How to Get Marketers to ‘Ditch the Fluffy Talk’

This slightly controversial article was originally featured in Financial Director magazine.

Sceptical about your marketing director’s ability to deliver value for money from your company’s marketing strategy? It’s time to get them to ditch the fluffy talk, says Hannah McNamara

NEARLY THREE quarters of chief executives think marketers lack credibility in the boardroom, according to a 2011 report by marketing group Fournaise. Given this view, it’s worrying that 69% of the marketers surveyed “feel their strategies and campaigns do make an impact on the company’s business, even though they can’t precisely quantify or prove it”.

Not surprisingly, the report sparked considerable debate in marketing forums on LinkedIn, as well as prompting Marketing Week to run a follow-up article in which marketers responded to the allegation that they weren’t commercial enough.

With marketing budgets under scrutiny and finance departments keener than ever to see a return on investment, this disconnect in how marketers see themselves and how they are perceived by the rest of the boardroom is a concern. So how can finance directors get marketers to ditch the fluffy talk and quantify the value of the work they do?

1. Remind them of the 4Ps of marketing

One of the fundamental models of marketing is the marketing mix, [Click here to read the rest of this article]

Bad Work Habits That Damage Careers

I was recently interviewed for Student Accountant magazine, published by the ACCA about ‘Bad Work Habits That Damage Careers‘.

You can read the full article at Student Accountant and it appears on pages 12 and 13.

Click here to read the article

How to Negotiate Like a Pro

This article by Hannah McNamara originally appeared in Talk Business magazine.

It doesn’t matter whether you negotiate every day or once in a blue moon, the ability to get the best deals and prices when buying is crucial for the savvy business owner and entrepreneur.

Here are just a few of the many negotiating techniques which have proven to be very effective when buying goods and services.  They are designed to help you when negotiating with even the most persuasive sales people.

Don’t say you’re the decision-maker (even if you are)

When the seller knows you’re the decision maker you’re cornered.  They’ll push you to… [Click here to read the full article]

Home from your hols? It’s time to start a new life!

Hannah McNamara was one of the coaches featured in this article in the Daily Mail.

Last night, my friend Lucy announced that she’s going to move to somewhere called Cinque Terre. It’s in the Italian Riviera apparently and it’s where she and her husband John have just spent ten blissful days on holiday. 

‘You’d love it,’ she told me and two other friends over a bottle of wine, her tan still glowing. ‘It’s so beautiful… the sun, the coffee, the wine… even tomatoes taste like heaven over there.

‘And Italians really know how to live. What are we all doing here in the rain, in jobs we hate with mortgages we can’t afford?

‘We’ve seen a place we could turn into a boutique hotel. John would…

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2033696/Home-hols-Its-time-start-new-life.html#ixzz1ZuWPTAjb

Emotional Bankruptcy Article

It’s always a pleasure working with Eve Menezes Cunningham and she recently asked me to contribute to an article she was putting together titled ‘Emotional Bankruptcy’.

You can read the article which appears in the Autumn issue of Rapport Magazine [here]