If you don't enjoy marketing and sales then it can be very tempting just to think “why can't I just outsource it and be done with it?”

After all, it's the consulting/coaching/training/legal work/accountancy that you do that adds value to the client. you just need someone to get you more of them.

Two big, big problems with this approach.

The first is that if you don't undertand what good marketing and sales should look like for your business, you'll end up hiring someone who does the wrong things for you.

I've seen businesses spend small fortunes on websites that simply didn't work for them (but looked great). On SEO that got them #1 ranking for searches on keywords that never turned into enquiries. On telemarketing that they were told worked for everyone but it turned out didn't work for them.

You've got to understand something before you outsource it, otherwise you're going to get screwed.

The second problem is that in all honesty, in many businesses, getting clients is the difficult bit. Providing the service is easy.

It's all well and good saying “all I need is someone to get me more clients” but if the real value in the business is that client acquisition, then in truth, they'll end up getting the lions share of the profits.

It's happened in the legal sector where lead generation firms get customer enquires and sell them on to law firms. It's the lead generation firms who are making all the money and the law firms who are just scraping by.

Money always flows to the rarest valuable talent. If you can't or won't learn how to win clients for yourself, then you're going to end up paying through the nose to someone who can and will.