In today’s fast paced world, recruiting and hiring the right person is more important than ever because a poor hiring decision can cost the company three and five times that person's annual salary. This is especially true when looking for senior marketing talent. I’ve had the opportunity to work, interact, and get to know some of the best marketing leaders across a variety of companies and I have found that they all have similar qualities. Here are six qualities the C-suite should look for when hiring a senior marketing professional.
1) Ability to provide vision and leadership
Providing vision and leadership is essential in hiring the right person, but it’s also two of the abilities lacking in some marketing senior leaders. The marketing leader should be able to communicate the company’s vision as well as the vision for the department to direct and indirect employees as well as vendor and agency relationships. Leadership is often times mistaken for management but the two are very different. Leaders motivate and enable those that report to them directly or indirectly. They also give credit and endorse those that they manage.
2) Stability
In today’s business world downsizing and restructuring are inevitable. Despite the constant shifting that takes place in todays work environment, when hiring a senior marketing leader there should be some stability in his or her work history. You want to look and see if they were promoted internally, which is a sign of doing a great job or did promotions only come during a change in employment. Also, look at how many companies they worked for within the last five years. Question resumes that have great success stories but no stability and ask why would a company lose someone with such stellar results or not promote them.
3) Creativity
While it is somewhat subjective to measure, creativity is extremely important for a marketing leader to possess. It’s not only how they develop strategies and execute, but also how they solve problems and drive new ideas and innovations. In today’s world creativity can be a differentiator and must be evaluated extensively when hiring.
4) Digital Experience
Many see marketers as having either digital or traditional experience but in today’s marketing world all senior marketing leaders must have some digital experience. This could be in the form of SEO, web, mobile, social or digital content. The best ones will have experience executing across a variety of digital channels even if the role to which they are being considered is strictly strategic.
5) Product marketing experience
Many companies differentiate between product marketing and corporate marketing, but it’s also very common for one marketing team to handle all of the marketing task. Unless you are not planning on launching or enhancing any new or existing products, the marketing senior leader should have some experience with product marketing. They should be able to talk through their content strategy, promotions and target market used during the launch of a product or service.
6) Not afraid to take risk
Taking risk is a requirement and the types of risk one takes may vary by industry, safety considerations, etc., but for the senior marketing leader the risk should be taken in the form of trying new things based on trends or data. Smart risk taking can often lead to the biggest gains or create learning situations either of which can help you move the company forward.