To say that chief marketing and chief financial officers have historically had a taut relationship is an understatement. CFOs often look at the marketing function as a soft cost — purely in terms of profit and expense. They typically don’t understand the ethereal nature of traditional marketing metrics, such as “brand awareness,” “positioning” and “shifting perceptions.”  In fact, the CFO party line on the marketing organization is that it has dodged financial accountability for far too long and after extensive investment.

In a down economy, that’s code for slash your budget or prove your worth.

CMOs need to take on the mantle of leadership and learn the CFO’s lexicon for return on investment.  By creating a data-driven culture, you can translate your creative strategies into terms the CFO can understand and support.

One of the best places to start this effort is with your web analytics. Websites consume corporate dollars, and it’s a reasonable demand to prove with cold, hard facts that the investment is worthwhile. Although more marketing departments are taking the reins of web analytics away from IT, most are still clumsily fooling around with it. Most organizations haven’t really figured out how to take advantage of this treasure trove of data.

It’s not for lack of trying. Forrester Research estimates that businesses will spend $953 million dollars on web analytics in 2014, with an average annual growth of 17% from 2009. Still, it likens web analytics to a teenager in terms of maturity in the corporate marketing sphere.

The challenge, therefore, is before you. Marketing has a reputation for being surrounded by data but often falling short of effectively leveraging it. CMOs need to shift their work from the more subjective, intuition-driven approaches to a more objective, analytical and data-driven operation.

In practical terms, the shift has four distinct tracts. You are closely watching data, such as traffic sources and volume increases, conversion and bounce rates, etc. But the next step is moving beyond tracking to data analysis. Link the experiences your targeted audience is having on your corporate websites with your marketing programs, using your traditional measurements. Explicitly connect your work to data from your analytics.

Next, cross over from being data-informed to data-driven. That is, make decisions and changes in your marketing programs based on that data. All of this is quite an undertaking, but you’re not done yet. The fourth element is presenting your analysis in ROI terms, aligning your marketing measures with corporate goals and objectives, including profit, growth and savings.

We’ve seen this changeover take place a few times, in which interim marketing executives go in and create web analytics programs where none existed previously and begin to make the shift toward data driving marketing decisions.

Both chief executives understand to a certain extent that there is a bit of intangible when it comes to marketing. A bit of magic, a dose of uncertainty and an unending quest for perfection in timing. Even CFOs grasp the concept of assumption. When justifying your need for marketing dollars,  consider a language soaked in fiscal responsibility and methodical analysis.

Web analytics is a good place to start, because of the web’s growing centrality to business. But it’s not the only place. In our next post, we’ll unpack more practical steps in shifting their culture and the other domains CMOs need to mine for data.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing executive search firm in the United States. Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally. Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers. MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

MarketPro, a WBENC certified business, opens office in Philadelphia to serve customers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.

We are excited to add this location to our current offices in Atlanta and Detroit.

MarketPro – Philadelphia

12^th Floor- East Tower

1500 Market Street,

Philadelphia, PA 19102

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading marketing staffing and marketing recruitment firm in the USA.  Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally.  Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers.  MarketPro places talent all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry

 By Bob Van Rossum

After you know How to Prepare for an Interview you can learn some specifics about the phone interview. 

The phone interview is inherently challenging as you lose the non-verbal feedback you receive in a face-to-face interview.  Ultimately this leads to some common mistakes.  

Phone interview Do’s and Don’ts:

1. Do NOT under any circumstances have the pages of notes you have created about your career in front of you when you interview.  You do not want to use the notes as a crutch, you do not want to be fumbling through paper looking for an answer and most of all you do not want to sound like you are reading the answer.
2. Be in a quiet place where you can focus on nothing but the interview.  Door closed.
3. Do not be doing anything else, watching the news, sending an instant message, checking e-mail.  The interviewer deserves your undivided attention.  Television off, computer off, cell phone off.
4. Make the call from a land line.  Nothing ruins a phone interview faster than a dropped cell phone call. 
5. Be formal, interviews are naturally a formal process.  You need to be at least as formal on the phone as you would be in person.  Leave the sarcasm and wit for after you already have the job.
6. Do not feel the need to fill up every moment of silence with the sound of your voice.  Answer the question, fully and completely, demonstrating results / achievements and be quiet.  The interviewer is now deciding which question to ask you next, a common mistake at this moment is to get nervous due to the silence and spend the next 30 minutes giving the interviewer a running commentary on your life since age 2.  I have never seen this work very well, I have seen candidates do this after I have warned them not to. 
7. Do have 4 or 5 questions prepared for the end of the interview.  You should have approximately 3 questions prepared related to the company and the job. 
8. Most importantly, close the interview showing you are results oriented, you are interested in the job and ask for the next step.  While you are at it, go ahead and learn what the real job description is:

Phone interview Final Questions: (Separate yourself from the others)

The final two questions I want you to ask after you come up with two or three of your own.  The 2 or 3 of your own will be around the job / company / opportunity.  These are the standard questions about products, job, scope of responsibility, etc. 

