Brett Puffenbarger’s Post

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Bridging the Gap from Bong to Boardroom | Fractional & Contract CMO/CRO | 🌱 Cannabis Industry Communications & Business Development 🌱 | USMC Veteran 🦅🌎⚓️ | Appalachian American

Want to know the biggest mistake I see #cannabisindustry operators making? It's not understanding the graphic below 👇 I see it time and again. "We need marketing" followed by "Why aren't they closing sales." Or "Why won't this PR agency guarantee me article placements?" Or "I hired a sales team and it's working for our wholesale business, but not doing a thing for retail" The list of examples could go on for a bit... The reality is: Every. Single. Cannabis. Company. Needs. It. All. They just don't know that. They THINK they need 1 or 2 of them, and then some slick sales person promises them the world. They sign on with a marketing agency expecting sales, or a publicist expecting advertising, or SOMETHING like that. 6 months later the account rep is catching heat for it. The business owner is mad and likely hurting in the pocketbook region. The agency's reputation is damaged. Or... They hire a new CMO and expect them to run a sales team, or they hire a new VP of sales and wonder why the marketing calendar is hurting and all the article pitches keep getting rejected. Or... They hire someone and expect them to do 5 jobs, or they hire an agency and expect the same level of commitment as an employee. Or. Or. Or. Many Scenarios. Same Errors. Every Time. And it's always the operator's fault. ALWAYS. It's their duty to ask the right questions. Here's my three best tips to start you off right: 1.) Clearly explain your goals, and ensure any KPIs align with them. Want more sales? Tie success to that metric alone, and make sure you get a detailed explanation about how each planned activity drives towards that goal. 2.) Agency's scale faster, Internal Teams scale better. Early stage companies need strategy internally and to contract out the work, late stage companies need to contract out the diversity of thought (and occasionally the work). Hire accordingly. 3.) Think holistically. CROs and Rev Ops people get a bad rap for being "just another sales guy" but with some spreadsheets... and that just isn't the case. A good CRO (Even a fractional one, or an agency filling that role) is the glue that holds the front end of a business together. Find one of those and you can ignore the rest of this post. Have any other tips on this topic? Drop them in the comments 👇 Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by a former sales person who got a master's in PR (that he rarely uses) and parades around as a marketer (and somehow people believe it). 🤷♂️ Take it with a grain of salt. 🧂

  • PR ≠ Marketing

Marketing ≠ Sales

Sales ≠ Customer Success

Revenue Operations = PR + Marketing + Sales + Customer Success
Marc Emmelmann

Founder of Vet Mother Earth | CMO of Brothers Grimm Seeds | Children’s Music Creator (Joyride Tunes)

7mo

CEO oversees all aspects of the business, including revenue generation, strategic direction, leadership, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, operational efficiency, innovation, and risk management. A successful CEO needs to have a broad understanding of the business landscape and be able to effectively balance and prioritize various responsibilities to drive overall growth and success. Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) titles started gaining popularity in the late 2000s and early 2010’s in tech companies and startups. It emerged as businesses focused more on aligning sales, marketing, and customer success efforts to drive overall revenue growth. I think you described this well. Nevertheless — Mark Stevens, a marketing and management expert and author of Your Marketing Sucks insists the only C’s with “real” power are the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and, occasionally, Chief Operating Officer.

Richard Rose

Hemp OG. Inc 500 in 1993. Pioneer in Hemp’s first billion-dollar segment, food. Vegan food producer since 1980, Hemp food since 1994. Consult the Hemp Consultant your Hemp Consultant consults.

7mo

Branding ≠ Marketing. Authentic > Fauxthentic Marketing. But how do we market ethically in an alt-fact, post-modern, “left=right, up=down” society?

Christine Corbissero

Director at Spark* Your Brand where we appreciate the value of your time, and we won’t waste it. Everything, from our fee structure to our scalability, is designed to provide the maximum impact for our client.

7mo

Thank you for explaining this for the masses. Nothing more infuriating than when you try to explain this to a leadership team and they say. "Well marketing and PR is the same thing"

Steven Ernest

Vice President at Chicago Atlantic

7mo

This is why industries consolidate. When you are a small, new company, people have to wear many hats. The most efficient operations have scaled SG&A that have people with individual power alleys. It’s very difficult to compete against someone with far more experience and ability to focus.

Lisa Schaefer

Growth-focused marketing leader with expertise in B2C and B2B, driving impact in consumer goods and emerging industries.

7mo

Amen!

David Dare

🌱Cannabis Centric Payroll and HR | 🎯Sr. Solutions Expert | Specializing in Cannabis Payroll, HR, Benefits Administration, and Retirement

7mo

👍

Cynthia Tantum

VP at Bennabis Health | Healthcare Communications & Marketing

7mo

Precisely. But it's not just about understanding the different roles, but creating the right team environment, the same message and brand positioning.

Sean Welsh

Founder, Car Biz Done Better and Host of 5mins with Sean Maybe 10 & The Cannabiz Conversations Podcasts

7mo

Truth all day here. It's an ecosystem not a silo

Lisa Williams

Revolutionizing cannabis dispensaries with groovy brand strategies that make the cash register go Cha-Ching!

7mo

Brett Puffenbarger, MA, CCCE thank you. Can you say it louder! You need an ecosystem!

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