MarketPro has been a leader in marketing executive search for over 25 years, and in my role as president, I have some valuable insight I would like to share with candidates who are trying to land an executive marketing position. The best candidate does not get the job. The candidate who interviews best does. Having an impressive resume and strong qualifications is important, but the way you present yourself during the interview can make all the difference in receiving a job offer.
When vying for an executive marketing position, the way you come across during the interview process is extremely important. Many candidates prepare by researching the company and rehearsing answers to common questions but most job candidates do not regularly practice interviewing. Landing an executive marketing role will require more than the basic interviewing techniques.
Interviewing for a marketing executive role is a competition, but unlike the traditional sort where you are aware of your opponents, during an interview process you don’t know who the other candidates are and what they bring to the table. This makes it even more important to be proactive in positioning yourself as the standout candidate. Here are some strategies to help you excel in your next marketing executive interview:
4 Interview Strategies To Elevate Your Position Above The Competition
1. Show You Are Aligned With The Company Vision
To make a strong impression during your interview, do strategic research on the organization and understand their growth objectives. Prepare targeted questions about their expansion plans, market positioning, challenges, etc. This will enable you to engage in an informed conversation about their goals and share your ideas or marketing strategies that will help them achieve their goals.
Demonstrating a deep understanding of their business and showing that you are already aligned with their vision will help the hiring manager visualize you in the role and recognize the value you would bring to their team.
2. Showcase Your Leadership Skills
To land the top marketing position, you need to demonstrate your ability to hire, grow, and lead a team effectively. It’s essential to highlight your leadership skills, even if the interview doesn’t directly prompt you to do so. Skillfully guide the conversation to provide opportunities to introduce and discuss your experiences in team growth and management.
You should be ready to share examples that highlight your ability to select outstanding talent, such as a new hire you selected who excelled and earned a promotion. Additionally, share an example of how you mentored and trained team members you inherited and provided guidance and training that helped them grow and show their full potential, advancing their careers.
3. Demonstrate Your Collaborative Mindset
You must demonstrate that you are a team player, skilled at collaborating across different departments, and capable of visualizing the broader organizational impact, not just how you or your department are affected.
This is a bit tricky during the interview process, where most of the conversation revolves around you, your qualifications, and what makes you the best candidate. These questions elicit a series of answers that begin with “I,” and if you are not careful, you can come across as self-serving and not like a team player. It is important to explain what you did and the contribution you made, but equally important to shift the focus from what you can do alone and how you engaged your team and other departments to lift up the organization to reach its goals.
A key strategy to showcase this is to start gathering information early in your interviews, allowing you to prepare to demonstrate your team-focused mindset. As you progress through multiple interviews with department heads like the CEO, Head of HR, Head of Finance, Head of Sales, Head of Operations, and peers, make sure to ask questions designed to give you perspective on their department challenges. This will help you understand their operations and identify potential collaboration opportunities.
When you reach your final interview with the hiring manager, you can demonstrate your proactive and collaborative capabilities. You would do this by recounting some of your conversations, what you learned about those departments, and your ideas or strategies for helping enhance processes or achieving specific goals.
Statements like ‘During my conversation with Adam in sales, he highlighted their challenge in pinpointing their target audience for the best ROI on their initiatives. I have some ideas that may enhance their strategy and generate additional revenue.”
Steering the conversation in this direction shows that you are actively listening to your peers, value their expertise, and have a genuine desire to help them achieve their objectives. It also shows that you are excited about the opportunity and have taken time to gain a better understanding of the company as a whole so you can contribute to their growth and further your own career success.
4. Direct Targeted Questions To The Right Audience
Asking the right questions to the appropriate individuals is extremely important. While this sounds straightforward, we often see candidates make this mistake. For example, questions about budgeting and ROI should be directed to finance, while inquiries about organizational culture should be asked of HR. Asking targeted questions to the right audience demonstrates your understanding of the hiring organization’s structure and your business acumen.
Your questions should initiate meaningful conversation, so avoid questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no or that lead nowhere. Ask thought-provoking questions that require a detailed response and open up a two-way dialog to shift the conversation into more of a business discussion than an interview. The more you move away from typical interview mode and engage in a strategic business dialogue, the stronger your candidacy will become.
Looking to take your career to the next level? MarketPro is the premier marketing recruiter in the U.S. and is committed to placing mid-to-executive-level marketing professionals in leading companies nationwide. Over the past 25 years, we have gained extensive expertise across various industries, connecting high-caliber candidates with organizations seeking the top talent and expertise for senior marketing positions. When you are ready to advance your career, MarketPro is here to help you reach your goals.