Essential Things You MUST Tell Executive Candidates: Tips from a Marketing Executive Recruiter

Competition for top talent is fierce. When you’re courting the best marketing executives, it’s important to bring more than just an attractive salary to the table. Money is only one contributor to what motivates the best (and is often one of the least important). There are certain other things top leaders want to hear about you and your open position before committing to working with you.

Being prepared to ask or talk about a specific range of subjects will reassure apprehensive candidates, improve their perception of the job and enable you to bring in talent that might otherwise look elsewhere. You can provide tremendous additional value to your candidates without having to commit additional money.

Challenge and Responsibility

Though it can be tempting to sugarcoat the difficulty of jobs to some hires, it’s a strategy you should avoid; especially when interacting with top achievers. These are people that actively hunt new challenges to conquer, who find deep satisfaction in crafting innovative solutions to complex problems. They want more responsibility, more authority, more puzzles. If there’s no challenge, then there’s essentially no job (in which case, why are you hiring?).

Rather than obscuring issues from prospective leaders, you should bring them front and center. The talent you want is the talent who is excited about the opportunity to solve them, not the ones who hesitate or shy away. High-intensity, motivated individuals feed off of challenge. Give them what they want.

What Makes You Unique

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If you’re really courting A-level talent, then they’re probably good enough to find comparable work at any of several related industries and companies—including your competitors. Just as you need to present your products’ unique value to consumers, you have to sell your company and executive position’s special characteristics to your candidates to draw them in.

Assuming you’re unable to drastically outspend everyone else in the market, you’ll have to find ways to add additional value that can’t be easily found elsewhere. Highlight aspects of your corporate culture they’ll find appealing and unusual company benefits that make it a compelling place to work. What will they get from you that they won’t get anywhere else?

A strong market position to drive growth and get huge results?
Unique, unmatchable perks?
A lively and fun office atmosphere they’ll actively enjoy?

A marketing executive recruiter can take your corporate identity, culture and employment brand and best understand how to use them to engage top talent.

Local Lifestyle

If you’re recruiting the absolute best available marketing leadership, you’ll probably need to cast a search net across the country or even around the world. You may find yourself in a situation where the ideal candidates are in far-flung locations and will have to make a big move if they accept the job. Whether they need to move across the state across the country, they’ll be faced with moving troubles and lifestyle changes.

Making that kind of commitment is no small order. Asking someone to abandon their current home, uproot their family from a community and transplant their life closer to you is a big demand. You can mitigate this upheaval by highlighting the advantages and value of living near your headquarters. Some places have a reputation that speaks for themselves—cities like New York, L.A., Miami, Chicago and San Francisco need little preamble. If anything, you’ll have to clarify exaggerated stereotypes and give a more realistic view of more famous locations.

But what about less-famous destinations? How can you convince someone to move to a Cincinnati or Charlotte or Jacksonville or Sacramento? You’ll have to find ways that make your region appeal to each individual your are recruiting. So understand your advantages but realize one size does not fit all. Find out what’s going on with your school system and where the best schools are. Learn about housing options and where the real estate market is hot. Be ready to talk about what makes your area unique and interesting. For example:

World-class restaurant districts
A thriving music or theater scene
A strong local sports culture

Go out of your way to find out your candidates’ interests and passions and bring up relevant local information, or enlist a marketing executive recruiter to do the legwork for you.

Mobility Potential

A-level marketing leaders are driven to grow their career further. The best want to hear that there is a real likelihood of other positions with even more responsibility and challenge in the foreseeable future. This is especially important for those who have experience in senior management or junior VP positions but haven’t quite attained the coveted C-level seat. Be open about the possibilities of upward and horizontal mobility over time if attractive opportunities arise.

Arm yourself with this information for interviews, negotiations, and general discussions surrounding the positions. When your candidates express misgivings about the job or need just a little more convincing to sign on, you’ll have the right information on hand.