What stockholder needs: smooth marketing at first (8,4)
I believe the answer is:
branding iron
'what stockholder needs' is the definition.
(stock can mean cattle)
'smooth marketing at first' is the wordplay.
'smooth' becomes 'iron' (to smooth down with an iron).
'marketing' becomes 'branding' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'at first' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'iron' after 'branding' is 'BRANDING-IRON'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for branding iron that I've seen before include "identifies the beast"" , "Implement for marking livestock" .)