Marketing:
The Bottom Line

Moving marketing from a perceived cost centre into a strategic driver of profit

About the book

Marketing needs a wake-up call or risks fading away!

While most business functions continue to advance and evolve, it seems marketing is hidden in a cloud of 'digital everything'. The illusion of shiny new objects lures the industry to make quick, confused grabs and use old philosophies backed by aimless statistics.

This book aims to shake marketing by the collar. To pull it from the precipice and encourage action… before it's too late.

If you're a marketer, you'll understand – marketing is powerful. But unless you have the courage and conviction for using that power effectively, it will remain undervalued, underutilised, and underperforming in the broader business community.

Previously a confessed anti-marketing salesman who pulls no punches, Richard has redirected a lifetime passion for sales into the marketing lane. Now, he humbly shares how his perspective changed, and his eyes were opened to marketing's unrivalled commercial importance.

Using a non-jargon narrative, the book is a provocative pep talk with actionable strategies to guide marketers of all levels and aspirations towards their best performance and help tip the scales in marketing's favour. Your marketing efforts must evolve. Using his book, you can take the first step towards making that happen therefore improving your and your organisation's marketing efforts.

Richard Hadler, Author and CEO, alan. Agency

Content includes:

How marketing has become stuck in yesterday’s methodologies
Why marketing must make the first move to solve the sales/marketing divide
How marketing can make sales want them, love them and need them

Introduce the Marketer’s Hierarchy of Need model
The substantial, accumulative value of joined-up ‘revenuist’ working
How marketers can escape the budget and deliver ROI through creativity

Richard Hadler

CEO, alan. agency and Author of Marketing:
The Bottom Line

About the author

I want to help tip the scales in Marketing’s favour

Richard began his working life, age 16, serving tables and behind the bar at a holiday park in the New Forest. He quickly recognised that becoming memorable to guests would earn him more tips. One such incident, a favourite with diners and involving a bottle of tomato sauce (read the book to learn more!), got him noticed by the park’s new boss. It was ultimately also responsible for him cancelling his university plans. Instead, he became his boss’s protégé, gained an Open University degree and embarked on a speedy climb through the ranks and across all the park’s departments.

When his boss made a throwaway comment one day, Richard realised it was time to move on. That comment? “Rich, you’ve gone all pipe and slippers.” He was 21 and had reached the ceiling in that business.

He quickly secured a role with a high-ranking London publishing firm. Soon after starting, he realised he hated all that firm stood for and quit to join Raconteur, the renowned City firm that provides high-quality content for The Times, Sunday Times and top B2B brands like Google, Deloitte, Dell Technologies and more.

A few years later, he became Raconteur’s Commercial Director before becoming MD of alan. Agency in 2020 and CEO of both alan. and Sectorlight Marketing (both part of The Raconteur Group) in 2021.

As a former salesman, he has seen firsthand the disadvantage businesses put themselves at by failing to get sales and marketing to collaborate. Like many salespeople, he’ll confess, he wasn’t always a fan of marketing in his early career. But - unlike many salespeople - he soon realised the skills are complementary. Winning campaigns happen when both sides work together. This is why collaboration between sales and marketing is the key theme of his first book.

If you’re wondering whether such a crazy business life has room for a personal life – yes, it does! Richard is engaged to his partner of 6 years, Bethany and the proud father of his 1-year-old cockapoo, Rory. He is an avid Arsenal fan and loves to holiday in the sun… as much as his schedule allows.

“Undeniably, Rich is one of the most commercially talented people I will ever have the honour of working for. His relentless enthusiasm for all things sales and marketing is not just a force to be reckoned with but a constant inspiration to all those around him. Marketing: The Bottom Line is one more example of Rich’s expertise and practical, no bs approach to encouraging marketing and sales to work with, not against each other.”

Tom Andrews, Rev Ops Lead at Permutive

“A lot has been written and said on the relationship between sales and marketing. One of the few things everybody can agree on is: alignment is a huge enabler of business growth. Richard’s experience on both sides gives him a uniquely informed perspective. Framed with practical, real-world advice rather than theory and jargon, this is one of the books on the subject well worth reading.”

Simon Lipscomb, Sales & Marketing Director at Efficio

“Today, B2B Marketers need more than ever to clearly understand the sales process and how Sales and Marketing work together. In my experience, Rich and his team consistently hold both sides of this equation up to the mirror. You will understand what I mean if you’ve worked on both sides. If you haven’t had a chance to experience both sides, then this book will help you in your journey.”

Kerry Bridge-Collier, Global Marketing Director at Bazaarvoice