Let’s be honest, most founders think marketing gives vanity metrics.
Clicks, impressions, followers , all the things that don’t show up in a P&L.
And they’re not entirely wrong to think that way.
When you’re closing deals, running operations, and fighting for survival, anything that doesn’t move the immediate revenue needle feels like noise.
You begin thinking marketing is decoration, lovely to have, but not a priority.
But here’s the quiet reality most founders never face:
You’re not rejecting marketing because it’s self-indulgent.
You’re rejecting it because you can’t yet envision how it multiplies.
Key Takeaways
- Marketing isn’t vanity — disconnection is.
- Sales drives the present; marketing builds the future.
- Visibility without velocity is vanity; sales without story is short-lived.
- Founders don’t reject marketing; they reject what they can’t quantify.
- You don’t have a marketing problem; you have a GTM problem.
The Misconception: Marketing = Vanity
Under stress, the brain begins scanning for urgency.
You start judging everything on “how much did it sell?”
So when marketing demonstrates engagement numbers rather than invoices, it becomes irrelevant.
But that’s because founders tend to evaluate marketing by the metric of sales.
And that’s like evaluating a seed for how many fruits it yields on day one.
Marketing’s not supposed to close the sale.
It’s supposed to ensure the sale was even viable in the first place.
It creates trust, familiarity, authority, and recall, the hidden levers that simplify your sales team’s job later.
Visibility Without Velocity Is Vanity. But So Is Sales Without Story
Here’s the paradox.
Yes, marketing can be vanity — when it’s unrelated to business results.
But sales can be equally vain, when it occurs without brand equity behind it.
Each “quick win” deal you make is born from demand that already exists.
It’s marketing that generates that demand in the first place.
Sales captures it; marketing molds it.
So when founders say,
“We don’t need marketing, we just need more leads,” what they actually mean is
“We’ve lost sight of where leads come from in the first place.”
The Blinding Effect of Quick Sales
The excitement of rapid deals is intoxicating.
That hit of dopamine from closing a client feels like confirmation, evidence that your model works.
But eventually, the deals taper off. Referrals dwindle. CAC rises.
And all of a sudden you’re not exactly sure why momentum seems more difficult to replicate.
It’s not like your product didn’t work.
It’s because your market forgot about you.
You’ve been harvesting without sowing.
And that is what most founders fail to do, sales provides you with adrenaline, but marketing provides you with oxygen.
Marketing Constructs Your Future; Sales Replenishes Your Present
This is the section founders need to sit with.
Sales and marketing are not enemies. They are timelines.
Function Time Horizon Value
Sales Now Converts existing demand.
Marketing Future Creates future demand.
Sales is your present-tense growth.
“If you only measure what converts now, you’ll never invest in what converts next.”
Marketing is your future compound interest.
Every company that appears to “suddenly take off” didn’t grow overnight.
They invested months, sometimes years in invisible marketing movements: thought leadership, brand top-of-mind, partnerships, dialogue.
All the things that don’t convert in an instant but make the brand remain inevitable.
“Each lead you land today was a silent impression months ago. That’s the math founders overlook.”
Vanity Metrics Aren’t the Problem. Disconnected Marketing Is
Vanity occurs when marketing is in silo.
When content lacks commercial intent.
When campaigns lack pipeline visibility.
When creative and sales do not share a language.
But when marketing is integrated with your GTM stack —
when awareness → builds trust → builds engagement → builds conversion
it ceases to be vanity and becomes velocity.
The issue isn’t marketing itself.
The issue is that most startups create marketing teams, not revenue machines.
“Marketing doesn’t fail because it’s soft. it fails because it’s silent.”
You Don’t Have a Marketing Problem. You Have a GTM Problem
What founders mean when they say that marketing doesn’t work is that in their system, it likely doesn’t.
Because that system never linked marketing, sales, and customer success into one growth motion.
So marketing doesn’t feel strategic, sales feels overwhelmed, and everyone’s running after numbers rather than alignment.
The consequence?
You confuse visibility with vanity.
You trim what amplifies.
And six months down the line, you’re wondering why the market forgot you.
“If you only measure what converts now, you’ll never invest in what converts next.”
Closing Reflection
Founders, marketing isn’t your cost.
It’s your insurance against obsolescence.
It’s not here to create chaos. it’s here to ensure people still care when the chaos dies down.
| Function | Time Horizon | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Now | Converts existing demand |
| Marketing | Future | Creates new demand |
Sales generates money.
Marketing creates a reputation.
And only one of them grows.
Questions to Reflect On (and Honest Answers)
Are you measuring marketing by its impact on sales or by its ability to create demand before the sale?
→ Measure marketing not just by conversions but by its ability to make every future sale easier. Awareness, recall, and trust are part of your pipeline too.
When was the last time your marketing and sales teams truly shared the same goal?
→ If they’re chasing different metrics, you don’t have alignment, you have activity. True GTM efficiency starts when both teams define growth the same way.
If your inbound dried up tomorrow, would your brand still be remembered next month?
→ If not, your business is transaction-led, not brand-led. Marketing exists to make you remembered when you’re not in the room.
Are your marketing metrics proving value or just reporting activity?
→ Shift from counting followers and clicks to tracking influenced pipeline, deal velocity, and conversion lift. Visibility should translate to velocity.
What part of your GTM engine still works in isolation and what would change if it all moved together?
→ Alignment is your multiplier. When marketing, sales, and customer success share insights and rhythm, your growth curve bends upward predictably.
