One of the biggest challenges we have creating a marketing function in a company is recommending who to hire as the first marketer.  Currently, we’re working with two companies that don’t have anyone fully responsible for marketing.  In both cases, the first marketer they hire needs to hit the ground running – fulfilling the company’s marketing needs and working with an established sales team.  What does that person need to bring with them to start generating revenue and supporting the salespeople?  We always start with a few fundamental questions that help us decide who to hire first.

What’s the budget?

If a company goes broke hiring a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) that is far beyond their immediate needs, that’s not a good hire regardless of the education or experience they bring.  If everyone does their job, a marketer or salesperson should pay for themselves in added revenue.  In the beginning, every company needs to know what they can afford to pay and start with that.  If the revenue flows, then the budget can be revisited but everyone needs to earn their keep.

What are the immediate knowledge or experience gaps?

One of our current clients is co-owned by an engineer and a salesperson.  The owner who has experience in sales and marketing can add a lot to strategic conversations in that area.  He won’t be able to devote full-time hours to a CMO role but his knowledge will add a lot to the marketing team.  With the strategic side covered, this client may be able to get by with a Marketing Coordinator or Administrator until the budget allows them to hire a Marketing Manager.  If the owner can give direction and plan while the coordinator executes, that will be enough for now.

Another client without a marketer has an administrator available to do the marketing work but no one to plan or advise management.  The strategic contribution is missing so we are looking for ways to add that via a part-time person, retired expert, current employee with interest.

There are lots of ways to add expertise to a small business these days.

What is the growth timeline?

In a perfect world, employees in sales and marketing will move into their roles and start producing right away.  That additional revenue and workload will warrant more people on the sales and marketing team (and we’ll be able to find those amazing candidates whenever we start to seek them out, right?).  We suggest that our clients create a long-term plan for adding both sales and marketing people to their revenue generation team.  What skills will you need and when?

In marketing, maybe you need a Marketing Manager who can contribute both planning and execution for the coming year.  Soon the workload will be too much and you’ll need someone to help support the sales team or manage social media.  Will you need that additional support before or after you launch your product in a new market and need a new sales team in a different country?

Revenue is not a straight, upward line so your capacity to add people will not be linear, either.  Adding too many salespeople without the corresponding marketing support could be a disaster.  Adding too many marketers and not enough people to close the sales could be a similar mess.  Balance is key.  Look to growth forecasts for both production and revenue to determine who you can add and when.  Planning ahead also allows you to hire someone if you stumble across the right person for a specific role because you know who you need to add next.

In the end, every company’s marketing and sales teams are going to grow and develop differently because the needs and gaps are different.  Our recommendations are both unique to each of our clients and comprehensive.  Great marketers and salespeople are not always easy to find so having a plan will help you manage through labour market challenges.  Don’t get stuck with a great candidate and no job or an open position and no one to fill it.