YoStella: Build a Better Business - Inspiration for Improving Your Brand, Marketing & People
Each year on Fat Tuesday, New Orleans throws a “Stella and Stanley” party. This annual event honors local boy and world-famous author Tennessee Williams and his masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire.
The movie version is notorious for the scene where Stanley, Marlon Brando in a tight white vest, yells “Stella-a-a-a-a-!” up the tenement stairs to his wife. “Stella” might be the most repeated movie line ever and Brando never needed to act again except, he said, for the money. Like a legendary actor, businesses need to cultivate their craft: building an amazing brand, elevating creativity, and growing authentic connections.
At StellaPop, we believe every business has a masterpiece in them.
YoStella: Build a Better Business - Inspiration for Improving Your Brand, Marketing & People
The Hidden Cost of Cutting Marketing
"Why Cutting Marketing and Sales Is Like Taking the Batteries Out of Your Flashlight" by StellaPop argues strongly against reducing marketing and sales efforts, especially during challenging economic times. It emphasizes that these functions are not optional luxuries but critical drivers for business growth and visibility. The text likens cutting these budgets to self-sabotage, asserting that reducing outreach directly translates to fewer opportunities and lost momentum. Instead of cutting, the article suggests optimizing existing strategies to ensure continued relevance and revenue generation.
Hello and welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we're tackling something that well. It keeps a lot of leaders up at night CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs you know who you are, especially when budgets get tight, pressure's high. Oh yeah, that instinct that almost like magnetic pull to cut back. Specifically, we're talking marketing and sales.
Speaker 2:The first place people often look.
Speaker 1:Right, and on paper it can seem so strategic, you know. Let's just pause the ads for a bit.
Speaker 2:Fold off of that email campaign. Save some cash.
Speaker 1:Exactly Feels responsible. A quick fix, but our source material today, including this great piece, why cutting marketing and sales is like taking the batteries out of your flashlight? Well, it argues something very different.
Speaker 2:A very counterintuitive point actually.
Speaker 1:It says these aren't luxuries, they're absolutely crucial levers for your business. So our mission today uncover why. What are the real costs, the hidden costs of pulling back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's totally understandable that initial reaction. You see a cost center, times are lean, you want to trim it. Leaders are wired for efficiency, of course.
Speaker 1:Optimize everything.
Speaker 2:But and this is the crucial bit, our sources really hammer home. For any business that actually wants growth, wants to sustain growth, marketing and sales, they play by different rules. Think of it like the engine of your business, that growth engine. It runs on volume and velocity Some mute and velocity Okay yeah. And velocity Some mute and velocity Okay yeah. So when you start pulling parts out or even just, you know, slowing that engine down, you risk the whole thing just grinding to a halt.
Speaker 1:In the relentless pursuit of efficiency. What hidden costs might leaders truly overlook, leaving future opportunities behind?
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's unpack this, let's get into the mechanics. Our source material starts with this core truth Marketing and sales. Fundamentally, it's a numbers game.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Pure numbers.
Speaker 2:It describes the sales funnel not just as some abstract diagram, but as a sequence, a chain reaction. Think about it. You start with impressions, right? People seeing your brand.
Speaker 1:Top of the funnel.
Speaker 2:Those hopefully become clicks, then those clicks become leads. People raising their hand basically become clicks, Then those clicks become leads People raising their hand basically Exactly, then those leads. You nurture them into conversations, real interactions.
Speaker 1:Building that relationship.
Speaker 2:And finally those conversations turn into conversions. You know the sale, the new customer, Revenue.
Speaker 1:That's the goal.
Speaker 2:Now here's the kicker for leaders considering cuts the goal. Now here's the kicker for leaders considering cuts when you pause or slow down any part of that process, trimming the ad budget, reducing outreach. You're not just saving a few bucks, you are physically breaking that chain.
Speaker 1:You're interrupting the flow.
