Risk, Failure, and Revenue

Marketing requires risk taking. You must spend money before you make money, and the revenue return is harder to measure than sales. When you hire for sales, you can see what is working in a single sales call, while marketing is tremendously complex, requiring a symbiotic relationship between creative, data, distribution and more.

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Both positions drive revenue and finding exceptional leaders in both areas is hard. Marketing, specifically, is not straightforward and the breadth of talent in the space, coupled with how companies think about leveraging marketing for revenue growth, is different depending on many factors. But, when marketing is done right, pure magic happens. We’ve all seen it. The start-up that skyrockets, the Fortune 500 brand that has a turn-around, the PE backed business that reinvents itself. It is awesome when it happens, and we are in awe of the people that pull it off. From the outside it looks so easy, but for those on the inside, it is a rollercoaster of emotions ranging from extreme passion and belief to internal questioning and anxiety. Break-through marketing requires creativity, gut instinct, and courage. It also requires internal buy-in and everybody being willing to take the risk.

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When setting out to hire for marketing, many CEOs, especially first time CEOs, hope for that lightening in a bottle marketing moment but very few companies achieve it. Most companies are built brick by brick and most marketing is done that same way. So, when a CEO is conducting an executive search, how do they determine who the right type of marketer is for their company? Should they hire the creative visionary, who may capture lightening in the bottle? Or should they hire an executive that feels “safer” and can deliver steady growth?  

‍Below are three things to do before hiring to help determine the right type of marketer that will thrive in your company:

• Conduct a risk profile assessment.  How much tolerance do you have for risk?  Is the culture of the company conservative or does it have a culture of testing and failing?  How much cash are you willing to burn?  Where is your company in its life stage?  What kind of time do you have?  Are you comfortable with all or nothing?  Can the business afford to take a big swing and potentially fail?  Knowing the answers to these questions will help you (and your recruiter) understand the type of hire that will be successful in your company.
• Think about who you trust.  Every CEO is going to say they trust their executive leadership team, but trust doesn’t come easy when you are responsible for the bottom line, responsible to shareholders, responsible to employees, and responsible to the board.  Trust gets even harder when you are a founder, building the company from the ground up and then leaving its success or failure in other people’s hands.  The most outstanding marketers will bring forward ideas that may feel audacious, edgy, and filled with risk. The most creative marketers won’t follow what others have done and they will look to continuously break boundaries which means they are going to break other things along the way.  Ask yourself if you are ready for this type of experience and if you can really let go and trust.
• Interview consistently. Many CEOs are wooed by the marketer who came out of the sexy brand or is a named brand themselves.  Don’t be.  Marketers are people and all people are different.  Designing an interview process that is both quantitative and qualitative, and puts your candidates on an even playing field, is important to understanding who will deliver against the requirements you set for success.  Nobody wins with a failed hire and a well thought through executive search interview process, mapped to your business needs, will help mitigate your risk of hiring wrong.

When hiring for marketing, know that it is not a one size fits all game.  Creative visionaries are the people that will enable you to take the biggest swing, but you truly must have the appetite for risk and the mindset and belief to support them.  If you don’t, win the game with base hits and focus on hiring a marketing leader who will grow your business methodically.  Both ways can get you there, one path just may be better for you than the other.