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Is Your Management Team Covering The Bases of All 4 Quadrants of the Marketing Roles Matrix?

Founders, sales teams, business development managers, and administrative staff also play important roles in marketing, not just your marketing team.
I'm George Krahn, the founder & business strategist at Proven Results Agency.

Since 2009, I have worked with dozens of management teams at the companies that hired my agency.  In the context of sales & marketing, their teams consisted of in-house employees, freelancers, and agencies.

Sometimes the "teams" at these companies who were officially responsible for marketing were literally a one-woman or one-man show.
These individuals were tasked to do everything marketing related and often sales too.  However, marketing & selling a company's products or services involves many people, even at small companies.


I also worked with Perry Marshall for nearly 3 years doing the Leads & Sales System Audits for his exclusive Roundtable members in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

I'm the person that Perry refers to in the testimonial below.  It's quite humbling for me to receive such a glowing review from a sales & marketing legend like Perry Marshall.

"George Krahn is one of my hand-picked experts, who will identify thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of waste, untapped potential, and opportunities for profit."
Perry Marshall
Author, "80/20 Sales and Marketing", "Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords", "Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising"

I share this to demonstrate that I have worked with all kinds of people in sales & marketing, from entry level assistants to famous gurus at the top of their game.

I have been exposed to many management teams, from dysfunctional teams to ones firing on all cylinders, including firsthand experience managing my team at my agency.


Focusing in on marketing, for it to be effective, a company needs to have the 4 broad categories of marketing roles covered by competent people, regardless of whether they are in-house employees, freelancers, or agencies.

The 4 categories of marketing roles are:

  1. Strategist
  2. Creative
  3. Implementor
  4. Analyst

Let's dive deeper into each specific category and look at the skillsets required of each one and whose responsibility they should be, which often depends on the size of the company.

Strategist

Skillset

  • Knows what the high level marketing plan needs to be or they can figure it out

  • Casts the vision for the marketing plan to the rest of the team

  • Ability to lead the marketing team

  • Understands how different marketing mediums work together

Whose Responsibility

  • Often the founder in small companies because they know their products or services best, but they might not know the tactics to execute on their strategy

  • This can be a long-time employee at a smaller company, but they must have the right personality type

  • Usually the Chief Marketing Officer or Marketing Director in larger companies

  • Sometimes it's a fractional CMO or a marketing strategist at an agency

Creative

Skillset

  • Gifted at coming up with ideas for videos, photos & other images, and written content

  • Often more talented on the visuals than the messaging or vice versa

Whose Responsibility

  • At small companies, this is all done by one person

  • At larger companies, this is usually taken care of by multiple people since creative writing and visuals are usually different skillsets

  • Needs to be onsite for the videography & photography
    • Shooting videos & taking photos can be done by an in-house employee, if they are gifted in that area

    • If no employees are very capable, it should be outsourced to a videography & photography company on a project basis

  • For long form written content for website landing pages, email marketing, etc.; this can be outsourced to a copywriter on a project basis
    • Short form copywriting for social media posts is usually delegated to the social media manager

    • Short form copywriting for paid search & paid social ad campaigns is usually delegated to the freelancer or agency

  • Messaging must be consistent & on-brand in the voice of the founder or other spokesperson across all marketing mediums

Implementor

Skillset

  • A person that is driven, detail-oriented, and capable of executing on the strategy

  • Good at organizing & managing projects with a habit of following through to the end

  • Able to use what the strategist and the creative provide and publish it across marketing mediums

  • Need to have a great working relationship with the Creative to get new content from them in a timely manner in order to meet deadlines

  • Usually the "glue that holds everything together" since they have a birds-eye view of all marketing activities

Whose Responsibility

  • This is usually done by an in-house employee for mediums like social media, email marketing, blog posts, and website updates

  • For small & medium sized companies, digital marketing (aka paid search & social media advertising) is usually outsourced to an agency or freelancer for paid search & social since that's a highly specialized & very technical marketing medium, plus it's tied to the company credit card

  • For larger companies, they will have an in-house team that focuses on digital marketing

Analyst

Skillset

  • Great with numbers, data, & pattern recognition

  • Enjoys working with spreadsheets

  • Often a more introverted person

  • Understands the financial side of marketing as well, especially regarding budgets, Return On Ad Spend (ROAS), and Return On Investment (ROI)

Whose Responsibility

  • Usually an in-house employee

  • Sometimes responsibilities are shared with an agency if a large amount of money is being spent on digital marketing

  • Any freelancers or agencies should be reporting on their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) regularly

Where Are You & Your Team On The Marketing Roles Matrix?