Speaker 2:Yes, you directly impact the volume of opportunities coming in. It's stark really. The math is simple, as the source says, but the consequences huge.
Speaker 1:Less input.
Speaker 2:Less output period.
Speaker 1:And that simple math has really complex downstream effects. The source uses this great analogy fewer shots, fewer goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that, like sports.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Imagine a basketball team. They want to win desperately, but they decide, hey, let's take fewer shots. We'll just be, you know, more afferent with the ones we take.
Speaker 2:That sounds ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Right, because the scoreboard, it doesn't care one bit about your shooting efficiency percentage if you're not putting points up. It only cares about points. So for founders, for CEOs, listening, if you want more sales, more growth, you need more chances, more at-bats. That means more outreach, it means more visibility, more touch points. You have to be seen.
Speaker 2:You have to take the shots.
Speaker 1:You have to take the shots. And cutting back here it's not just about the immediate sale you might lose today, it gets deeper. Think about your customer acquisition cost your CAC. When your pipeline things out because you cut marketing, your CAC starts creeping up. Each new customer becomes more expensive.
Speaker 2:Ah OK.
Speaker 1:So time and long term it even hits your customer lifetime value, your CLV, because you're just not building those relationships, not getting those repeat buys or upsells.
Speaker 2:So it's not strategy.
Speaker 1:It's self-sabotage really. You're actively hindering your own ability to score.
Speaker 2:OK, ok. But I could hear the counter argument already, the really pragmatic leader saying look, we're not just cutting blindly, we're cutting waste.
Speaker 1:And that's a fair point. It really is.
Speaker 2:Our source acknowledges that Throwing money at bad marketing stuff that doesn't work, that is waste. Nobody's defending that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. Strategic spending is key.
Speaker 2:But here's the critical difference. The source makes Right. The solution to inefficiency isn't just slashing everything, it's optimizing, it's getting smarter.
Speaker 1:Right, fixing the leak, not turning off the water.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. If your ads aren't converting, don't just switch them off. You dig in. Tweak the targeting, change the creative.
Speaker 1:Maybe you misunderstood the audience tweak the targeting, change the creative Maybe you misunderstood the audience.
Speaker 2:Or test different platforms, yes. Or if your emails have terrible open rates, don't stop sending emails. You rework the subject lines, you test different calls to action, you segment your list better.
Speaker 1:Get more relevant to smaller groups.
Speaker 2:Precisely. If the sales team isn't booking calls, don't cut their resources. You refine the pitch. You improve how you qualify leads. Maybe you invest in better tools for them.
Speaker 1:Sharpen the saw basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the source even points to examples where companies took just a small fraction of the money they would have cut, invested it in really rigorous A-B testing, digging into the data, and actually boosted conversion rates from the remaining activities by like 20%.
Speaker 1:Wow, so doing less, but doing it much, much better.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. Cutting back completely it isn't fixing anything, it's just a retreat.
Speaker 1:And that retreat? Well, it happens in a competitive world, doesn't it? It means you're giving up ground, You're creating a vacuum.
Speaker 2:And someone else fills it.
Speaker 1:Almost certainly Someone who is still spending, still pushing, still visible. Almost certainly Someone who is still spending, still pushing, still visible. Our source talks about this concept visibility viability and it sounds simple, but it's profound. It's more than just a saying, it's a business reality. If people aren't seeing your brand consistently, if they're not hearing from you, they will forget you or, worse, never know you existed. Because marketing it's not just about that immediate lead, that sale today. It's about building brand equity, staying relevant, keeping your name top of mind for when people are ready.
Speaker 2:Even if they're not buying right now.
Speaker 1:Especially if they're not buying. Right now You're nurturing, you're building trust. So if you disappear for six months to save cash, what happens when that prospect you almost had is finally ready to pull the trigger?
Speaker 2:They call someone else.
Speaker 1:They call someone else. They call the company that was still there, still visible, still talking to them. As the source puts it rather bluntly, they're not calling the ghost.
