However long you’ve been in business, chances are you’ve been let down by suppliers at some point—missed deadlines, disappointing delivery, budgets overrunning. Putting any part of your business in the hands of a third party is a risk, one which can be costly.
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Which is why, over the years, you’ve doubtless gone back to the same people for the same services; you know they can deliver. Peace of mind is essential, and rare, in the frenetic world of business.
We work in exactly the same way.
As one of The Marketing Centre’s team of 50 marketing directors, Gina Wessels is passionate about the importance of our tried, tested and, importantly, trusted network of advisors. This exclusive network is what we at The Marketing Centre call our little black book of contacts.
Gina Wessels: One of The Marketing Centre's network of marketing directors
If you’re romantically imagining a small, leather-bound tome of gold leaf-edged pages, beautifully inscribed with the names of the great and the good of business - think again. Our contacts are highly useful, not highly decorative. “The little black book is a metaphorical term,” enthuses Gina. “It’s a database of our trusted network of suppliers and partners and the collected knowledge of all the different consultants at The Marketing Centre. We each have our trusted contacts who help us deliver marketing projects. We have all worked with these people, so know that they deliver.”
Experience counts
As one of The Marketing Centre’s valued experts, Gina has a wealth of integrated marketing experience across Africa, the Middle East and Europe for big name brands such as Emirates, Barratt Homes and Blackberry. “We all have at least ten years of experience,” she says. “Collectively that’s hundreds of years’ worth of experience and contacts that, when you work with The Marketing Centre, you can tap into and benefit from. The biggest challenge for a marketing director is that you don’t often have the liberty of trying new and different agencies, you have to know that the people you are working with will deliver exactly the right product at exactly the right time.
“Some of our clients have never done marketing before, they don’t necessarily believe in it, but know that they have to do it. For them, it’s a bit of crystal ball stuff so there’s often a lot of hesitation and potentially even a lack of trust at the beginning of the project. Bringing a new agency on board and making sure that they deliver to the brief, that they deliver good quality work, right from the get-go, is absolutely fundamental to maintaining a good, long working relationship.”
Founder & Joint Managing Director of The Marketing Centre, Clare Methven concurs. “The little black book - or LBB as we call it - is only for third party suppliers of our marketing team who have been used before and who have done a great job,” Clare points out. “ It’s not for new or untried contacts, it’s not a list of potentials, and we systematically and as a matter of policy refuse all referral fees and kickbacks. That wouldn’t be in our customers’ interests, so it's not in our interests either.
“Rather, the LBB is to recognise those great people who have never let you down - you’ve used them on multiple projects and with multiple clients and are really happy to recommend them to people. ”
Clare Methven: Founder of The Marketing Centre
Gina and her fellow directors add selected contacts to The Marketing Centre’s online database. The methodology of an appraisal system supports their recommendations. “For any new business partner we bring on board, we assess them on a scorecard that has a range of different criteria from skill set and capability to size to cultural fit and general ethos and approach to their way of working,” explains Gina. “This ensures they are going to be the right fit with you as a long-term partner. If you haven’t got a structured framework against which to assess them, you have to default to a subjective point of view. This makes sure that you do a comprehensive review before recommending someone.”
A collective benefit
Gina doesn’t believe that a lone marketing director within a single business can offer the same volume of verified contacts and associated expertise that comes from being part of The Marketing Centre’s business model – a pool of permanent and part-time strategic marketers to grow ambitious businesses across a wide range of businesses.
“So many of the partners I work with or have worked with in the past have come through that referral network,” she reflects. “It [the LBB] helps across all elements of implementation of any marketing strategy, from branding agencies to digital agency partners and search engine optimisation agencies to printers and content agencies. And then, when it works well, I refer them back to people at The Marketing Centre. It is a continual vetting and assessment process so we’re contributing collectively to benefit our clients.”
As Clare concludes: “It’s worth noting that we always connect a supplier directly to a business and negotiate hard to ensure the business is getting a good price for the service provided. I get a lot of calls from suppliers wanting to get onto our LBB, but the only way they can is by befriending a marketing director and getting them to try them out a couple of times. Only then, if the marketing director rates them, can they join it.”
The LBB is just one of the benefits of working with a part time Marketing Director. To find out more about our team, click here. And to keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter.