Commercial decision support · market, agency, hiring or launch

Before you spend more, make the commercial decision clear.

01 · Hiring

“We need a Head of Marketing—but do we know the job we need done?”

Head of Marketing can mean five jobs: build the brand, create demand, fix operations, lead the team, make sales and marketing work together. One hire rarely does all five. Agree the mandate, the authority and the first-year objective, and the search gets shorter.

Proof — Tyk: Built and led the marketing team from 10 to 20, owning a £6m+ marketing P&L and £7m+ inbound pipeline. Wrote the role briefs and scorecards behind those hires.

Status: Green

02 · Agency

“We need an agency—but our brief is still unclear.”

A good agency will improve a clear brief. It cannot decide which customer matters most, what proof makes your message credible, or what sales does when interest appears. Those decisions come first.

Proof — EREA and cleverbridge: Ran the full agency selection at EREA, brief to decision. Selected the martech stack and built the account-based programme at cleverbridge.

Status: Green

03 · Launch or expansion

“We are launching or expanding—but sales and marketing are not yet aligned.”

A new market exposes whatever was already unclear at home. Agree the buyer, the message and the hand-off before the launch date, not after the first quarter.

Proof — AYA Energy: Brought in because leads were not converting into enough deals, fast enough. Set the discipline: one qualification standard, one hand-off, one weekly review. Also: demand generation across 19 countries at Iron Mountain, and a revenue marketing centre across 10+ countries at World Courier.

Status: Amber

What we work out together

The commercial job to be done, in one sentence the board and team both recognise.
Who owns it, and with what authority.
What you have evidence for, and what you are assuming.
What success looks like in the first 90 days.
Whether the answer is a hire, a partner, a defined piece of work — or waiting.

What you leave with

A written decision record: the choice, the reasoning, what was ruled out.
A brief your recruiter, agency or team can work from directly.
An agreed first set of actions, with named owners and dates.

Talk it through

If a decision like this is in front of you, share the context. If I can help, I will say how. If I cannot, I will say that too.

Start the conversation