Employment Marketing job: leave or stay?

romanwfw

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Jun 16, 2005
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Hi everyone

Job role: Graduated with business degree (marketing) at RMIT mid 2013. Secured sales support/marketing role August 2013 for large European multinational with small (20-30ppl) Australian office (Melbourne location). Business is an OEM of specialist industrial equipment; we deal purely on B2B basis. I didn't know anything about the product when I started this role but learnt on the job.

My job functions include:
- generate leads according to the company goals
- organise and prepare marketing campaigns (telemarketing, print, marketing press releases, EDM/DM, events, etc.)

I am the sole marketing employee in the Australian branch, working closely with the sales team (esp. national sales manager), but reporting directly to the MD

Situation problem:
I've recently become aware (through the MD) that he is displeased with my lack of lead generation and he has verbally informed me (on two separate occasions) that this is something I need to rectify.

He's old school, so if you do a good job, he won't praise you but you know it's a good job because he didn't say anything. I know I'm doing a good job with the marketing side of my job, and I know I'm doing a bad job with the lead generation side of my job.

Lead generation in this company involves:
- investigating current and upcoming projects/tenders
- talking to relevant parties and getting spec. docs
- accessing project and working with engineering team to verify capability
- passing on fully fledged lead to sales team

I will admit that I'm woefully up to my head with lead generation. I haven't studied for it, I have no-one to turn to in the company for guidance and support. I'm not one to shirk from the task at hand but I don't have a experienced tender manager to show me even the ropes! I'm basically having to learn to apply for tenders from scratch.

The options as I see it:

1. Persevere with current role and try to gain lots of experience. Will probably end up getting let go in 3-4months if I continue not producing enough good leads

2. Look for another role; but this time be very selective and choose something which is pure marketing. I have fallen for the typical undergraduate trap of jumping at the 1st semi-relevant position that was offered to me.

I know that most marketing roles nowadays involves some lead generation component but in my eyes, project tendering is a more specialised skill and far different from the lead generation that I understand. Also, I would love to learn about tendering and obviously build my skill-set but this would only work if I have a manager to teach/guide me.

I haven't even been in this role for a year so even if I want to apply for another marketing job, do you guys that less than 1years experience is too short??

Mitigating factors: I'm getting married in May, have already had 4 weeks leave approved from work

Thank you for reading, I hope you guys can help a brother in need
 

quickstraw

Club Legend
Oct 6, 2001
2,351
890
E-Girls
Hi everyone

Job role: Graduated with business degree (marketing) at RMIT mid 2013. Secured sales support/marketing role August 2013 for large European multinational with small (20-30ppl) Australian office (Melbourne location). Business is an OEM of specialist industrial equipment; we deal purely on B2B basis. I didn't know anything about the product when I started this role but learnt on the job.

My job functions include:
- generate leads according to the company goals
- organise and prepare marketing campaigns (telemarketing, print, marketing press releases, EDM/DM, events, etc.)

I am the sole marketing employee in the Australian branch, working closely with the sales team (esp. national sales manager), but reporting directly to the MD

Situation problem:
I've recently become aware (through the MD) that he is displeased with my lack of lead generation and he has verbally informed me (on two separate occasions) that this is something I need to rectify.

He's old school, so if you do a good job, he won't praise you but you know it's a good job because he didn't say anything. I know I'm doing a good job with the marketing side of my job, and I know I'm doing a bad job with the lead generation side of my job.

Lead generation in this company involves:
- investigating current and upcoming projects/tenders
- talking to relevant parties and getting spec. docs
- accessing project and working with engineering team to verify capability
- passing on fully fledged lead to sales team

I will admit that I'm woefully up to my head with lead generation. I haven't studied for it, I have no-one to turn to in the company for guidance and support. I'm not one to shirk from the task at hand but I don't have a experienced tender manager to show me even the ropes! I'm basically having to learn to apply for tenders from scratch.

The options as I see it:

1. Persevere with current role and try to gain lots of experience. Will probably end up getting let go in 3-4months if I continue not producing enough good leads

2. Look for another role; but this time be very selective and choose something which is pure marketing. I have fallen for the typical undergraduate trap of jumping at the 1st semi-relevant position that was offered to me.

I know that most marketing roles nowadays involves some lead generation component but in my eyes, project tendering is a more specialised skill and far different from the lead generation that I understand. Also, I would love to learn about tendering and obviously build my skill-set but this would only work if I have a manager to teach/guide me.

I haven't even been in this role for a year so even if I want to apply for another marketing job, do you guys that less than 1years experience is too short??

Mitigating factors: I'm getting married in May, have already had 4 weeks leave approved from work

Thank you for reading, I hope you guys can help a brother in need

1. Your manager isn't old school. He wants results just like every other sales manager.
2. They have you doing a "marketing role" but make no mistake, you are in a sales role.
3. Your manager has verbally told you twice to lift the quantity of leads. Make no mistake, if you don't you will get sacked.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Start looking at Seek. Keep your eye on what's out there. Apply only for really appealing jobs. Make sure you clarify in any interviews exactly what your duties are so you can screen out any sales roles.
2. Even though you want to do marketing it doesn't hurt to learn how the lead generation works. I'd suggest giving it a red hot go until you can find another job. There's only upside in this, even if you fail.
3. Speak to someone in the sales team. Ask them what the last dude did. Did he have a script? How many calls did he make? Did he have a target? What's a reasonable amount of leads per week? is there any low hanging fruit? As in, what size jobs and clients should I be targeting? Who prepares the tender docs?
4. Depending on his answers:

Develop a script
Target low hanging fruit
Use your marketing skills to make the tender doc look better
Develop a RAD list of your customers (split them into Retain, Acquire, Develop)

I assume you're using something like Cordell's or BCI. Work out the easiest targets, call them when a job comes up (speak to Project Manager or Contracts Manager) and ask them if your company can quote the job or if one of the reps can meet with them.

You can get scripts off google probably. Same with how to set out a tender doc (I assume you set up the doc, the sales and tech guys fill it in). Make sure you build a list of all the contacts you speak to (in xl). Also set up a pipeline (sales guys will show you how) because you will have to call people back. Also, don't leave messages for people to call you back until you are quite sure they're never going to answer their phone)


So basically, drop the marketing stuff for now, spend 100% of your time on sales (lead gen), give it a red hot go (you will learn invaluable stuff related to marketing), and at the same time keep your eye on the job market.
 
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