While there is no single playbook for building out the marketing org of a B2B SaaS startup, at RevelOne, we’ve seen some key patterns and considerations in our work hiring for hundreds of high-growth, successful SaaS clients.
This guide covers how to prioritize key marketing functions in a B2B SaaS startup with a predominantly “marketing-led” motion and not a “sales-led” motion. Software products that can be sold either “self-serve” or with very light sales support given their low price or simple entry point. In these models, marketing plays a primary role across the entire motion from lead acquisition through nurture and conversion. This is in contrast to a B2B Enterprise business, where five to six-figure deals and long, complex sales cycles require that new client acquisition is driven by a sales organization targeting large prospects, with marketing in more of a supporting role. (See our article on The First Marketing Hires for Early-Stage B2B Enterprise Companies for advice on developing an enterprise org.)
These SaaS businesses can range from mid-market and small business products that may require lightweight sales support to engage and close clients, to lower cost, simple-to-onboard, higher-velocity products (think Slack, Zoom, Twilio) that behave almost more like B2C using a direct, or un-assisted self-service sales model.
The key is to understand the nuances of your target customer and how they adopt your product adoption, and then design the marketing organization and talent to match.
Before Your First Hire
While B2B Enterprise companies usually build their sales teams first, a SaaS product often finds early momentum “selling itself” through optimized marketing funnels and organic/viral growth. That said, some sales capability on the team can be important. While we don’t recommend building out a sales team in a SaaS organization ahead of your first marketers, it’s important to have at least one person who can close “big deals” as they come along. This might be the CEO or another leadership team member who can sell the product effectively and close more complex, large-scale deals for big-ticket clients.
The First Hire – A Director of Acquisition/Growth
You’ve determined your business model calls for a more lightweight or no-sales approach, and you’ve got your ‘big deal’ closer on standby for any huge clients that may come your way. Now, it’s time to start driving new prospects at scale. Because this SaaS business model targets more mid-market or small business clients at a lower price point, a structured program to drive new leads at meaningful volume is key.
Hiring an Acquisition Lead first to build the foundation for this volume can bring early wins and a steady flow of customers and revenue. An Acquisition lead will launch initial marketing acquisition programs focused on finding your target clients via relevant marketing channels, and driving them to your site at scale to iterate on converting them. These efforts should drive an initial pool of your most relevant clients, allowing you to quickly learn more about who they are (and who they are not), and what motivates their behavior.
Their key metric will be Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) or Cost per Lead (CPL) as they optimize by channel, segment, and program. Your Acquisition Lead should at least be at the director level, with a strong grasp on conversion so they can help direct product development and engineering on how best to convert the leads they bring in through an intuitive website experience and effective conversion funnel.
The Second Hire – A Product Marketing Pro
This hire’s role is to develop (or refine) how you position your product and bring it to market. They will work closely with product, sales, customer success, and others to connect the value of the product to its customers by identifying key target segments and personas, knowing their pain points, how your product solves them, and how it compares to alternatives and your competition. They will use these insights to identify competitive advantages, develop effective product packaging (even pricing), and craft clear and effective messaging that every department can use in their role to help close the sale.
We recommend someone at the director level as they need to be strategic enough to develop the above insights and strategies autonomously. (As the product marketing team grows, there’s more room for doers who will need more direction). This role complements the Acquisition Lead by using customer and market insights to help them refine and optimize their efforts. In turn, the initial volume of new clients the acquisition lead drives can garner data and learnings for your product marketing pro to then build on. Together these two roles can turbocharge your sales funnel.
The Third Hire – an Engagement Lead
As your company begins to rev its acquisition engine and sharpen its positioning, the next key competence is understanding the value of your customers and how to retain and grow them.
An engagement lead (sometimes called “retention” or “lifecycle”) is responsible for the customer lifetime value (LTV) metric. Understanding retention dynamics is critical as no company wants to have a “leaky bucket” in which dollars and effort are spent to acquire customers who churn out quickly.
Given that almost all light SaaS businesses today have subscription pricing models, the engagement lead needs to develop monthly/annual lifecycle and cohort analyses to connect customer activity to ongoing economic value. It’s their job to develop metrics and understanding around the customer lifecycle and cohorts (e.g., what behaviors in month 1 or 2 are good/bad signals for customer retention, what signals in month 6 are warning lights for churn). This person typically works closely with product and engineering teams to connect customer lifecycle and churn learnings to product use and metrics. In products with free trials or freemium pricing models, they work closely with acquisition teams to develop a full-funnel from initial conversion to the next purchase or acquisition step.
The Fourth Hire – An Ops/Analytics Expert
With a steady stream of incoming leads, a streamlined product offering, and a SaaS funnel firing on all cylinders, the business will be hungry for metrics, data, and insights. As programs, data sources, and components of your MarTech stack proliferate, there will be operational challenges to pulling together your data as well.
This is where a Marketing Operations expert can help provide key metrics and iron out kinks to ensure your marketing operations are running effectively. This person will focus on providing insight into the impact each marketing channel and program is having. This may include identifying and implementing data and analytics tools and developing reporting dashboards, or providing regular reporting and insights based on the data they are seeing. This person may also be responsible for adding to the overall marketing tech stack as well as adding tools to help streamline various workflows.
Later on, as the business grows, robust Marketing Operations, Analytics, and even Data Science will be developed, but early on, a more tactical jack-of-all-trades player can provide the foundation for what marketing needs. This person’s background will differ from a similar role at a sales-driven Enterprise business in that this ops hire should know how to effectively measure the funnel all the way through to an onsite purchase or product registration. In addition, the lower price point means that there will be a higher volume of traffic and more granularity to your metrics and more expertise in website analytics and attribution comes into play. For these reasons, someone from B2C or ecommerce experience can be a fit given the volume and complexity they will have encountered.
The Fifth Hire – A Content Marketing Lead
With the marketing machine churning, you’ll find that the company’s appetite for content will grow continuously. In a low touch, self-service motion, prospects are doing more of their own research and your touchpoints with them are mostly “digital” (emails, website copy, case studies, videos). So as your product marketing becomes more sophisticated, and you’ve scaled and proliferated the segments and programs you are running, you’ll have a greater need for content than the existing team can supply.
Your content marketing person will take pressure off your product marketer so they focus on staying close to the market and developing customer insights rather than writing docs and content. The Content Lead will double down on developing better marketing ads, white papers, customer success stories, website content, and better support the rest of the organization with an extended and diversified content library.
Bonus: Next Hires
Sales
It’s after the first 5-6 hires where we see the hiring patterns for B2B SaaS companies really start to diverge. For example, if you haven’t brought in any sales headcount yet or your founders can no longer play the role as “Chief Sales Officer” as the scope of their responsibilities grows, bringing in a salesperson or two can be critical in supporting larger ticket sales. Even low touch, low price SaaS products will have an enterprise sales-motion alongside their marketing-driven core as larger organizations seek to buy hundreds or thousands of units at a time.
Digital Marketing
If your acquisition engine is driving a tidal wave of leads to your website and conversion funnel with strong CAC economics and headspace to grow, then a Digital Marketing hire can help effectively manage this increased volume. While your Acquisition, Conversion, and Content leads can take some of these increased responsibilities on, a Digital Marketing hire is someone who can serve as a generalist across all three areas, adding value and expertise to the overall marketing engine. This person will take on management of key digital channels, ensure accurate targeting and optimization, and live and breathe your website and landing pages to make sure no conversion or optimization opportunity is missed.
Conversion Lead
Alongside traction and volume in your acquisition program, you may want to invest in a specialist to manage the onsite conversion. This person specializes in “conversion rate optimization” (CRO) and can experiment, iterate, and optimize at a granular level by segment and program. They can tune copy, landing pages, and enhance the lower funnel metrics stack.
