Growth, Accelerated.

Any B2B business with revenue > $2M per year, that is ready to spend 10% of their monthly revenue on marketing. The key here is the desire for the company to scale their revenue, and be ready to invest in their growth.

Typicall this ends up being B2B Marketing agencies or B2B SaaS/services companies looking to scale their sales & marketing engines.

Ideally, they have a marketing/sales team in-house – and if not, I can help them build those departments out as well, if of interest.

Mostly, yes. However, if you’re beyond the start-up or scale-up mode, feel like your growth has plateaued, and you’re ready to change it – I can help solve that. Again, the key factor here is your desire to grow & invest – if that’s there, I can make it a reality.

Absolutely. My goal is to supercharge your team, and eventually walk away when you’re smashing your goals. This includes working with your current team, hiring new staff members, exiting current staff (if needed) and assisting with training and beyond.

For the most part, no. You’ll find a lot better and cheaper resources to do the execution. My role is to create a robust strategy that will,without a doubt, accelerate your revenue. Plus, I will monitor, coach and maximize the returns you get from the “executors” and your team.

Absolutely. After 1000s of interviews over time, I’ll help you find and hire top-notch talent to fuel your growth. Plus, I will leverage my network to connect you to the best agencies and contractors that will help you kick your goals.

Firstly, am I the cheapest? No. Will I give you the best chance of supercharging your growth? Absolutely. Remember – 50% of the hires you make, will likely fail. There’s a lot of time & money wasted in the process. Get it right from the get-go, with proven experts.

As your business gets ready to scale, it helps to have a B2B marketing consultant who’s been there and done that.

Whether it’s a marketing consultant in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, or elsewhere – location doesn’t REALLY matter; as far as they have the right expertise and attitude to work with your business.

Hiring an expert B2B marketing consultant can help you get to where you want to be, a lot faster. Whether it’s the overall strategy/expertise you need, or increasing awareness, traffic & conversions – you can get to the end outcome, in the most efficient way possible.

But how do you know which B2B marketing consultant to choose? (i.e., am I a good fit for you? Or are you better off exploring other options?)

So, here’s an overview of a few things to look out for when you’re making the call – what do you look for in a specialist, what are the benefits of having a consultant on your team, and what to expect in terms of cost.

Read on to learn more about finding the right B2B marketing consultant for your business.

Benefits of Hiring a B2B Marketing Consultant

Whether you are a start-up business or an established company, hiring a B2B marketing consultant or a B2B marketing agency can help expedite your scale.

By now, you’ve probably tried a few things yourself – but, it’s not giving you the outcomes you want.

It’s often not about the “what you do” it all comes down to the “how”

Most business leaders “get” marketing, but when it comes to applying it to their own business – just haven’t figured out how to make it sustainable.

A well-versed B2B marketing consultant, with deep experience in your industry can help here; not only when it comes to the strategy & execution – but also, equally, when it comes to holding you accountable for your success.

I might be stating the obvious here – not too dissimilar to a personal trainer, it just helps to have someone by your side to help ensure you’re focusing on the RIGHT things.
Here are some key benefits of having a marketing consultant work alongside your team:

1. Save time & money – instead of trying everything under the sun, know exactly what to focus on that will move the needle the most. By working with a B2B marketing consultant, you’ll spend a lot less time trying to “figure out” where to focus, and instead get straight into focusing on the things that will make an impact. Tap into decades of knowledge and skills to help you plan and implement effective B2B marketing strategies with fewer resources.

2. Increase brand awareness – when you think about it, there are only a handful of ways you can do this. However, a B2B marketing consultant can help you focus on the RIGHT campaigns (copy, creative & strategy) to maximise the impact of channels like Meta, Linkedin, SEO, Google Ads, Content & beyond. With access to experts who understand the nuances of the B2B marketing landscape, you can get in front of your “ideal client profile” a lot sooner.

3. Diversify your lead generation sources – if you’re relying way too much on one of too channels (e.g.: referrals & word of mouth), it’s time to diversify. Putting all your eggs in one basket will eventually burn you – and you’ll find that new business revenue from clients becomes very unpredictable as a result. Working with the right B2B marketing consultant can help you understand the right channels to invest in, the right approach to take to each one of these channels, and the right way to “de-risk” yourself from overreliance on leads from one or two key channels. Remember to invest in digital marketing, offline marketing, outbound, and partnerships marketing too – never lean too heavily into one source of leads.

