Hiring a Good Marketer
Adding a marketer to your mix? It’s a tough one, like sales, marketing is unregulated and there’s an argument either way for a strong track record or a piece of paper that says someone’s learned some of the tools. Let alone getting into the gnarly questions like what are the core skills today’s marketers need to have? What kind of marketer do you need? What should they ‘do’?
These are total trick questions, as we’re buggered if we know! There’s no one right answer.
What we do know is that ‘fit for purpose’ is the key.
Let’s chat about that.
In the same way that we are all different animals, so too as the business environments we work in and create. Let’s not forget that the world around these little work bubbles is changeable too, so what works today or in one space, may not work to get the outcome you want in a new environment.
Always a fan of the ‘contextual’ skills approach, we’re suggesting you start with having a look at your culture, workplace, style and what you need, then moving to what you need from this person. To enable them to succeed, getting a few key details down is helpful too – what success looks like, what time frame, what’s the parameters for the role.
Once you’ve got a line of sight on these things, you can start to determine the profile for your ideal match. A lot like dating apps, you have to know what you’re looking for to know when you find it! According to SHRM “Most hiring professionals say they make hiring decisions within the first five minutes of each interview”, which says if you dress the part, say the right things as you introduce yourself, you’re in the box seat. It also says we’re at risk of adding cost and complexity if we’re making the hiring decisions.
They then refer to the big cheese in the business world, former chairman and CEO of GE Jack Welch, who reportedly told an MBA class that he never trusted his gut when making hiring decisions because first impressions and subjective opinions are unreliable predictors of success. He preferred to look for evidence that candidates had the right skills and were a good fit for the company.
This reference was found to support what we were gunna say, but now it sounds like we’re copying Jack. What this says though is that we’re taking some liberties and putting ourselves in the same camp as him, and that maybe there’s something to this more balanced approach!
We say that gut feel is important, but it’s the final test, once all the other boxes have been ticked, not the first one.
Here’s the game plan we recommend:
Who are we and what do we care about? (values!)
How do we like to work? (working style)
What’s the nature of the work we need this person to do? (work design)
What will they need to be really strong at to do this? (competencies)
What outcomes do we need them to achieve? (KPIs)
How will we know they’re on track? (work plan, parameters and milestones)
Have they got the skills and track record to do this? (competencies and assessment)
What’s our ‘gut feel’ on this person for this role? (intuition)