Final Thought
Within the above patterns, candidates for each role can vary with regards to their mix of skill sets. For example, one Director of Growth candidate may bring with them a skillset of finding growth opportunities through partnerships and SEO, while another may focus solely on paid marketing efforts to drive lead volume. For each role, it’s critical to align your hire’s experience to the business model, product vertical, and stage of growth of your own company. It’s also critical to align their core strengths with what you believe to be your company’s biggest growth opportunities. The various skill sets of your first hires can then influence the sequencing and priority to follow.
At RevelOne, we do hundreds of marketing searches from CMO down to manager level every year, and we have developed our own role scoping frameworks to make sure each candidate and role is aligned to the needs of the business. If you are looking for help in this area or to gut-check your own instincts on the type of marketer you are looking for, you can review our Frameworks for Scoping Marketing Roles in the resource section of our site.
Want to see what we think a SaaS Marketing team looks like from top to bottom? Head over to our B2B SaaS organization chart now.
If you have any questions or want RevelOne to help you find the right talent to fill out your own team structure, reach out to us here.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
This is the third article in our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies to better understand the skills, experience, attributes, and backgrounds that separate them from the rest. We dispel myths, share interesting findings, discuss key takeaways, and explore if predictive indicators exist to identify who will be the most successful marketers. (Our methodology can be found at the end of this article.)
Our first two articles can be found here.
Ask any seasoned marketing executive, or check your favorite marketing industry publication, and you’re likely to find an opinion on what marketing expertise or specializations are in highest demand in the market, and which ones make up the best marketers and marketing leaders.
But what marketing backgrounds and specialization do actually define the most talented marketers, and can we even predict those who will be successful B2C marketing leaders based on these criteria?
As part of our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies, we continue our analysis and dig into the marketing experience and marketing expertise of our top marketers, to further uncover what defines a top marketing executive. We examine their time spent in marketing vs non-marketing roles, their expertise in a certain marketing discipline (e.g. brand or product), and critical nuances that may be inferred as they relate to these criteria.
We have summarized our top findings first with more detail and insights into their implications below.
More on our findings in detail below.
1. Marketers don’t need to spend their entire careers in marketing to be an elite B2C marketing leader.
Over a third (38%) of our elite marketing executives spent 25% or more of their careers in non-marketing roles. This might come as a surprise to some as it stands to reason that more marketing depth and understanding, should lead to a better marketing leader. But, as we’ve noted in another article, some marketing leaders aren’t just great marketers, but great business and financial leaders as well. Considering that the non-marketing roles our marketers spent time in were predominantly banking and consulting positions, it is understandable how these financial and business roles could contribute to a well-rounded business and marketing leader.
It is also interesting to note that men are more likely to have spent a good portion of their careers in non-marketing roles than women, 43% of men vs 33% of women. MBAs provide general business and financial know-how much like a hands-on role in banking or consulting, so it’s interesting to note that 43% of women in our study earned an MBA vs. 30% of the men. Perhaps these experiences balance each other out. But keep in mind we learned in our first article that marketers do not need an MBA to be an elite marketer. Nor do they need experience in banking or consulting.
Some companies want their marketing leader to have lived and breathed marketing since the start of their careers. From our experience working with some of the most exciting tech companies in the world, extensive experience in marketing is indeed important. But as our experience tells us and the data supports, time outside of marketing can also be beneficial. So, while B2C tech companies should always ensure their marketing leader has extensive marketing chops, they should not discount a candidate that has spent time in other roles. They should welcome the additional relevant experience other roles can bring.
2. Marketers can have a specialty and still become an elite overall marketing leader, and the vast majority of these are performance marketing and brand/communications specialists.
About half of the elite marketers in our study (49%) specialized in a specific discipline of marketing including product, product marketing, brand/comm marketing, CRM/retention, or performance marketing, for much of their marketing careers. This proves that just because a marketer is specialized in a certain subset of marketing, does not mean that they can’t become the overall marketing leader for a fast-growing B2C organization.
But the particular area they specialized in matters. A shocking 73% of top marketers who specialized in a specific marketing discipline come from one of only two areas: performance marketing or brand/communications. Conversely, only 1 of our top 100 elite B2C marketers comes from a predominantly CRM/retention background. Does brand/comms or performance marketing experience make you more capable as a marketing leader than experience in other marketing disciplines? In our experiences working with high growth, VC-backed B2C tech companies, a company’s success (or next phase of growth) often comes on the shoulders of a strong brand/comms presence, or highly effective performance marketing channels – so in some ways, that answer is yes.
As a whole, the top marketers in our study are split almost evenly (49% and 51%) between those that spent much of their careers focused on a single marketing discipline, and those whose marketing experience was more general. We encourage every company to align their unique business model and requirements to the particular expertise and experience of any marketing leader they are evaluating. The data suggests that starting this evaluation by focusing on your Brand/Comms and Performance marketing needs first, however, may yield the best results. After all, these are typically the most important disciplines a fast-growing start-up could use in their leader, but don’t discount other disciplines including CRM/retention experts. After all, every company relies on its own model for success, and if CRM is the backbone, then a CRM-focused leader may be the best choice.
3. Elite Marketers who specialized in brand/comms during their careers stay longer at companies than any other type of marketer. Performance marketers are the least likely to ‘stick around’.
Only a quarter (25%) of our B2C marketing leaders have been at three or more companies for more than 4 years. However, a significantly higher 42% of our elite marketers who specialized specifically in brand/comms during their careers have been at three or more companies for more than 4 years, and 63% of brand/comms specialists have never been at a company for less than 18 months (compared to only 34% of all other marketers). The data implies that brand/comms specialized marketers are uniquely more likely to remain at companies for longer stints.
Consider then that performance marketers are 2x more likely than any other marketers to have been at 3 or more companies for less than 18 months each, and we begin to see a differentiating longevity pattern emerge among our elite B2C marketers.
Perhaps it is the relationship-focused nature of a brand/comms specialist or the work itself that increases their likelihood to stay in roles longer. A brand can take time to develop, and its reputation can take years to build. Brand/comms marketers are also typically good at building relationships, the specialty itself requires building rapport across departments, media and analyst relations, and connecting with both clients/customers and internal stakeholders on a deeper level – which takes time.
While brand/comms specialized marketing leaders may, in general, be more inclined to ‘stick around,’ every marketer is different and this nuance should not be generalized to all. Growing B2C companies should evaluate each candidate’s loyalty level based on their unique career backgrounds, and companies will be best served choosing a marketing leader with the specialty, or generalization, that aligns best with their business. But, if it happens to be a brand/comms specialist, you might rest a little easier that they will likely still be there after the dust settles.
4. Marketers who did not specialize in a particular marketing discipline are more likely to have an MBA than those who did specialize.
While 38% of all the top marketers in our study have an MBA, marketers who did not specialize in a specific marketing discipline like brand/comms, product, or performance, are the most likely to have an MBA at 45%. Perhaps this group is already predisposed to view marketing from a more general or even business-focused perspective, making an MBA a likely extension of their more varied interests.
Of the marketers who did specialize in a specific marketing discipline like brand/comms, product or performance marketing, only 29% have an MBA (compared to the 45% for generalist marketers noted above). Our marketers who focused on brand/comms have one of the lowest rates of having an MBA at 26%, and surprisingly performance marketing specialists at only 28%.
We note from our first article that a marketer does not need to have an MBA in order to be an elite marketing leader. While we encourage companies to consider the data, many still have a preference for their marketing leaders to have a business degree. In these cases, they can expect general marketers who did not specialize in a specific marketing discipline to be more likely to fit their requirements
5. The younger generation of top marketers are coming from performance marketing backgrounds more than ever before.
Top marketers who specialize in performance marketing make up more than half of our youngest generation of elite marketers – they are a whopping 3X more likely than any other group to have less than 10 years of total experience. Consider the top marketers who specialize in product or product marketing are almost twice as likely to have more than 21 years of total experience (62% vs 37% respectively) and we begin to see a difference in marketing skillsets between our younger and older generations of marketing leaders.
