A lot of business owners say they want our marketing expertise because they need “more business.”

The fact is, often they can’t handle more business.

As a rule, marketing brings leads, not sales. Someone is going to need to qualify and close those leads. If you don’t have manpower to follow-up quickly, those prospects will grow cold or worse yet, buy elsewhere. (Then your competitors will send you thank you notes for spending on marketing that builds their business.)

If you have sales in place but customer service or fulfillment is lacking you risk creating a disgruntled customer and losing any future revenue their repeat business might bring.

Do yourself a favor. Hire first. Build your operations into a fine-tuned machine. Then launch your fierce marketing efforts. Your leads will convert more quickly, and customers will be happier—and THAT will bring more business.