Speaker 2:Right, the ghost company gets no calls.
Speaker 1:Zero.
Speaker 2:And it connects to this other crucial idea from the source material Momentum.
Speaker 1:Ah, yes.
Speaker 2:Huge Sales and marketing. They aren't like light switches you just flick on and off whenever you feel like it?
Speaker 1:No, definitely not.
Speaker 2:They're momentum driven Deeply. So All that consistent effort, you know, posting content, running promotions, publishing insights, connecting with people.
Speaker 1:The daily grind.
Speaker 2:It's not just busy work. You're building assets, compounding assets. You're building trust slowly but surely. You're building recognition. You're stacking up these small wins right and they accumulate. They lead to bigger results down the line, exponentially sometimes.
Speaker 1:Like pushing a snowball downhill.
Speaker 2:Or the analogy the source uses, which I love, the flywheel.
Speaker 1:Classic and so true.
Speaker 2:It's incredibly hard work. To get that heavy flywheel spinning from a dead stop right Takes a lot of effort.
Speaker 1:A ton of initial energy.
Speaker 2:But once it's moving it gets easier to keep it going. It builds its own momentum, less effort, maintains or even increases the speed. Right Inertia is working for you, then but if you stop pushing, if you let it grind to a halt, trying to restart it, yeah. Oh, that's painful.
Speaker 1:It's often harder and more expensive than just keeping it going in the first place.
Speaker 2:Totally. You lose all that built up momentum. Your SEO rankings might dip if you stop publishing. Social algorithms penalize inactivity. Your sales team loses its rhythm. Maybe morale drops.
Speaker 1:And those leads you were warming up. They go cold. Someone else warms them up.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. The source poses this really direct question to leaders Knowing all this, knowing how momentum works, why would you stop?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a powerful question which brings us to the bottom line. Really, the core message from all the material we looked at is pretty clear Cutting marketing and sales. Sure, it might save you cash. Today Looks good on the short-term P&L.
Speaker 2:Seems like the prudent move.
Speaker 1:It can absolutely seem that way Appeases the board, maybe gets you through a tough quarter, but and it's a big but the insights are unequivocal it is very, very likely to cost you growth tomorrow, serious growth.
Speaker 2:It's sacrificing the future for the present.
Speaker 1:Precisely. It's not just a theory. You see this pattern play out again and again. There's another analogy used. It's like turning off the GPS on your phone during a road trip because you want to save the battery.
Speaker 2:Ah, okay, yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 1:You save maybe 5% battery Right, great. But now you're lost.
Speaker 2:You don't know where to turn next.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You've got no clear direction, no real-time info on the best route. You might think you're saving time or fuel, but you could be driving in circles, missing exits. While your competitors who kept their GPS on are cruising past. They're on the highway. You're on a B road somewhere, wondering where you are, your strategy, your market position, your path to where you want to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's all compromised.
Speaker 2:So pulling this all together.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What does it mean for you, the listener, the CEO, the founder, the entrepreneur, wrestling with these pressures right now? It means really thinking differently about the questions you ask when times get tough. Instead of that knee-jerk, what can we cut right now to survive, especially hitting marketing and sales first. The sources push us towards a different mindset, a more proactive, investment-focused mindset. Even when it's hard, ask okay, what is working right now, even if it's small, what's showing results and how can we maybe double down on that specific thing?
Speaker 1:Focus the resources, get surgical.
Speaker 2:Exactly, or maybe even better ask what do we absolutely need to invest in right now, even if it feels like a stretch, to make sure we are still visible, still relevant and ready for revenue, not just next quarter, but next year and the year after?
Speaker 1:Playing the long game.
Speaker 2:Playing the long game, because the simple, powerful truth the source leaves us with is this you can't win if you don't play True, and you absolutely cannot grow if you don't show up consistently.
Speaker 1:In a world of constant motion and competitive striving, is quietness truly a strategy for enduring success, or merely the sound of opportunity quietly passing by?