In our second article, we noted that more elite marketing leaders are graduating with a quantitative degree than ever before – 37% of all of the elite marketers in our study had a quantitative degree, while a surprising 55% of all elite marketers with under 11 years of experience have one. As performance marketers typically focus on the quantitative side of marketing, the data continues to support the idea that our youngest, upcoming generation of marketing leaders are bringing with them a more quantitative skillset than ever before.
Doing over 300 successful marketing and Go-To-Market searches a year, we have seen firsthand this shift towards performance/quantitative focus when it comes to talent. While a brand/comms or product marketing-focused leader may be the best fit for a company’s growth model and thus marketing leadership, we strongly encourage hiring managers and recruiters to thoroughly vet the overall business and quantitative skills and experience of all of their potential leaders.
Because every company’s road to success is different, we encourage B2C business leaders, hiring managers and recruiters to align the requirements and specialties of their potential marketing leaders with the unique requirements and nuances of their business. For example, one B2C ecommerce company might be a large marketplace where huge SKU counts require innovative, technical and automated solutions, making a product specialist or performance marketer an ideal fit. While another may be trying to break into an already congested market and need a strong brand/comms presence to rise above the pack.
We work with our clients to truly understand their unique business needs and challenges, and develop a marketing leader profile that will best help them grow. The findings in this article should help refine the nuances of that hiring strategy, dispel myths about what marketing specialties are required or undesired, and keep companies ahead of the curve regarding the types of marketers (and skills) that may be the future of our most elite B2C marketing leaders.
In our next article, we explore the career experiences of our elite B2C marketing leaders.
Our full article series includes:
If you are interested in our next articles in this series, please follow RevelOne on LinkedIn.
Methodology
We identified the most senior marketing leaders at over 100 of the highest growth tech companies in the US.
How we determined the companies:
The fastest-growing tech startups included in our study had to meet several key requirements. Companies had to be funded by a top tier VC (see list below), be a consumer-focused business, have an employee count between 100 and 5000, and have been identified as a “unicorn” ($1 billion or greater valuation) or be a “successful, high growth company” in one of the following publications: CB Insights and Fast Company 50 Future Unicorns, CNBC Disruptor 50 Companies, Forbes 25: Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes Midas List, or raised $50 million or more in funding within the last 3 years per Crunchbase.
How we identified the marketing leader: The most senior marketing leader within each company was identified based on title. They had to be in a marketing role, must be located in the US, and must have a CMO, VP, SVP, EVP, Head of, Sr Director, or Director title.
How we conducted the analysis: Crunchbased was utilized for public company status, funding VCs, and funding amounts. Company and marketers’ LinkedIn profiles were analyzed to determine company employee count, consumer focus, most senior marketers in an organization, location, titles, education, gender, work experience, years of experience, current role details, and career focus.
List of Top Tier VCs: Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer V Partners, Founders Fund, GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture partners
List of Top 28 Universities: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Duke, UPenn, Wharton, Brown, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Cornell, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, UVA, Dartmouth, NYU, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Wash University, Michigan.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
At RevelOne, we’ve placed more than a thousand marketers at some of the world’s most exciting startups. For high-growth companies who are building out their teams, when to hire each role can be as important as who to hire. Org design and the sequence of hiring are crucial for success.
In this guide, we’ll break down the first five hires — plus a bonus hire — you should be making if you’re a B2B enterprise startup. For the purposes of this discussion, we’re defining “B2B Enterprise” as companies that sell products or services at price points and complexity where a salesperson ultimately closes the deal and there is NOT a self-serve, unassisted transaction.
In B2B enterprise, a marketing team isn’t actually the first box to check when building your organization. In the first stages of finding product-market fit and developing your GTM motion, person-to-person, direct sales and lead nurturing are your bread and butter. You might even have key leaders like company founders or heads of product in the mix alongside early sales leaders having direct engagement with the market. So, whether you’re selling a high ACV SaaS offering, enterprise software, or a suite of services, you’ll need a lean, focused sales organization first, before you should start doubling down on broader marketing.
Once you’ve got a good read on how your sales team operates and you’ve gained some traction in the market, a Product Marketing Lead can add ammunition to their pitches and refine your unique company positioning. This person can begin to add value if you already have salespeople in-market and have an initial understanding of your product-market fit. Your PM Lead can then take the tactical info on customer needs and product insights that your sales team is bringing in and shape them into a larger overarching go-to-market strategy.
A Product Marketing Lead will focus on defining and refining your offering in a few distinct ways:
Ideally, your first Product Marketing Lead will be a director-level candidate because they’ll need to make high-level decisions, but also be able to execute as an IC. Their contributions will support the larger go-to-market strategy, as well as in real, tangible materials and actionable tactics and results. Depending on how specialized or technical your vertical is, you may want this person to have experience in your space so they don’t have to go up that customer and product learning curve. Later, with a larger product marketing group, you have more flexibility to hire people with more functional strength in product marketing processes.
If your Product Marketing lead is focused on the quality and consistency of how your offering is taken to market, the next hire, a Head of Demand Gen, should be focused on driving more high-quality leads into the funnel. This person will act as a peer to the PM Lead and drive outreach at a high level.
The Head of Demand Gen will give your business quick ROI in a few key ways:
They will leverage the learnings and messaging that the Product Marketing lead has developed, which is why you don’t want to invest too much in demand gen programs until you have laid this foundation.
Similar to the Product Marketing Lead, the Head of Demand Gen will best serve your startup if they are a director-level candidate that has previous experience at the same stage as your organization. They will likely need to hire some of the roles in the remainder of this article, so they will be a player-coach, able to execute themselves, and comfortable building and managing a small team. It’s less important that the demand gen person come from your vertical. You are more looking for someone with strong demand gen process competencies who has operated in a similar sales cycle with regards to cycle times and contract value.
As you get into the third and fourth hires, the order can vary depending on your business’s goals and resident skill sets. In general, you’ll tend to find more actionable, measurable success by hiring a Marketing Automation and Channel Specialist at the Senior Manager level. This person will report to the Head of Demand Gen and help better operationalize all aspects of marketing effectiveness. They will lead channel execution, marketing automation and some aspects of lead gen strategy.
This person should ideally have a strong tactical background in email, channel marketing, social media marketing, and marketing automation. Beyond that, they should also possess a keen analytical background, allowing them to gather the right data, analyze the results, and then adjust, optimize, and ultimately deliver on your business’s KPIs.
Once the demand gen program is established, an excellent addition to the team is a Head of Content. (they could even come before the marketing automation person if your Head of Demand Gen is comfortable with those executional elements) This person will handle all things content, including whitepapers, thought leadership pieces, landing pages, emails, lead gen ads, and even creative content like videos and infographics. B2B enterprise sales are increasingly reliant on more expert, credible content that is oriented to education rather than selling, so a sharp content leader can be key in driving thought leadership and IP that can be leveraged across multiple areas of the go-to-market.
While you can expect that the Content Lead can produce meaningful content on their own at this stage, depending on your budget, this person may want to gain leverage by contracting out some production needs. They may bring a network of writers, producers, and designers they can tap to create the full suite of sales, website, and thought leadership content, as well as ad creative and materials needed for demand gen.
The fifth hire really depends on where your company’s needs are strongest. If your sales team is firing on all cylinders, and they’re taking to heart the strategy and materials provided by the Heads of Demand Gen and Product Marketing, perhaps a Field Marketer, who can help amplify their in-market efforts would make the biggest impact. Field Marketers excel at putting together hyper-specific sales tools and setting up dinners and client events, and they’ll work closely with your sales team.
If the market you compete in is either very saturated or complex and new, or you have a long sales cycle, then a Brand Marketing Manager can help to craft and establish your company’s identity and create cohesive and compelling brand awareness for “air cover” throughout the sales cycle. This person will work closely with the Content and Product Marketing leads to ensure prospective customers (and clients) understand who you are and what you represent, telling an exciting and compelling story that gives you the edge over your competition.