The final two questions are important, just like an in person interview, people will remember the beginning and the end.  Your goal at this point in time is to be invited in for an in person interview.  Do not put the cart before the horse and ask for the job, they do not have enough data on you to award it yet. 

The last question you want to ask the interviewer will vary based on who you are interviewing with hiring manager or human resources. 

Time is precious in the interview and asking the right questions is as important if not more important than answering questions well.  Assume you are competing against other talented professionals and everyone will have strong answers for the interviewer, so far you are only equal to the others.  Now is an opportunity to separate you from the pack.  You will not receive the same amount of time to ask questions that the interviewer will so let’s make sure the questions you do ask really count.  

Hiring Manager:

Second to last question – [FIRST NAME], I really appreciate your time today.  The [INSERT JOB TITLE HERE] role is one I am very excited about, it is a great next step for my career.  I believe I can really come in and add value to the role and the team.  Let’s look out 12 to 18 months and assume I have been able to exceed ALL your expectations.  What have we accomplished and how is the company better off for the effort?

That is a long question but as I said, you do not have much time to communicate your questions.  With this question, you have actually accomplished 4 very important things.

1. You have shown interest in the specific role, the importance of this cannot be overstated.
2. You have shown you are team oriented.
3. You have shown you are results focused.
4. Most importantly if you listen carefully you are about to understand:
   1. The real job description
   2. How to be successful in your first 12 months.

The real job description is something you need to uncover in the interview process.  Chances are the written one was created five years ago by someone other than the hiring manager.  Uncovering the true needs of the position is going to help you prepare for your in-person interview. 

The first year on any job is your most critical time.  Of the people who do not succeed, sometimes it is truly a lack of ability.  Most often it is a misalignment of hiring manager’s expectations with what the new employee sees as important.  New employee is using the job description the hiring manager received from HR and never actually read.

Last question – [FIRST NAME], this sounds like a great time to be joining [COMPANY NAME].  I am impressed with where the company is going and what I have learned about the team.  Do you have any concerns about moving me forward to the next step in the interview process?

With this question you have accomplished three critical items.

1. You have shown interest in the company.  This is equally and important as showing interest in the job and almost always over looked.
2. You have opened a window for them to express any concerns / objections they might have and therefore an opportunity for you to overcome them.  Many times a simple miscommunication derails an interview process.  If they have already decided to take you to the next step or to eliminate you from the process they will not mention anything.  If they are unsure of their decision they will share a concern with you.
3. Psychologically it is harder to say no to someone who asks to go to the next step than it is to say no to someone who does not.

By Bob Van Rossum

The most important thing to remember when preparing for an interview is:  The Company is NOT hiring you, they are hiring what you can DO for them.  The second thing to remember is interview performance is not indicative of job performance, which means the best candidate does not get the job, the candidate who interviews the best does.   An interview is an opportunity and when opportunity meets preparation you get success. 

The key to success in any interview is professional self awareness. 

If you have ever left an interview and thought of a better answer to one of the questions on the way home in your car, you were not appropriately prepared when you walked in.

Ultimately we want to avoid this scenario.  I get a call from the candidate after they leave my clients office after running through 4 or 5 interviews with various members of the team. As I pick up the phone, I am immediately struck by their enthusiasm.   “Bob, thank you for sending me in to this interview, this is a perfect next step for me in my career.  This opportunity has everything I am looking for.  The company is growing, the hiring manager is someone I can learn from.  I will have the opportunity to really create something.”  To which I say, “Great, tell me about how the interviews went.”  Oh everything went fantastic, I really felt strong I answered all the questions really well, there was this one question I did not answer very well, probably not a big deal, but if I just had more time to think about it, I would have had a great answer for them.  As soon as I got to my car I remembered the perfect example to share with them.    Should I mention something about it in my thank you note?  To which, I already know that the thank you note is now completely irrelevant. 

