ePrairie: Too Many Tech Entrepreneurs Lack Marketing Understanding

Darrell Dvorak of Tatum Partners has a great piece on ePrarie about getting your shit together when it comes to marketing your tech startup.

The world’s greatest management consultant (Peter F. Drucker) doesn’t mince words: “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two and only these two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results. All the rest are costs.”

If you as the tech entrepreneur don’t have the experience and skills to answer questions like these, you need to hire marketing folks who know all the questions to ask and how to get the answers. Because of your limited resources and small margin for error, you need to work hard to get the very best with your first personnel selections.

A good start would be to probe marketing candidates about their skills and experience in successfully addressing issues like those above. If all they can discuss is their advertising expertise, move on.