Up until this point, we’ve built a clear hierarchy around your first few marketing hires, ensuring a bottom-upapproach and filling out functional “doers” to dig in and actually get the work done. But if you’ve hired the five roles above (perhaps even multiple headcounts under each discipline), then your organization is starting to need some high-level direction that founders often don’t have the time to provide. Enter: A VP of Marketing.
This person will bring a long-term, cohesive vision for your marketing efforts, and the marketing roadmap to help you achieve your goals. They will align all marketing efforts towards a shared business and marketing goal, and they’ll help the Heads of Product Marketing and Lead Gen focus their efforts where needed, and to delegate to the tactical hires below them when required. They can also interact with the heads of other functions in the organization as well as external constituents to communicate what marketing is doing and understand how it can help serve the needs of the company. This hire should be a senior marketer who has a deep background in early-stage B2B startups. While VPs at large corporations have a lot to offer, the “many hats’ mentality and the necessity to turn on a dime is a muscle best developed at a startup. So, focusing on this background when hiring your VP will typically yield the best results.
Final Thought
Some organizations are tempted at this point to hire a CMO vs a VP of Marketing – but these are indeed two different roles. Our article on hiring and assessing a CMO vs a VP of marketing gives good context into the difference between them. We recommend gaining a deeper understanding of these similar but distinct roles, before determining which one your company needs.
Want to see the full typical B2B Enterprise marketing organization from top to bottom? Head over to our B2B Enterprise Marketing Org Chart in the Resources section of our site.
If you have any questions or want RevelOne to help you find the perfect talent to fill out your own team structure, reach out to us here.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
Company-specific customer research and segmentation are critical to identifying the right channels and targeting best suited to reach your ideal customer audience. While almost everyone is leveraging Facebook and Google, our work with the top tech companies reveals several key acquisition channels many marketing leaders are not yet testing, but should be considering. These include audio, connected and streaming TV, micro influencers, affiliates and even direct mail (still effective after decades).
In future articles, we will dig deeper into how these channels can impact your business and even share leading resources and vendor recommendations our clients have found very useful.
But before you spend your first dollar, you need the talent to test them. We examine the four leading options to help you decide which option may be best for your business.
Outsourcing a new channel to an experienced agency is the most widely used option among fast growing tech companies. It has a lot of advantages, but may not be right for everyone.
Advantages
Disadvantages
In the end, for companies with large enough budgets for a substantial media investment and the stomach, margins, or urgency to work with a significant agency fee, outsourcing to an agency is likely a great option. However, we recommend meeting your account team first to evaluate the individual talent you’ll be assigned.
If one of your team members already has experience in the channel you are looking to test, this option often makes sense. However, this often isn’t the case. Instead, this responsibility is assigned to what amounts to an inexperienced team member you “think” is most capable.
Advantages
Disadvantages
For those on a tight budget, this is sometimes the only realistic option for testing new channels. In this case, we suggest putting your best effort forward and if the initial data shows even a glimmer of hope, gather enough data to make the business case to invest in it properly.
Often considered the ideal compromise between option #1 and option #2, expert contractors can act as an extension of your team with limited commitment or investment.
Advantages
Disadvantages
A talented contractor can be a great option, as long as you avoid some of the issues above. Getting specific on deliverables and expectations and including this in your scope of work with the contractor, will be critical. To help retain insights and historical learnings, ensure your freelancer documents and records everything.
Hiring specialized, full-time talent in-house for a new potential channel makes sense when you have the conviction that the channel can work for you and the resources to fully test it. This includes resources to hire talent in-house and the media spend they’ll need to test and prove out the channel.
Advantages
Disadvantages
When selecting this option, one way to minimize risk is to look for candidates with experience beyond the channel you are looking to test. They may have specialized in this channel most recently, but look for candidates whose backgrounds span other channels and skill sets so should this channel prove unsuccessful, they can still add value elsewhere.
Exploring new channels that have the potential to meaningfully impact your business is something every business and marketing leader should pursue. We offer guides for evaluating and launching several key channels including Audio, OTT/CTV, Affiliate and Direct Mail. Once you’ve determined your next channel to test, utilize the above options to help you decide how to source the talent to execute. At RevelOne, we not only specialize in marketing and sales retained searches, but we can also tap into our Interim Expert Network to place the right interim resource if you decide to go that route. Expert contractors are a fast, reliable, and effective way to accelerate impact.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing and sales advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Sales roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. We also offer interim and fractional contractor placements to help our clients build dynamic teams. For custom org design, role scoping, retained search, or expert contractors, contact us.
At RevelOne, we help our clients identify and hire the right Marketing talent to drive growth. A common question among our early-stage clients is: Who should we hire first? While every organization is unique and their marketing needs are different, after placing close to 1,000 Marketing and GTM roles at the fastest growing companies in the country, we’ve noticed some key patterns.
In this article, we focus on direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce organizations. We offer guidelines for initial hires, areas to focus, and additional insights to support you as you navigate early hiring decisions. Use this marketing org chart to navigate the first marketing hires for your B2C E-commerce startup.
If you’re like most DTC ecommerce companies, you live and die based on your site functioning seamlessly and intuitively so visitors successfully convert into paying customers (ideally with high AOVs).
Your Head of Ecommerce will be focused solely on creating the best possible online shopping experience for customers and motivating them to purchase… and then purchase more. To do this, they will first need to define and activate the foundational elements of your ecommerce strategy. This includes:
Your Head of Ecommerce will use research and customer insights to develop the user experience, content, and storytelling to create an intuitive and compelling shopping experience. They will introduce incentives and motivators for customers to purchase, such as on-site merchandising and promotional strategies. They will continue to iterate and test changes to the user flow and site experience, using data and analytics to identify new and incremental opportunities. The more business-focused ecommerce leader will also bring with them a GM mentality. They will keep company financials and profitability at the core of every decision, and even introduce additional growth opportunities, for example, expanded payment methods.
While this individual will likely support early customer acquisition and focus on ongoing improvement, you will soon need to turn your sights to the next key hire.
With your ecommerce foundation established, you now need to accelerate the volume of users coming to your site. Performance marketing is a critical component of driving sustainable growth in any ecommerce company and when done well, can be a source of competitive advantage. While we often see companies at this stage make the mistake of hiring a general marketing leader such as a VP of Marketing, what they really need is an experienced and knowledgeable expert in customer acquisition.
Your second hire, a Performance Marketing lead, will be hyper-focused on driving potential customers to your site through key channels such as Google search (SEM), paid social, re-targeting, and even Influencers and Direct mail. They will be focused on filling the “top of the funnel” so your Head of Ecommerce can convert them into sales.
It’s important to target candidates with a proven track record of selling a similar type of product at a similar growth stage company. The following are a few dimensions to consider when scoping this position and its level:
The answers to these questions will impact the types of customers you are targeting and inform the specific acquisition strategy your company needs. Make sure you are hiring someone who knows your target market
We are often asked by clients whether a Head of Ecommerce and a Performance Marketing Lead can be combined into a single role. While we see many companies do this, the skillsets for each are unique and the roles are distinct. Because these two functions are so central to the success of an ecommerce company, it is critical to hire someone with the depth of expertise needed for each function and the time to focus on it. Therefore, we advise our early-stage clients to regard them as two distinct positions.
As direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce companies are ready to expand beyond the above two key hires, we find their next hiring needs diverge. These are the typical next marketing hires, listed in the order we have seen most effective for many DTC ecommerce companies, but consider them based on your highest-priority needs.
While it is alluring to hire individuals with experience from prestigious large corporations, the nature of a startup is different. At this stage, everyone at the company needs to be a “doer” and know how to excel with limited resources. Whether hiring your Head of Ecommerce, your Performance Marketing Lead, or your more junior functional experts, we see the best results when clients hire individuals who have already demonstrated success at a similar stage startup.
