Elvijs Plugis on Why Businesses Are Losing Trust in Marketing — and What Actually Drives Growth
Elvijs Plugis, an investor, operator, marketing expert, and founder of Erevantis Holdings, has spent more than 15 years working with businesses across multiple markets that struggle not because of a lack of ambition, but because growth execution fails. Increasingly, Plugis is observing a widespread shift among founders and leadership teams: a growing distrust of marketing, driven by years of activity that failed to translate into predictable revenue or sustainable growth.
This loss of confidence is not limited to early-stage startups. It is appearing across established SMEs, growth-stage companies, and even investor-backed businesses that have spent heavily on marketing, agencies, and advisors—only to find results inconsistent, opaque, or disconnected from commercial reality.
The Pattern Behind the Distrust
Industry data supports what many founders already feel. Surveys conducted across SME and growth-stage businesses consistently show that more than two-thirds of companies change marketing partners within the first year, citing lack of accountability, unclear ROI, and poor alignment with sales and revenue outcomes.
According to Elvijs Plugis, the issue is rarely marketing itself.
“Most companies don’t fail because marketing doesn’t work,” Plugis explains. “They fail because marketing is treated as an activity rather than an owned commercial function. When no one is accountable for revenue outcomes, trust disappears.”
In many organisations, marketing operates in isolation—measured by impressions, clicks, or engagement—while sales, operations, and leadership are left to deal with the consequences.
Activity Without Ownership
As businesses scale, complexity increases. Teams grow, external suppliers multiply, and decision-making becomes fragmented. Marketing agencies deliver campaigns. Consultants deliver frameworks. Freelancers deliver tasks. Yet no single party owns the outcome, and owners are clueless.
For founders, this creates a dangerous situation: significant spending without control – total cash burning.
“What businesses actually want is not more ideas or more activity,” says Plugis. “They want clarity, control, and results. They want someone who stands behind execution, not just advice.”
This gap between activity and ownership is one of the most common reasons companies disengage from traditional marketing support. They are scared to work with agencies, who in their opinion, failed.
They are afraid to get another report from a consultant that they don’t know what to do with, they are so scared to say that they don’t understand if their marketing, sales, and business teams are actually delivering work or just look like they are, but how can they as CEO’s and executives tell anyone – I don’t know.
Why Businesses Are Seeking Partners, Not Providers
In response, a growing number of companies are actively seeking marketing, revenue, and business partners rather than provider structures in which growth support is embedded in the business and aligned with performance.
These businesses are not looking for another agency or consultant. They are looking for someone who will be as accountable and has to lose or gain as they do – we are in it together:
- Clear revenue operations and alignment
- Cross-controlled departments
- Operational authority to fix what isn’t working
- Measurable progress within defined timelines and set KPIs
- Common success goals
- Ownership of results
This has driven interest in execution-led growth models, where marketing, sales, business development, and revenue systems are treated as a single commercial engine rather than separate functions – all controlled under one operating system of experts who need the company to win so they win as well.
Execution-Led Growth in Practice
Execution-led growth prioritises ownership over output. Instead of selling services, execution partners work inside the business, taking direct responsibility for outcomes such as revenue stability, hands-on delivery, cash flow control, and go-to-market effectiveness.
For struggling companies, this approach often represents a turning point.
Rather than cycling through third-party or in-house service providers and experts, leadership teams gain:
- Fewer moving parts
- Faster decisions
- Clear lines of responsibility
- Greater confidence in performance data
- Highest level of possible delivery
A common goal and results are the only things that matter most.
Rebuilding Trust Through Accountability
Trust in growth initiatives is rebuilt when accountability is visible.
Companies that adopt execution-led structures often report:
- Reduced waste in marketing spend by 200%
- Improved sales and revenue by 500%
- Better alignment between teams
- Clearer pathways to scale or investment readiness
According to Elvijs Plugis, this shift reflects a broader maturity in how businesses approach growth.
“After being burned a few times, founders stop looking for promises,” he says. “They start looking for partners who are prepared to share responsibility for results.”
A Signal for Businesses Under Pressure
Elvijs Plugis has worked across hundreds of international projects spanning technology, consumer brands, media, and growth-stage enterprises in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and Asia. His experience across different markets has led to a consistent conclusion: companies rarely fail because of a lack of effort—they fail because execution breaks under pressure.
Through Erevantis Holdings, Plugis works with companies that recognise their current approach is no longer working and are ready to rebuild growth systems with discipline and accountability.
For businesses struggling to regain trust in marketing, the message is clear: growth is not about finding better tactics—it’s about fixing execution ownership.
About Elvijs Plugis
Elvijs Plugis is an investor, marketing expert, operator, and growth strategist focused on execution-led growth and commercial performance. He is the founder of Erevantis Holdings, an execution led business partner, and Sigulp, a strategic growth consultancy. He has advised founders, boards, and leadership teams across multiple sectors on revenue systems, operational alignment, and sustainable growth.
More information is available at:
https://erevantis-holdings.com/
