Why It Takes a Marketer to Properly Vet a Marketer
As a referral from a CEO, we have worked with before, I was asked to spend some time with a talented individual in transition. Taking these types of networking meetings in generally very common in our industry, but this conversation stood out.
It turned out to be a great conversation. She is a very successful Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who, due to leadership changes above her, is in transition. Having managed her career extremely well, having only been at only four companies in her career, having long successful tenures at each one, with a track record of success, she has the luxury of being able to focus on finding the right opportunity.
After getting an understanding of her background and what her goals were for her next opportunity, she asked me to share more about MarketPro and what has led me to being here for over 25 years.
The Unique Pathways to Becoming a CMO
Basically, I told her about half of our business is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Executive Search. The other half is Chief Product Officer, Chief Digital Officer and the senior roles that report up to these individuals in marketing, brand, digital, communications, e-commerce, etc.
As the leading marketing executive search firm, our belief is CMO Executive Search is different than other C-Suite level roles, because there are multiple paths to the CMO chair and which path you took really matters to your ability to be successful depending on the needs of the organization. As an up-and-coming marketer focused on becoming a CMO, you could be more brand or digital or product focused but you are unlikely to have an equal amount of all areas of marketing in your background.
What organizations need in a CMO varies based on growth goals, industry, who else in on the team currently and too many companies fail to recognize these differences which is why CMO tenure is the shortest in the C-Suite and has been for the last 30+ years.
This is different than a CFO role or a CHRO role which generally have one very similar path to those positions.
The Role of Marketing Expertise in CMO Interviews
Add to that interviewing potential CMO candidates has parts art and science to it and you really need some marketing expertise with you early in the process to make sure the search is set up properly and to help you understand what is possible. Marketers are really good storytellers, who do you have interviewing those candidates who has the ability to separate A players from everyone else? If all you have is a board member at the end of your process, this is too late.
She immediately understood and agreed but importantly said how important she believed expertise in marketing to be in executive search / recruiting for the leaders that report to the CMO as well. She had just had a problem recruiting a Head of Brand for her company, and did not use MarketPro. They went with a big national executive search firm that had no specific specialty.
Challenges with Generalist Executive Search Firms
Brand leaders are not one-size fits all either. Do you want someone with a very traditional brand management background? You might need someone to focus on brand development, you might need a little more advertising or someone who understands creative development or a mix of all the above.
She needed someone who had an equal mix of all these and who understood how to leverage the power of internal and external resources working together. The problem was she kept getting candidates from her executive search partner that were not very well vetted for her needs. It wasn’t that they did not care, did not want to do a great job or a lack of effort. Simply they lacked understanding of the role they were recruiting for.
The Consequences of Misunderstanding the Role in Executive Search
She really doubted they figured out the right interview questions to ask but even if they did, they lacked the understanding of brand to properly grade the answers.
Rather than interviewing a small shortlist of highly qualified candidates and being able to fill the role in a timely manner, she ended up interviewing twice as many candidates as we typically present for a search before she got her first qualified candidate.
Big waste of time for her and the search took twice as long as it needed to. In the end she hired the first candidate who fit her requirements rather than having multiple qualified A players to choose from. She hired the first qualified candidate because after the search taking an extended period of time the organization had to move on.
The Growing Importance of Specialized Marketing Search Firms
What holds true for CMO executive search is equally as relevant for brand executive search. This reality holds true for all areas of marketing both based on each area having multiple pathways to get to the top job and equally as importantly the pace at which marketing is changing.
Whether it is a CMO Executive Search, or you are looking for a brand leader, a digital leader, a product leader, an e-commerce leader or a communications executive having a search partner that specializes in these areas with deep domain expertise and real-world experience working in similar roles is critical to a successful hire. Which is ultimately critical for your organizational growth.
Trying to hire a CMO with the same search firm you used for other C-Suite roles is one of the reasons CMO tenure remains the shortest in the C-Suite.