In summary, hiring for a marketing function is not a “one size fits all” type activity. But from our experience, the roles, sequencing and considerations above have proven successful for our clients.
We have published an example Org Chart for First Marketing Hires at Early-Stage B2C E-Commerce Companies, a fully built-out marketing org chart for an ecommerce company in the Resources section of our website, and we have role scoping frameworks there for many of the most common marketing roles. If you need additional support as you define your own approach, RevelOne is here to help.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
Roughly half of the top fastest-growing B2C tech companies in the US have a CMO running their marketing efforts. The rest have a VP or ‘Head of’ title1 at their marketing helm. These latter companies are arguably finding great success without a resident CMO. So what makes this role so special? And more importantly, how do you know when you need one?
What makes a “CMO” Unique
In order to know when you need to invest in a CMO, it is first important to understand what makes this role different from other marketing leadership positions. Let’s examine 5 of those key differences:
How to Determine When you Need a CMO
Now that we have defined 5 unique elements that make the CMO role unique, let’s examine 5 correlating business indicators that can determine when is the right time is to invest in one:
If one or more of these situations/scenarios apply to your business, it may be time to consider a CMO.
How to Distinguish a CMO from Other Marketing Leaders
Your CMO is unique because they will assume a new set of strategic responsibilities that include navigating internal and external politics, facilitating increased cross-functional collaboration, serving as a visible business leader across the organization, and focus on long-term strategies to drive company sustainability. You may be wondering, can your current VP or Head of Marketing step into this role, or do you need to hire externally? Let’s look at 5 key skills and capabilities of a CMO to help you identify them:
We recognize that hiring a CMO is a big decision, and as you consider your potential need and subsequent search for a CMO, we hope this information is helpful. At RevelOne, we specialize in identifying and placing senior-level marketing executives and CMOs. So if you still have questions, we are here to help.
References:
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
This is the second article in our six-part series analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high-growth, consumer-focused U.S. tech companies to better understand the skills, experience, attributes, and backgrounds that separate them from the rest. We dispel myths, share interesting findings, discuss key takeaways, and explore if predictive indicators exist to identify who will be the most successful marketers. (Our methodology can be found at the end of this article.)
Our first article sharing high-level findings can be found here.
Since 2010, the percentage of people in the US who earned a bachelor’s degree jumped from 30% to 36%. Those majoring in key quantitative studies increased from 12% to 14%. And the percentage of people in the U.S. aged 25-29 with a master’s degree increased from roughly 5.5% to 9.5%.
Most people would agree that higher education is increasingly important for finding a job, along with working in your select field. But can a person’s unique educational background indicate their likelihood to succeed as a top marketing executive at a high-growth consumer startup, or even predict their success?
We turn to the data and our analyses of over 100 elite B2C marketing executives and dig deeper into the formal education of top marketers to examine how education correlates with the careers of elite marketing leaders at high-growth tech startups. We examined several key factors such as types of universities attended, earning an MBA, types of degrees, and even how the educational experience of elite marketers may be changing over time. We share our findings below.
1. Graduating from a top university or having an MBA are not required to be a successful marketer
As part of our first article in this series, we noted that the top 28 universities in the U.S. produced 49% of the Elite Marketers in our study. That is a lot considering they are only 28 schools among thousands. But, 51% of our top marketers did not attend a top university, clarifying that a top school is not required to be an elite marketer.
The data also suggests that an MBA is not required to be an elite marketer at a fast-growing tech company – only 38% of them have an MBA. While some of the most evolved tech companies still target marketers with a prestigious university on their resume, or that desired additional business degree, the data speaks for itself. From a talent acquisition perspective, for fast-growing tech companies looking for their next marketing leader, a top school and an MBA, is not something that should be required for success.
2. Top Marketers with a Quantitative Degree are More Likely to Be ‘Performance’ Marketers, and Less Likely to Work at an Agency or in CPG
Of the Top Marketers in our study whose professional careers focused on Performance Marketing, 67% had a quantitative degree (e.g. Mathematics, Economics, Finance, Statistics, or Computer Science). Of our top marketers who are Brand/Communication specialists or general marketers, only 26% had one of these quantitative degrees. Whether a quantitative degree provides the knowledge for a performance and data-driven approach, or marketers with a quantitative degree were already predisposed to turn to the data in their marketing career, we cannot say. But it doesn’t come as a surprise that having strong quant skills (from your degree or other experiences) appears to be a critical factor in setting yourself up for success in a performance marketing role.
Our data also suggests that a quantitative degree may predict where a future top marketer starts their career. Top marketers with a quant degree are 3.5x more likely to get a job in consulting, but less than ½ as likely to take a position at a marketing agency or CPG brand.
Note that 33% of top performance marketers in our study did not have a quantitative degree, thus this degree should not be required when hiring a performance-driven marketing leader.
3. Elite Marketers Who Graduated from a Top 28 University Are More Likely to Have Majored in Quantitative Studies and More Likely to Earn an MBA
Of the elite B2C marketers in our study who graduated from one of the country’s top universities, 57% of them went on to earn an MBA – well over half. Of those who did not attend a top university, only 19% went on to earn an MBA – not even a quarter. Perhaps marketers from a top university believe more strongly in the power of an MBA. Or, perhaps peer influence plays a role — with so many peers getting (or planning on getting) an MBA, it seems the logical course of action for them to get one as well.
There’s a marked difference in our top university graduates for quantitative degrees as well. A substantial 45% of top marketers who went to a top school earned a quantitative degree (e.g. Mathematics, Economics, Finance, Statistics or Computer Science). Of those top marketers who did not attend a top 28 university, only 28% of them chose a quantitative field. This further implies that our top university graduates are clearly making different choices.
Our first finding reveals having an MBA is not required to be a successful marketer. Similarly, since only 37% of our top marketers have a quantitative degree, that’s not required to be a successful marketer either. But, for those employers who still lean towards these two things as “requirements,” they will be more likely to find both in marketers from a top university.
4. Top Marketers with a Quantitative Degree are More Likely to be Men
Men make up 63% of the top marketers with a quantitative degree, while women only account for 37%. You have likely encountered the recent movement encouraging more women to study and work in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) where they are underrepresented. The data reflects this same underrepresentation in our elite marketers from an educational standpoint.
However, women make up 56% of the Elite Marketers in our study, so while women may skew away from quantitative fields today, it clearly does not impede their ability to ‘represent’ when it comes to leading marketing for high-growth, consumer startups.
5. Top Marketers with an MBA are Less likely to Move Jobs Frequently
Among our MBA grads, 59% have been at 3 or fewer companies in the last 10 years. Of our top marketers without an MBA, 42% have been at 3 or fewer companies in the last 10 years. When earning your MBA as a professional, the company you work for sometimes sponsors your degree in exchange for a commitment, and perhaps this promotes longer tenures. Or perhaps it is as simple as those without an MBA are more inclined to move companies in an effort to further their careers vs investing in an advanced degree.
Regardless, for fast-growing companies looking for their next marketing leader to stick around, they should first look at each candidate’s employment history directly for red flags like multiple short stints under 18 months. But all things being equal, the data suggests that top marketers with an MBA will usually be less likely to leave quickly.
6. Fewer Elite Marketers are coming from Top Schools or Earning Their MBAs, but More are Graduating with a Quantitative Degree
Among the top marketers in our study with over 26 years experience (the oldest generation among our elite marketers), an overwhelming 65% of them attended one of the top 28 schools in the country. Of our remaining top marketers with 6 to 25 years experience, only 45% are graduates from top universities, including 46% within our youngest cohort – 6 to 10 years experience. The data suggests that a top university education is becoming less common in top marketers at fast-growing tech companies than it once was.
Our data also shows that only 27% of top marketers with 6-10 years of experience have an MBA and only 29% of those with 11-15 years. Compare that to 43% of those with 16 years or more experience, and you’ll notice there is clearly a difference between generations. Is it possible that the younger generation just hasn’t yet earned an MBA but still plans on it? We think not. Most MBA students fall between 5-9 years of professional experience6, so if they haven’t already gotten an MBA by the time they hit 11 years experience, they probably won’t.
