You hired a general marketing person to fix your messaging problem.
Three weeks in, they're redesigning your website footer and asking whether the LinkedIn banner should be blue or teal.
You're paying them to make decisions you don't want to make. Complete abdication! You're not alone.
Here's what you're thinking: "If I hire someone smart enough, they'll figure out what we should be saying to the market."
They won't. Because you haven't told them what your product/service actually does, who it's for, or why anyone should care.
I've seen this so many times:
Your VP of Sales says one thing.
Your Head of Product says another.
You say a third thing depending on who's in the room.
And your poor marketer defaults to safe: blog posts nobody reads, graphics nobody asked for, and a content calendar that makes you look busy while your pipeline stays empty.
Marketing people can't invent your strategy alone. They can't pull your core message out of thin air while your leadership team is still fighting about whether you're a "platform" or a "solution."
Here's what I see works most effectively:
Spend two hours writing down what your product does and who it's for. Not positioning. Not vision. Just the truth in plain language.
Test it on three customers. YES...actually talk to your customers. Ask them to repeat it back. Fix what confuses them.
Now you, your team, and your marketer know what they're saying. Now they can do their job.
Your marketer stops guessing. Your content actually connects to revenue. And you stop wondering why you're paying someone to make Instagram carousels when you need pipeline.
If your marketing hire is stuck because your messaging is broken, DM me.
ALT Eric Moore headshot. Handsome devil.