo about “what you do.”
to achieve and then break it down into small steps – then implement that plan. A well-planned, well-thought-out, well-implemented Content strategy is not only a vital component of any social media strategy; it’s the key to driving the results your business wants.
For years and still today, many marketers ‘think’ they are going to get the call from the agent or plumber, but they are only generating $150k a year in revenue and that’s not enough! We often hear that it’s about ‘great service’ but that’s only AFTER the call comes in. It’s not about the latest tool or machine or gadget that your company has purchased. Everyone claims to offer great service or have the latest Binford 5000 machine but that isn’t enough to justify your business existence.
properly market your company is like getting promises from clients that never come thru!
up blog posts on how to freshen up your marketing. Very possibly your gut tells you that what you’ve been doing for the past several years might not be working anymore!
consultant. It doesn’t take long after meeting them and that includes marketers as well before I instinctively know they are arrogant, cocky, self-righteous, and often have these absurd fantasies of greatness. I just met with one of them last week!