How To Avoid A Dysfunctional Sales & Marketing Team

These 4 roles on the Marketing Roles Matrix should create a feedback loop.

The analyst at the end should be informing the strategist in the beginning about how the different marketing mediums are performing and then decisions going forward need to be based on that data:

Strategist > Creative > Implementor > Analyst > Strategist > etc.

In the Matrix above, you can see that the work flows clockwise and continuously loops.


The smaller the company, the more these 4 different roles will be combined & consolidated onto less people.

In a small company, you have to be a generalist.  (As shown in the center of the Marketing Roles Matrix.)

At a bare minimum, you should have 2 people who split all of these responsibilities and they should be divided based on skillset and personality type.

This is a step towards having specialists who work on things in their strength zone, which is ideal.  (As shown in the corners of the Marketing Roles Matrix.)

Dividing these responsibilities can also be done well with one in-house sales & marketing manager and one or multiple freelancers or agencies to support the sales & marketing manager.


So you can imagine how people who are strong in 1 of the 4 areas might struggle if they are saddled with the responsibility of something that's not in their strength zone.

The extreme case is when all 4 roles are dropped onto a brand new sales & marketing manager.

The person new to the company has to familiarize themselves with. . .

  •  the company
  •  its products & services
  •  their co-workers
  •  freelancers or agencies that the company works with

. . .and then carry the weight of all of those marketing responsibilities.

5 Steps To Address Underperforming Sales & Marketing Teams

  1. Identify all of the marketing roles that each team member (in-house or not) is responsible for on the Marketing Roles Matrix

  2. Determine if each team member has. . .
    1. Too much on their plate (too many roles they're responsible for)

    2. The wrong things on their plate (roles that don't align with their strengths)

    3. Insufficient tools & training to be successful in their role

  3. Too much on their plate?
    1. Reassign the responsibilities that they're not strong at to other team members

    2. Eliminate the least important things

    3. If it's an important thing, hire another employee, freelancer, or an agency to help them

  4. The wrong things on their plate?
    1. Again, reassign the responsibilities that they're not strong at to other team members

    2. Eliminate those things only if they are unimportant

    3. If it's important, hire another employee, freelancer, or an agency to help them

  5. Insufficient tools & training?
    1. Identify & utilize the tools that are needed to be successful

    2. Identify & utilize the training that would make the biggest impact on improving performance

Do you want some help going through this process & getting clarity on your situation? Consider utilizing our management assessments consulting service!

Details of Individual or Management Team Assessments

Your Qualifications

  • Founder, Business Owner, Sales Manager, or Marketing Manager at a small company (usually 10-50 employees, sometimes bigger)
    • Preference will be given to companies in the manufacturing, industrial, or construction industry
    • Companies in other industries will be considered on a case-by-case basis

  • Interested in getting our Individual Manager Assessment or Management Team Assessment

  • Recognize that this is a consulting service and NOT a done-for-you service

  • Willing to commit to a 1-month consulting agreement

My Deliverables

  • Facilitate online assessments before we move to the next step
    • Starting with the leader of sales & marketing, which would be the founder/owner in a small company or the director/manager of the sales or marketing department in a larger company with a team that reports to them

    • Continue with the rest of the team, if choosing the Management Team Assessment

  • The 3 assessments are:
  • Review those 3 assessments to identify strengths & weaknesses of your sales & marketing team
    • Make recommendations on shifting responsibilities within your team

    • Make hiring recommendations when there are obvious gaps in 1 of the 4 quadrants

  • Plot out all of your team members on the Marketing Roles Matrix and on a DISC Team Chart

