Who’s the best driver in the world: Rally star Sébastien Ogier or F1 champion Lewis Hamilton? Trick question. Both are viable contenders, but only for a given value of “best”. Their driving styles are worlds apart. F1 is a matter of speed, precision and perfect understanding of the vehicle. A rally champion may not hit the same raw m.p.h., but they need to drive with flamboyance and a will to improvise. There’s a fundamental difference in mindset and skill set involved, and a champion behind one wheel may end up in the middle of the pack behind another. There’s a lot more to the choice than: “well, they both drive fast, don’t they?” So it goes with many things - including sales and marketing.

Successful business owners surround themselves with strong teams, and without the support of the right people, growth can stall. While qualifications and experience are clearly important, the key question most business owners ask themselves during an interview is: “Is this person the right fit?”. That is, will they gel with the rest of the team? Do they ‘get’ us?

While we don’t own a crystal ball here at The Marketing Centre, we do keep a close eye on new developments and evolutions in the world of marketing. So to round off the year, we asked some of our part-time Marketing Directors to speculate on significant changes they foresee for the next 12 months.

At this time of year, there are three words that bring a strange mix of joy and trepidation to any UK worker that hears them…Office. Christmas. Party.

Marketers find the leads; sales personnel convert them. Simple. But often in business, particularly early on, it can be tempting to simply hand over marketing responsibilities to your salesperson, they’re both in the results business, right?