Marketing leaders create, communicate, and deliver value to customers in a way that creates a competitive advantage crucial to the success of your company. As a result, identifying marketing leaders early in the hiring process should be on every hiring manager’s priority list.

When you’re looking for marketing leaders, seek out these three top traits:

Vision

Marketing leaders don’t reach the top of the talent pool without the ability to envision a winning strategy. But the best marketing talent can also explain this vision in terms that non-marketing professionals can understand and support. Look for marketing talent that can paint a clear picture of his or her plans – one that both gets people excited to join the team and tells them what they need to do to make this common goal a reality.

Potential Interview Question: “If you could create a marketing plan for [product or service] today, what would you include?”

Collaboration

Any marketing manager can develop an idea on their own – but no marketing manager can turn that idea into reality without the help of people in the sales, operations, finance, and other departments. Seek marketing leaders who can collaborate. Key skills in collaboration include the ability to listen, to weigh opposing viewpoints, and to generate consensus to create buy-in and align the marketing team’s goals with those of other departments and the organization as a whole. To find marketing people who make a significant difference to your bottom line, choose folks who can collaborate.

Potential Interview Question: “When have you needed to generate buy-in on an idea at work? What did you do, and what was the result?”

Tenacity

Marketing leaders are “big idea” people. Top marketing talent has the planning skills to back up these ideas – but even so, generating buy-in and getting the job done takes work, focus, and effort. It takes courage and tenacity to stand up for one’s ideas, especially when they’re as innovative as good marketing efforts have to be. Choose a marketing leader with the confidence and tenacity to stick with a plan in the long term.

Potential Interview Question: “When have you failed at something? How did you respond?”

At SMR Group, our experienced recruiters specialize in placing sales and marketing professionals in companies that fit their skills and abilities. Contact us today to learn more!