Lastly, 37% of all of the elite marketers in our study had a quantitative degree, while a staggering 55% of all elite marketers with under 11 years of experience have one. As a leading executive search firm for some of the fastest-growing tech companies in the country, we are seeing more and more companies turn to Performance and Growth Marketers to lead their marketing efforts, leaning more heavily into the science of marketing, since marketing channels are increasingly more measurable.
Considering the upcoming generation of marketing leaders are increasingly quantitative, coming from universities without top names, and less inclined to earn an MBA, hiring managers and recruiters should be sure their hiring tactics are reflecting the times.
As the educational diversity of our top marketers suggests, there is no single academic path that will predict success in elite marketers at high-growth, consumer-focused tech companies. However, every role requires its own unique set of skills and experience, which hiring managers and recruiters need to meticulously define.
Perhaps certain educational indicators above may assist in finding the perfect match for any given role, or even help the young and aspiring marketing leaders of tomorrow, develop their own academic roadmaps today. Education alone however cannot identify or predict a successful marketing leader. In upcoming articles, we explore more areas including career experience, functional expertise, and even gender for implications into how fast-growing tech companies can find and hire their next great marketing leader.
Our Full Article Series Includes:
If you are interested in our next articles in this series, please follow RevelOne on LinkedIn.
Methodology
We identified the most senior marketing leaders at over 100 of the highest growth tech companies in the US.
How we determined the companies: The fastest-growing tech startups included in our study had to meet several key requirements. Companies had to be funded by a top tier VC (see list below), be a consumer-focused business, have an employee count between 100 and 5000, and have been identified as a “unicorn” ($1 billion or greater valuation) or be a “successful, high growth company” in one of the following publications: CB Insights and Fast Company 50 Future Unicorns, CNBC Disruptor 50 Companies, Forbes 25: Next Billion-Dollar Startups, Forbes Midas List, or raised $50 million or more in funding within the last 3 years per Crunchbase.
How we identified the marketing leader: The most senior marketing leader within each company was identified based on title. They had to be in a marketing role, must be located in the US, and must have a CMO, VP, SVP, EVP, Head of, Sr Director, or Director title.
How we conducted the analysis: Crunchbased was utilized for public company status, funding VCs and funding amounts. Company and marketers’ linkedin profiles were analyzed to determine company employee count, consumer focus, most senior marketers in an organization, location, titles, education, gender, work experience, years of experience, current role details, and career focus.
List of Top Tier VCs: Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer V Partners, Founders Fund, GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture partners
List of Top 28 Universities: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Duke, UPenn, Wharton, Brown, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Cornell, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, UVA, Dartmouth, NYU, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Wash University, Michigan.
References
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
With marketing talent in high demand across both verticals and company stage, closing a “finalist” candidate quickly and effectively is challenging. High-quality candidates are generally interviewing at multiple companies, and their discussions with you may even drive them to explore and entertain multiple offers before making a decision. In addition, every offer has multiple factors including title, comp, role definition, and the emotional dynamics of the process. Given these potential challenges, we sat down with several experts from the RevelOne talent team to understand how you can increase your chances of closing the person you want for the role.
1. Realistically evaluate what you can offer
In the previous articles in this series (How to Scope the Role, Targeting and Search Strategy, Interviewing for Successful Outcomes), we emphasized the importance of doing your homework to understand what you can offer a potential hire. This becomes especially important when working to close a candidate. Are there certain compensation levers that can be adjusted? Is the location or title set in stone? Or can you adapt certain requirements for the right individual? If your company might be flexible about working remotely post-COVID, for example, you may have the ability to be more flexible on certain elements of a role. It’s best to establish this clarity internally before you engage with a candidate to avoid creating frustration and confusion.
2. Transparency is the best policy
“A candidate recently shared that they had a great experience with a company because the company was incredibly clear and transparent throughout the entire process,” shared Arthur Ly, Vice President at RevelOne. Knowing what you can offer someone is essential, but you should also be prepared to share this information with them. Establishing an environment of trust and clear communication early in the process leads to candidates more comfortable participating in an open and honest exchange.
3. Listen to what the candidate is looking for
Dig a little deeper early in the interview process to uncover potential frustrations and pain points with a candidate’s past roles and employers. We suggest asking questions such as “What would you have changed about your last position?” or “What are you hoping to do differently in your next role?” to understand their personal aspirations and expectations for their next position. If you can provide what they are seeking, let them know LOUD and CLEAR. However a word of caution: Don’t over-promise and under-deliver or postpone a disappointing conversation because you really like a candidate.
4. Continue to check-in throughout the entire process
“Smart savvy clients will continue to check in throughout the entire process,” shared Katie Droke, Senior Account Director. This demonstrates that you are invested in them and that you care about their experience. Checking in also allows you to gauge the candidate’s interest level while at the same time reconfirming their reasons for wanting to pursue a new opportunity. You want to know if anything has changed in their personal or professional circumstances (i.e., a new offer, a location requirement) to avoid unnecessary surprises when your offer is on the table. If a new opportunity has arisen, inquire what makes it attractive as well as any potential concerns.
5. Remember, timing is everything
The more time you take to make decisions throughout the process, the more time the candidate has to explore other offers. “In a highly competitive market, strong candidates generally stay available for 4-6 weeks” shared Tina Yung, Senior Account Director. Schedule interviews quickly after you have decided to continue with a candidate, and once you have made a final decision, let the candidate know immediately. If the decision to extend an offer is made on a Friday afternoon, pick-up up the phone to congratulate the candidate. Let them know that HR will be following up with them the next morning or after the weekend with more details.
6. Create a sense of urgency
Highly competitive candidates will not be lacking in great opportunities, which means they will likely want to maximize all aspects of their new role. This often results in a candidate requesting more time to make a decision. To avoid unnecessary delays, clearly define and communicate the timeline before the interview process begins. Then stick to deadlines for follow-up rounds and final decisions. “If a candidate continues to drag out the process without clear explanation, they are probably not that interested,” shared Arthur. However, “it’s important to also understand their specific situation” he continued. “Often candidates have invested a lot of time in a competitive opportunity and want to see it through.” In these cases, it’s good to be adaptable and understanding.
7. Don’t lowball
Compensation conversations are where we have often seen even the best organizations slip up. They will come in far too low or remain inflexible on a small difference. “You would be surprised how many companies we have seen lose great candidates over $5 or $10K,” shared Katie. If you have done the preparation to know what you can offer and what the candidate will expect, you’re wasting their time and yours with an offer that pushes them away.
8. Empower candidates with a choice
“Listening to what they value – giving them a choice – empowers a candidate,” shared Tina, Senior Director. While some companies have very tight bands, many smaller organizations and startups have the ability to be flexible with compensation. If there are multiple levers that you can pull to adapt to the specific candidate’s requirements, give a candidate options. Is base less important because they are excited about the growth potential of equity? Does a performance-based bonus incentivize them? Ask what they are looking for and see if you can respond to empower and excite them about the opportunity.
9. Make it meaningful
While you can lose a candidate over starting with too low of an offer, the compensation package is not the only element of the job. While compensation may be a deal-breaker, it is generally not what sells the role. “It’s important that you highlight the more intangible elements of the job – career professions, impact, challenges the role will tackle, why THEY are the one for the role – throughout the process,” shared Tina. Create meaning and dignity so that the decision between your organization and a competitor doesn’t come down to a difference of $5K.
10. Give candidates a remote “bear-hug”
Remote work makes it more difficult to “awe” candidates in the same way you may have (on-site visits, swag, etc.), so think of creative ways to still “bear-hug” candidates and introduce them to employee culture (e.g., zoom happy hours). We suggest an early congratulations to come from a senior executive, even the CEO, and follow this with a warm welcome from all others they have engaged with throughout the process. Make them feel wanted. Show them how thrilled you are to have them be part of the team, and remind them why they are the one for the job.