4. Establishing the right foundation for growth – A B2B marketing consultant has been around long enough to know that short “bursts” of marketing amount to nothing. Success comes down to consistency, having a well-informed marketing strategy, a single source of truth, and strong alignment between sales & marketing. The first 6 months of your efforts when scaling should be invested towards this foundation, without which you will not scale sustainably, and you’ll eventually abandon all marketing efforts. Put effort up front, and reap the rewards later.

Enlisting someone who specialises in B2B marketing consulting, and understands your market can have a considerable effect on your business – don’t underestimate the impact of “marketing done well” on your growth trajectory. It’ll likely take up to 2 years for you to realise its fullest potential – but when it does kick in, the results are well worth the wait.

Assessing Your Needs for a B2B Marketing Consultant

Your Current Level of Knowledge

Be very aware of your level of knowledge – your strengths and your weaknesses. Often, the main reason for a marketing strategy failing is that business leaders “get in the way”, and derail the marketing momentum.

Hire experts, let them take you through their thinking, and then let them do their thing.

If they come with a long track record of success (check out their reviews & case studies) – make sure you empower them to succeed, instead of standing in their way. Help them understand your market, and work hand in hand with them to scale results.

Even things you might be an “expert” at – remember it’s a whole different ball game when it comes to implementing this in your own company.

Trust the process, be clear about your target market, agree on key KPIs, be patient, and forget (almost) everything you think you know. Building a marketing engine will often defy your preconceived notions – be ready.

The Goals You Want to Achieve

Having said that, don’t let your experienced B2B marketing consultant run around willy-nilly either 🙂

Whether it’s a short-term marketing project or an ongoing retainer – make sure that, even before you get started, you’ve agreed on clear expectations and outcomes for 6-12 months ahead.

Marketing consultants who have been in the game for a while, and worked with many similar customers, and will be able to set clear expectations on marketing ROI in the forthcoming months.

Centre this around a few key KPIs as follows

• # of marketing qualified leads per month

• $ value of pipeline generated from marketing efforts

• $ value of deals won from marketing efforts (and number of customers won too)

And as you progress, ensure you receive weekly & monthly reports on the above.

Expect it to take about 6 months before you start seeing positive outcomes, and about 12 months for you to be over the moon with the results.

Each channel varies in the roles they play – so set your expectations accordingly (e.g.: whilst Google Ads can show a clear pathway to deals won, channels like Meta will play more of an awareness role, and rarely show leads/deals won. However, Meta plays a critical role in “creating” demand for your product/service & accelerating leads via Google and other channels)

Also, pay close attention to the amount of time the B2B marketing consultant spends upfront getting to know your business. The elite marketing consultants will likely spend a few months getting to know you, and truly assessing whether they can help your business (and even if now is the right time for you to engage with them).

Look for a very deep discovery session, quite a lengthy sales cycle, and a lack of “desperation”. If anything is painted by the numbers, it’s likely to be less effective. Every business is unique, and unlike many industries, you can’t create a “template” for success. It requires a lot of deep digging, hands-on analysis, and carefully crafted thinking to help scale your business to the next level.

Using Reference Checks and Online Reviews

For a business like yours, there’s a LOT on the line when it comes to hiring the right B2B marketing consultant for your business.

Find the right fit, and you’re setting yourself up to scale for years to come.

Find the wrong fit, and you’ve wasted tens of thousands of dollars, and you need to hit reboot to recover.

It’s an incredibly expensive mistake to make – so choose wisely.

There are many “overnight” agency and B2B marketing consultants – so delve deep into their history, no matter how impressive their ads/pitch sounds.

Always ask for a few past references – from customers who look similar to you.

Speak to those references, and get a real feel for how the B2B Marketing consultant engaged with the business day to day.

Some things to assess:

• Did they help with anything beyond marketing consulting? Did they delve into consulting across sales, operations, HR, leadership coaching & more?

• Do they deliver results?

• How hands-on were they?

• How quickly do they respond?

• Do they go above and beyond, even if it wasn’t in scope?

• Do they care about lead generation only, or do they also focus on brand initiatives?

