If you want to drive away your climate tech company’s first marketing hire, here’s the exact steps to follow:
1️⃣ Tell them exactly what to do (even though you have no marketing experience)
2️⃣ Change the sales/marketing game plan at least every couple of months
3️⃣ Ignore the importance of aligning the stakeholders who influence the company’s marketing direction
4️⃣ Set unrealistic annual goals for lead gen and sales revenue
5️⃣ Question and challenge every idea they suggest
6️⃣ Force them to focus on only the short-term wins (vs. the long-term brand strategy)
7️⃣ Give them a shoestring budget
8️⃣ Rationalize the meager budget by explaining that climate tech companies don’t really need marketing — everyone wants to do whatever they can to save the planet
9️⃣ Stop expanding the marketing team and add all your new hires to the sales team instead
1️⃣0️⃣ Keep their job title at “marketing manager” even though they’re doing the work of a marketing director (or higher)
1️⃣1️⃣ Message them hourly with your latest ideas for marketing projects
1️⃣2️⃣ Send them “urgent” last-minute creative requests on a daily basis
1️⃣3️⃣ Refuse to back them up when they tell anyone “No” or “This has to wait”
What’s #14?