  • Travel to your location to meet in person, go over the assessments, and discuss the recommended action items

  • Optional add-ons after 1st month:
    • Conduct a complete Leads & Sales System Audit

    • Collaborate with you & your team on a lead generation & marketing strategy

  • Review our working relationship before the end of the 2 month milestone

  • Optional upgrades after 2nd month:
    • Complete Lead Generation System - Do-It-Yourself with Coaching

    • Complete Lead Generation System - Done-For-You service
 

Pricing

Individual Manager Assessment:

USD $995.00 plus travel expenses for an in-person meeting at your location to review the assessments & recommended action items


Management Team Assessment:

USD $1995.00 + $95.00 per team member (in-house employees, freelancers, and key members of agencies you work with), plus travel expenses for an in-person meeting at your location to review the assessments & recommended action items

Book a Zoom Call or Send Me An Email with Your Questions

"Are We The Right Fit?"
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Email Our Founder Directly
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About Our Company

Our agency’s approach to sales & marketing is based on Perry Marshall's principles combined with practical, first hand knowledge of the manufacturing, construction, industrial, and agriculture industries.

George Krahn, our founder & business strategist, started his career in the manufacturing industry in 1997, then shifted to marketing in 2007, and added consulting in 2024.

Over more than a decade, he progressed through roles in production, quality control, accounting, customer service, and finally discovered his passion for sales & marketing.

George is mentored by Perry Marshall, author of "80/20 Sales And Marketing", "Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords", "Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising", and many other books.

At Proven Results Agency, we do. . .

🔹 Integration & Management of Digital Ads, CRM Systems, Call Tracking, Automations, and A.I.
🔸 Consulting on Management Team Effectiveness, Business Processes, Marketing Strategy, Lead Generation Systems, and more

Instead of your sales team wasting time & money chasing cold prospects, they're busy closing sales from our steady flow of hot leads!

We empower you to turn the flow of high quality leads up or down at will, simply by adjusting your marketing budget on the targeted, effective, measurable digital advertising that our agency delivers.

We aren't incentivized to make you spend more. Our compensation structure is set up very thoughtfully and fairly. As your company scales up, so do the resources that our agency can provide to you.

You get full access to transparent information that empowers you to make meaningful decisions for your business. We work together with you to execute on your decisions.


Our agency has been successful for clients in the following industries:

Manufacturing

🔹 PJ Trailers Canada
🔸 HeatMaster SS
🔹 Mr. Shrinkwrap
🔸 IconDirect
🔹 Friesens Corporation
🔸 Jenkins Iron & Steel
🔹 FB Industries (acquired by Hi-Crush)

Construction

🔸 CanWest Concrete Cutting & Coring
🔹 Innovative Residential
🔸 Heat Innovations
🔹 Platinum Renovations
🔸 Superior Heating & Air
🔹 Charleston Roofing & Exteriors
🔸 The Shed Yard

Agriculture

🔹 Thunderstruck Ag
🔸 Farmers Edge
🔹 Copperhead Ag
🔸 MudSmith
🔹 Protexia

Other Industries

🔹 business consulting
🔸 estate planning services
🔹 real estate services
🔸 auto transport services
🔹 alternative medicine
🔸 cosmetic treatments
🔹 hotels & accommodations
🔸 Internet service providers
🔹 and many more


Our thriving agency has a proven reputation for getting results. We are passionate about growing our clients' businesses.

We also believe in sharing our successes with the less fortunate. That is why a portion of our revenue is donated to charities such as:

🔸 World Vision
🔹 Compassion
🔸 Destiny Rescue
🔹 Gospel for Asia
🔸 Ministerios Ancla de Amor (an orphanage in Mexico)
🔹 Adult & Teen Challenge
🔸 Eden Foundation
🔹 Needy families
🔸 Local churches
🔹 and various other organizations

We pride ourselves on being people with integrity. At the end of the day, we go home to our families, just like you. We are ethical people who work hard to earn an honest living. We do our best to help our valued clients.

Marissa Harder
Digital Marketing Manager
George Krahn
Founder & Business Strategist

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