Due Diligence: How to Evaluate Marketing & Sales Investments
- Ray lang
- Feb 19
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 1
Pt.2 Beyond the Funnel: Sales vs. Marketing | The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Hidden Risk of Poor Marketing & Sales Investments
Marketing is a high-cost, high-risk investment, yet too many businesses blindly trust agencies, freelancers, and consultants simply because they look the part. A flashy website, slick branding, and a confident pitch don’t mean they can deliver results.
The hard truth? Most businesses never ask the right questions to separate real expertise from well-marketed nonsense. The result? Thousands wasted on strategies that look great on paper but fail to convert into real business growth.
📉 Only 4% of businesses accurately track their marketing ROI.📌 Source: Marketing Week
📉 26% of marketing budgets are wasted on ineffective campaigns.📌 Source: eMarketer
📉 Up to 60% of marketing budgets are wasted on ineffective campaigns.📌 Source: Proxima
💡 The biggest problem? Most business owners don’t know how to separate good marketing from bad marketing—and marketing agencies won’t tell you otherwise. Bad marketing doesn’t just slow growth; it actively drains resources, burns budgets, and misleads businesses into thinking they’re making progress when they’re not. If you don’t know the difference, you’re at risk of funding the problem instead of fixing it.
Below, we’ll break down how businesses should properly evaluate marketing & sales investments, spot red flags, and stop wasting money on ineffective strategies.
Why Businesses Get Marketing & Sales Investments Wrong
🚨 The ‘Expert’ Illusion – Everyone’s a Marketer Now
Social media has lowered the barrier to entry—anyone with a Canva template, a LinkedIn profile and ChatGPT can call themselves a marketer.
Many agencies sell aesthetics over outcomes—polished branding, slick presentations, but no real revenue impact.
Ask for data, not opinions. If a marketer can’t provide clear evidence of revenue impact, they are not worth the investment.
🚨 The Focus on ‘Doing More’ Instead of ‘Doing Right’
Businesses are often told they need more ads, more content, more automation—but quantity does not equal success.
Many marketing agencies and consultants sell activity rather than outcomes.
Quality over volume—a well-executed campaign with strong sales alignment outperforms a high-volume, unfocused strategy every time.
🚨 The ROI Blind Spot – Most Businesses Don’t Track What Matters
Only 4% of businesses accurately track their marketing ROI.
Many marketing teams report on clicks, impressions, and traffic, but these numbers don’t translate into revenue.
No ROI tracking = No accountability.
Tie every marketing investment to revenue impact. If an agency can’t show how their work translates into leads, sales, and profit, it’s a waste of money.
The Due Diligence Process: How to Evaluate Marketing & Sales Investments
Step 1: Demand Real Case Studies & Measurable Impact
💡Good marketers will provide clear case studies with:
✔ Before & After ROI Metrics
✔ Lead Generation & Conversion Improvements
✔ Revenue Growth Attributable to Their Work
Example of a Good Case Study:
A B2B software company invested £50,000 in paid advertising and lead generation. Initially, they were seeing leads but no significant conversion rates. After implementing a revised targeting strategy and integrating a structured follow-up process, they:
Increased lead-to-customer conversion rates by 32%
Reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) by 27%
Achieved a 3.8x return on ad spend (ROAS) within six months
🚩 Red Flag: If an agency can’t provide concrete revenue-based case studies, they likely aren’t delivering results.
Good marketers will provide clear case studies with:
Before & After ROI Metrics
Lead Generation & Conversion Improvements
Revenue Growth Attributable to Their Work
If a marketer or agency can’t provide concrete revenue-based case studies, they likely aren’t delivering results.
Step 2: Insist on Business-Relevant KPIs, Not Vanity Metrics
💡 Good Marketing KPIs:
✔ Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate
✔ Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
✔ Marketing-Attributed Revenue
✔ Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
✔ Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
🚩 Red Flag: If a marketer only talks about:
❌ Social media followers & engagement
❌ Website traffic without conversion tracking
❌ Click-through rates without sales attribution
If it doesn’t impact sales, it doesn’t matter!
Step 3: Assess Their Understanding of Sales Alignment
💡 Good marketers align with sales teams to:
✔ Generate high-quality leads, not just volume
✔ Improve conversion rates by refining messaging
✔ Provide sales teams with the right content & tools
🚩 Red Flag: A marketing agency or consultant that:
❌ Doesn’t involve the sales team in their process
❌ Doesn’t track what happens to leads after handoff
❌ Pushes lead volume without focusing on conversion strategy
Marketing that doesn’t work alongside sales is just noise.
Step 4: Avoid Long-Term Contracts with No Performance Clauses
Many agencies lock businesses into 6-12 month contracts before proving results.
💡 A good marketing provider will offer:
Performance-based milestones
Transparency in reporting ROI
Flexibility based on actual results
🚩 Red Flag: Agencies that require high retainers upfront without clear deliverables.
Test before committing. A one-month or project-based engagement is a safer first step.
The Cost of Ignoring Due Diligence in Marketing & Sales
Bad marketing isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s a financial drain. With 70% of businesses wasting money on ineffective strategies, the impact isn’t just about lost potential; it’s about hard cash disappearing from the bottom line.
The average SME loses over £10,000 annually on marketing efforts that fail to convert, relying on flashy branding, vanity metrics, and untested strategies. Without due diligence, businesses are funding the illusion of progress rather than actual revenue growth. If you don’t track ROI, demand accountability, and align marketing with sales, you’re not just wasting budget—you’re actively fuelling the problem.
📉 70% of businesses waste money on bad marketing investments.
📉 The average SME loses over £10,000 annually due to ineffective marketing.
📌 Source: WARC, Marketing Week
🔴 Case Study: The SaaS Startup That Burned £100,000 on Useless Marketing
A UK-based SaaS company invested £100,000 in digital marketing over 12 months.
The agency focused on ad impressions, social engagement, and website traffic—but had no sales-focused strategy.
Result? £100,000 spent, only £8,000 in sales.
What They Did to Recover:
The fastest way to recover from bad marketing investments is to shift focus from "visibility" to "conversion." If your current marketing efforts aren’t delivering measurable revenue, stop spending, reassess, and reallocate your budget to strategies with a direct link to sales performance.
✔ Fired the agency & built an in-house sales-driven marketing strategy.
✔ Focused on high-intent lead generation, email conversion, and direct outreach.
✔ Within 6 months: £100,000 investment turned into £650,000 in sales.
Moral of the Story? If marketing isn’t accountable to revenue, it’s just an expense, not an investment.
How Businesses Should Approach Marketing & Sales Investments
✔ Trust but verify – demand results, not promises.
✔ Marketing & sales must align—otherwise, leads go to waste.
✔ No tracking = no accountability. Measure what matters.
✔ Avoid long-term contracts unless performance is guaranteed.
Are you confident your marketing is making you money? If not, it’s time to rethink your strategy.
🚀 What’s Next?
In the next article, we’ll focus on how sales & marketing alignment can stop lead waste, increase conversions, and drive sustainable business growth.
📌 Stay tuned.
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