“The most important thing is that you make sure the candidate is happy throughout the entire process,” shared Katie. This means doing the necessary preparation, supporting an environment of open communication, and proactively addressing a candidate’s personal aspirations and compensation needs. Ideally, the offer then becomes a mere formality.
We hope that the strategies outlined in this article help you provide a great candidate experience, and ultimately improves and strengthens your outcomes with potential hires.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
A successful interview strategy should both help you make smart choices about which candidate to hire and get them excited to join your organization. Approaching the interview process holistically and deliberately will help you avoid missed opportunities, declined offers, and poor hiring decisions. To understand the nuances of how the right interview process can drive better outcomes with prospective candidates, we talked to several of our RevelOne talent experts about what they had seen work across the hundred-plus searches they had supported across the firm.
It’s natural to want to jump right into interviews with a strong candidate who seems to have it all. It’s critical that you first define the outcomes you are hiring for beyond a broad list of the responsibilities and functional areas under the role. “It’s important to remember that the interview process is bi-directional,” shared Tina Yung, Senior Director. Too often, we see companies embark on interviews before appropriately scoping a role in the context of what specific business outcomes the person needs to achieve in the role over the next 2-3 years. In some cases, the interviews turn into a forum, which is not a good experience for the candidate. She may feel uneasy about the organization’s direction and question whether she’s set up for success. It’s also important to make sure that various stakeholders in the organization are aligned as well. For additional guidance on scoping a role, you can check out our article.
When designing your interview process, it can be tricky to strike the right balance between obtaining the depth of information you need and not chasing a candidate away with unrealistic expectations. Remember, top candidates are also in high demand, and they are likely interviewing at multiple companies. We encourage you to critically evaluate what you are asking of them – the number of rounds, the length of the interviews, and the time commitment of supplemental projects. If a project is required, it should take place later in the process, be specific to the role, and appropriate for the level. If the same insight can be obtained during an interview, either through a detailed walk-through of past work or by asking more technical questions, a project may not be necessary.
When designing the interview loop, a well-coordinated approach will not only make a good impression on a candidate but support your team in better decision making. We suggest having key stakeholders focus on different subject areas, and enable the convenient sharing of information through scorecards, shared docs, or standardized templates. Even if it’s a quick update via Slack, make sure interviewers get a download on what was discussed in previous rounds. You will avoid frustrating candidates with redundancy and obtain more insight in the limited time you have with them.
For an interview to be effective, a candidate must authentically represent themselves. Start the interview by establishing a personal connection and/or demonstrate a genuine interest in something that matters to them. Doing so will set the tone for open and honest communication as you move on to more substantial topics. Additionally, save your overview of the job and company for the end of the interview to avoid the candidate pitching too directly at what they think you are looking for.
A strong candidate will have well-prepared responses to the obvious questions (e.g., Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Strengths? Weaknesses?). Consider asking questions that won’t elicit a generic response, such as “What is an example of a past assignment you would now approach differently?” or “How have you motivated someone when they were struggling with new responsibilities?” Mix up your follow up questions as well. Watch how applicants think on their feet -— it’s a good indicator of how they’ll deal with day-to-day challenges.
Marketers are often good at marketing themselves, and it can be tricky to evaluate what work they were personally responsible for. You’ll want to “double-click” for the next level of detail by asking several follow-up questions. For example: “What was your role and who else was involved? What technology and tools did you use and why? What were their limitations? What did you learn? What would you do differently next time? What metrics did you use to track success? What data did you wish you had but didn’t?” Answering these “next level down” questions will give you a sense of where the candidate was deeply involved in driving results and where they were just a participant. For more detail on how to evaluate real impact, see How to Interview Marketers (who are often good at marketing themselves).
The most successful hires will be a strong match for both the job and the workplace culture. Don’t overlook “fit” because of a dazzling resume or experience that exactly matches your company’s size and stage. “I tend to ask more open-ended questions to get a sense of communication style and personality” shared Arthur Ly, VP of Talent. Open dialogue will provide important insight into a candidate’s management style, handling of conflict, collaboration patterns with peers, and other “non-functional” topics, which becomes particularly important with more senior positions.
There are many components to what makes a strong marketer take a new role (opportunity, base, equity, title) so you want to start uncovering what’s important to the candidate early in the process. These many variables can make the offer process complex, but they also give you multiple levers to play with. Can bonuses be used to bridge comp gaps? Can you be flexible on the title, role definition, or org? Many companies leave these questions towards the end, but it’s good to gather information along the way. If it seems like there won’t be a fit, it’s good to save time and the relationship. In cases where you are progressing in the process and moving towards a close, it’s good to set expectations and exchange signals before the final offer stages. This also reduces friction and risk in the end stages.
The sales mantra “time kills all deals” holds in hiring as well. You have to balance the need for a thorough mutual evaluation with the time investment you are asking of the candidate and the overall duration of the process. “The best candidates are will not be on the market for long,” shared Yung. Processes that go on too long can allow time for a previously passive candidate to explore competing opportunities and even create friction and doubt. You may encounter internal delays, in that case, provide consistent updates and continue to check-in so that they do not mistake your silence for disinterest. Do not leave a candidate waiting for weeks between rounds, even if you are not sure if they will be the finalist. Remote work and Zoom have actually made scheduling and logistics easier, so take advantage. Keep the communication channel open throughout the entire process and use those touchpoints as a chance to share more about the company and build rapport.
“Early this year candidates were scared to leave their current positions, but that’s less true now,” shared Katie Droke, Talent Director. There are many active candidates on the market, and a strong interview process is a critical element of your hiring strategy. It’s a mistake to view the interview process as primarily a scheduling and information gathering exercise. It’s a complex set of human interactions that involve trust, education, negotiation, and the important opening steps in building what may turn into a multi-year relationship. Considering all the facets discussed above will help organizations define and manage strong processes for hiring marketing leaders and setting them up for success.
We would like to extend a big thank you to Tina Yung, Arthur Ly, and Katie Droke from the RevelOne Talent team for their expert contributions and insights featured in this article.
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
As the #1 marketing specialized retained search firm in the US, RevelOne is often asked by our clients how to accurately identify, or even predict, elite marketing talent. We believe identifying and hiring the right candidates takes marketing expertise and hard work, but to better address this challenge, we turned to the data.
We recently conducted a study analyzing over 100 Elite B2C Marketing Executives at high growth, consumer-focused tech companies in the U.S. to understand the skills, experience, attributes, and backgrounds that separate them from the rest. To be considered an “Elite Marketer,” you have to be the Marketing department leader at a company backed by a top tier VC that has achieved or is fast approaching “unicorn” status. For each marketing leader of these outstanding start-ups, we analyzed their LinkedIn profiles for the traits that led to their success (more details on the methodology can be found at the end of this article.)
In a 6-part article series, we will dispel myths, share interesting findings from our research, discuss key takeaways, and explore if predictive indicators exist to identify who will be the most successful marketers. Below are an initial 5 findings from our research.
The top 28 universities in the US produced 49% of the Elite Marketers in our study. So clearly, top universities have historically produced far more than their share, as only 6.25% of the 4,000 colleges and universities in the US produced basically half of the top tech B2C marketers in our study. That said, 51% did not attend a top university, indicating a top school is not required to be an elite marketer. In addition, our study also showed that only 38% of the top marketers on our list have an MBA.
So, while it may be common practice for employers to require a prestigious university on a resume, or be biased towards individuals with an MBA, the data suggests this practice may cause them to overlook a large set of Elite Marketers. From a talent acquisition perspective, many hiring managers might be using top universities and MBAs as screening criteria, we would recommend casting a wider net considering candidates who meet your skills, experience and cultural fit requirements.