• And lastly, do they fit in “culturally” with the team? This is so important & yet often overlooked. The last thing you want is for someone to come in, “bulldoze” your team and demotivate your employees in the process.

   

Before you jump in with two feet – do your research online, check out their reviews, and speak to a few references. You’ll save yourself a lot of heartbreak and effort down the track.

Defining the Scope of Work and Deliverables

Identifying the Types of Services You Need

Often you’ll find that a good B2B Marketing consultant does a LOT more than just marketing. And even within marketing, there are so many layers to consider as well.

Marketing services:

• SEO

• Google Ads management

• Social Media Marketing (Meta, Linkedin, etc)

• Content creation (blogging)

• Copywriting (ads & short form copy)

• Design services (mainly for ads, but also for the website & other assets)

• HubSpot implementation

• Project management

• Email marketing

• Lead Generation

• Brand awareness

• & lots more

Non-marketing services:

• Sales & marketing alignment

• Org structure advisory

• Sales Coaching

• Sales enablement

• Recruitment strategy

• HR Strategy

• Leadership/founder coaching

So, delve deep into their offering, and be very clear with the services you need.

Whilst Wasif Kasim Consulting tends to offer all the above – many business marketing consultants may specialise only in a specific subset.

As a result – be very clear with what you need (often the consultant should help you figure this out), and pick a consultant that fits the bill accordingly.

Expectations and Requirements

There should be no surprises when it comes to expectations.

Make sure you ask the business marketing consultant to put together an in-depth 6 to 12-month plan.

This should include a rough scope of work for each month (or quarter), as well as very clear requirements from their end on what they need to succeed.

As mentioned earlier – a big part of a B2B consultant’s success will be how well you empower them to kick goals. So, go out of your way to ask them what they need to succeed, and ensure you’re equipping them with it.

Then, as mentioned above as well, set clear KPIs – and off we go.

Remember, like any symbiotic relationship – the outcomes are only as good as what you put in. Success is 50% you, and 50% the B2B marketing consultant.

You know your ideal customer better than anyone; collab closely, and you’ll see good gains (or worse comes to worst, you’ll quickly figure out the consultant isn’t for you, and let go of them quickly).

Stay close to the consultant – it’s critical to success.

Figuring Out a Budget

Determining Your Marketing Budget

Given B2B consultants have been doing this for quite a long time – they should be able to give you fairly realistic expectations for budgets from the get-go.

Note that if this varies considerably after you start with the consultant, this is a big red flag.

You should receive detailed recommendations on lead generation channels to use, as well as a rough monthly spend for each.

Furthermore, needless to say, they should also account for their costs, as well. any contractors or support resources required to get you the agreed outcomes.

Everything should be neatly summarised on one page for mutual discussion, and any tweaking as needed.

Auditing Your Current Costs

This might seem basic, but you’d be surprised how many companies don’t know how much they spend on marketing, nor are they fully aware of their current marketing activities.

Marketing expenses are often spread across various ledgers, and/or random items are tucked into the marketing budgets because the business wasn’t quite sure where to put them.

For your B2B marketing consultant, having an audited & accurate view of your current marketing costs (including and excluding headcount) is critical.

Please ensure this is ready and accurate – as a good B2B marketing consultant will be looking to improve the overall marketing costs vs revenue gained ratio, and will require these figures to support.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, hiring the right B2B marketing consultant is a big move.

It’s most likely one of the quickest pathways for you to scale your business – and then, when the time is right, completely in-house your marketing efforts eventually as well (goodbye consultant, hello full-time marketing manager).

Having said that, don’t rush it.

Timing is key – i.e., you need to have the bandwidth to work hand in hand with them.

And –

Doing your research is critical. Speak to a few references, and assess the quality of interactions during the sales process to see if they’d be a good fit for your business long term.

Good luck, happy hiring, and feel free to reach out if you need a pointer or two.

A lot. I firmly believe that you need a 360 degree approach to growth, and that focusing purely on sales and marketing is not a sustainable way to grow.

As such, my expertise ranges across B2B sales, marketing, retention, HR, and operations – where I like to look at your business as a whole to help you scale your revenue long term.

I tend to start with the marketing & sales departments and spend about 3-6 months within. Post this, I work closely with your retention arm, and your HR arms to scale their operations as well.