Of all the Elite Marketers in our study, 75% have previous experience working at a public company. That surprised us. At first, the correlation between experience at a large, public company and success at a high growth startup may not make sense. However, these large corporations thoroughly vet employees before hiring them, invest in their skills development, offer structured training, and provide valuable peer networks available to tap for expertise on demand. All these elements create the opportunity for marketers to develop specialization and depth of expertise in a given function, to move between roles easily gaining additional experience, and access to a sea of experts from other disciplines and functions to learn from and grow. That type of experience is arming top marketers with an arsenal of best practices, and firsthand experience of what long term success looks like.
It is also notable that 43% of our elite marketers worked at a marketing agency at some point in their career. This is higher than many would expect. The data suggests while a mix of in-house and agency experience may be common, it is not critical. Marketers who have spent time within an agency gain experience working with many different clients, projects and situations. Interestingly, only one of our top marketers worked at a marketing agency immediately before their current leadership position.
From our experience doing over 600 retained searches in Marketing and go-to-market roles over the past few years, the most successful hires have demonstrated success previously in a similar stage or size company. While most of our top marketers have public companies experience, we don’t think this should become a requirement for top marketing searches at VC-backed tech companies, especially early to mid-stage growth companies. We encourage tech startups to stay focused on the functional skills and experience they require and concentrate on candidates with previous success at companies of a similar size or stage.
A surprising 39% of Elite Marketers have never left a company in under 18 months. And, 68% have been at all but potentially one of their roles for at least 18 months throughout their career. Job-hopping just doesn’t seem to be in their DNA.
Whether their longer tenures are due to their success and retention in a role, their own desire to see their work through, or other reasons, our analysis doesn’t reveal. We can speculate, however, that some shorter stints are driven by positive outcomes, such as an acquisition. We can also speculate that some shorter stints are likely beyond a marketer’s control, like challenges with company funding, lack of product-market fit, or even personal reasons outside of work altogether. Some marketers in growth companies also may enjoy earlier growth phases and choose to move in order to build somewhere else.
Only 16% of the elite marketers in our study have been at 3 or more jobs for less than an 18-month period. From our work with clients, we see that one short tenure is not uncommon, and two may be acceptable if the candidate has a good explanation for them, but it’s worth digging in carefully when candidates have 3 or more short stints.
Top marketers whose careers have spanned a variety of marketing disciplines (a “marketing generalist”) accounted for 51% of the elite leaders in our study. Marketers with a career strongly focused on specific marketing disciplines, like performance marketing, brand/comms, and product marketing (“marketing specialists”), accounted for 49%. For an elite marketer to successfully oversee the strategy and execution of all marketing initiatives – ranging from customer acquisition, retention, brand, communications/PR, and analytics – one might think a more diverse marketing background would be required. The data demonstrates otherwise. Those who have specialized in a more focused discipline, are just as capable to be an elite leader at a high-growth start-up as their more diversified counterparts. Great leaders lean on specialists on their team in areas they don’t know quite as well.
However, their particular areas of specialization may matter. Brand/Communications and Performance marketers made up 72% of our total specialized leaders (37% and 35%, respectively). Implying while specialization in a certain marketing discipline may still prove them capable, the specialty itself significantly matters. Few of the top specialized marketers were CRM/Lifecycle or Product Marketing specialists (2% and 10%, respectively).
In total, an impressive 86% of our entire elite marketer set come from either a general marketing background or have specialized in Brand/Communication or Performance marketing specifically. Considering some in our study have a background outside these three areas, we believe marketers with other backgrounds should not be discounted. But if fast-growing tech companies are struggling to narrow down their candidate search criteria, looking for one of these three types of backgrounds in their next marketing leader would be a great approach.
Women accounted for 56% of the Elite Marketers in our study. Compared to the US adult population in which women account for 51%1, and the US college graduates in which women account for 56%2, women are proportionately well represented when it comes to leading marketing for the country’s fastest-growing and successful tech startups.
However, one finding implies things may not be so equal. Only 34% of women top marketers have a C-level title (i.e., Chief Marketing Officer or Chief Growth Officer), while 63% of their male counterparts have C-level titles.
Perhaps this could be explained by the fact that women top marketers in our study are younger? 70% of women top marketers have less than 20 years of experience, compared with 46% of men top marketers.
So, we wanted to normalize for years of experience.
For the top marketers with less than 20 years of experience, 24% of women have a C-level title, while 52% of their male counterparts have one. This is a similar disparity to our first finding.
We also looked at our more experienced top marketers with 21 years or more of experience – which represent 40% of our top marketers in this study. Only 59% of women with 21+ years of experience have a C-level title vs. 72% of the men. Women are under-represented in the C suite even at this more experienced level. Combine this with an article by Business Insider stating that on average women executives make only 89% of what their male counterparts bring home, and one wonders if the title gap may be reflective of the same phenomenon happening in compensation.
Additional research on our top female marketing VPs could uncover if their executive team peers are also VP level, indicating an even playing field for all CEO direct reports. Or, if our top female marketing VPs are more likely to report to a COO or other C-level positions making a C-level title less likely.
Our arms-length analysis of the data doesn’t provide the reasons for the disparities, or insights into the minds of the hiring managers, but we certainly hope there is not a bias toward withholding C-level titles from women.
There are so many interesting findings from this analysis by gender, that we’ll be devoting an entire article to this subject in the near future. Stay tuned for much more on this important topic.
The above findings are just a few of the high-level insights our data has uncovered. To share even more of our findings, including deep dives into key areas, we will be sharing more of our research and takeaways over the course of several articles, while focusing on a few key topics:
Then, with our 6th and final article, we’ll wrap up the series with highlights and the implications of the study.
We hope these insights will help hiring managers understand the skills, experience, attributes and backgrounds of the top marketing leaders in tech. We also hope that, in many cases, these findings have predictive value and can help to identify the next generation of CMOs. By identifying the critical underlying skills required for success, we believe this study can broaden the pool of qualified candidates for important roles beyond the same repeating set of “top marketers” most employers go after and further assist with diversity efforts.
If you are interested in our next articles in this series, please follow RevelOne on LinkedIn.
RevelOne is the #1 marketing specialized retained search firm in the US. Our mission is to accelerate our clients’ growth by partnering with company leaders to turn their marketing goals into actionable talent strategies — we do this by hiring the best marketers at all levels — while sharing the knowledge and data we gain along the way to help hiring managers and marketers make better decisions.
Methodology
We identified the most senior marketing leaders at over 100 of the highest growth tech companies in the US.
How we determined the companies: The fastest-growing tech startups included in our study had to meet several key requirements. Companies had to be funded by a top tier VC (see list below), be a consumer-focused business, have an employee count between 100 and 5000, and have been identified as a “unicorn” ($1 billion or greater valuation) or be a “successful, high growth company” in one of the following publications: CB Insights and Fast Company 50 Future Unicorns, CNBC Disruptor 50 Companies, Forbes 25: Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes Midas List, or raised $50 million or more in funding within the last 2 years per Crunchbase.
How we identified the marketing leader: The most senior marketing leader within each company was identified based on title. They had to be in a marketing role, must be located in the US, and must have a CMO, VP, SVP, EVP, Head of, Sr Director, or Director title.
How we conducted the analysis: Crunchbase was utilized for public company status, funding VCs, and funding amounts. Company and marketers’ LinkedIn profiles were analyzed to determine company employee count, consumer focus, most senior marketers in an organization, location, titles, education, gender, work experience, years of experience, current role details, and career focus.
List of Top Tier VCs: Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer V Partners, Founders Fund, GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture partners
List of Top 28 Universities: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, MIT, Duke, UPenn, Wharton, Brown, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Cornell, Cal Tech, Johns Hopkins, UVA, Dartmouth, NYU, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Wash University, Michigan.
References
About RevelOne
RevelOne is a leading marketing advisory and recruiting firm. We do 300+ searches a year in Marketing and Go-to-Market roles from C-level on down for some of the most recognized names in tech. For custom org design, role scoping, and retained search, contact us.