If you spent 2 hours learning about the company, you need to spend 8 hours relearning yourself.  If you have been in the real world for more than 100 days, you have accomplished many things and forgotten most of them.  Trying to remember them on the spot in the middle of an interview is an incredibly bad idea.  It only takes one bad answer to ruin your chances at the job of your dreams. 

I want you to sit down in quiet place and hand write out everything significant or interesting you have done in your career.  You need to hand write it as most of us are more creative when writing by hand versus typing.  You are going to break your background into 3 separate areas, first functional, second is leadership and third is culture.  I want you to take time to go through every role you have ever worked in, this could be multiple roles within the same organization and answer some very important questions. 

In regard to your specific job / function:

1. What was it like to work at the company during this time?
2. What were our challenges?
3. What were my individual goals?
4. Most importantly what were the quantifiable results achieved.  What would I define as my biggest accomplishments?
5. Why those results were important to the company.

In regard to your leadership ability: (if you have not had management responsibilities, you can skip this)

1. What is my leadership style?  Why?
2. Number of direct reports in each of your previous roles and total # on your team.
3. Top hiring success?
4. Example of a time I turned a mediocre performer into a top performer?
5. How do you motivate your team?
6. Most difficult management decision?

With regard to culture:

1. What was the culture of the organization?
2. Did the culture help or hinder success?
3. What would I have changed about the culture if I was empowered to do so?

After you go through all this one time this will become a working document.  You will add notes in the margin as you think of them.  You want to review your notes in detail 3 or 4 times prior to your interview.  Leave the notes at home, you do not want anyone you are interviewing with to see it.  If this is a phone interview DO NOT have the notes in front of you while you are on the phone.  It is not appropriate to be fumbling through your notes looking for answers, nor do you want to sound like you are reading your answers. 

The ultimate purpose of doing this is threefold:

1. To bring all your significant accomplishments to the top of your mind where you can easily access them.  You are now prepared to answer any question they ask because you know yourself.   You can easily access your best answer every time.
2. To increase your confidence in the interview.
3. You will have such ready access to the best answer you will actually be able to determine in the interview if this is really a place you want to work. 

Preparing this way will make every answer you give incrementally better, when you add all those increments up it makes a huge big difference in setting you apart from your competition.

Also check out The Phone Interview.

By Bob Van Rossum

A recent BusinessWeek article discusses “The Disposable Worker”.  It does a great job describing the challenges facing today’s workforce.   But for the biggest brands, it shows a growing and necessary trend.  How do I compete on a global scale deploying talent on an as needed basis, increasing my flexibility and decreasing my cost?  Ultimately how does this trend impact how marketing is done inside the enterprise?

Marketing departments are required to provide ever increasing ROI with fewer resources and less budget.  This is difficult to do when you have a large headcount filled with too many generalists.  The marketplace is changing so rapidly it is impossible to keep the perfect balance of skills on your team.  CMO’s are increasingly turning to interim marketing executives to; build an analytics function, launch a new product / brand or handle merger integration. 

Reality is your headcount is lower than it has been in years leaving your team overworked.  Your internal team does not have the skills or bandwidth to handle a large influx of work and move from execution to strategy.  Outsourcing to an agency or consulting firm is too expensive and your results are limited by the talent they have on their team / bench.  Alternatively for significantly less money, you can have an interim executive who has direct industry experience working by your side on a daily basis. 

In the end you get much more than just a recommendation you would receive from a consulting process.  You get a recommendation from someone who knows what it is like to live in an enterprise like yours, so the recommendation is one that can be implemented and then they stay around for as much of the actual implementation as you see fit.

By Bob Van Rossum 

The CMO role is changing more rapidly than any other “C” suite position.  CMO’s and the COO’s or CEO’s who manage them are scrambling to keep up.  While CMO’s used to be able to get away with understanding brand and advertising, this is no longer enough.  Any CMO with this selective toolbox is only going to provide a very limiting solution to their employer.  Hiring a CMO with this limited view of marketing is one of the reasons the average CMO tenure is 18 months.

Today’s CMO needs to understand how the business works.  This seems obvious, but too often marketing is relegated to the “make things pretty department”.  Only a CMO who understands the business deserves a seat at the big table.  If you are savvy enough to drive corporate strategy then you have the insight necessary to be a great CMO.

Analytics will drive your decisions.  Historically the most persuasive person on the marketing team was the one who was able to get ideas started and implemented.  Today, it all starts with customer data and dispassionate analysis.  We are seeing a trend of top analytics executives being promoted to CMO.  I expect the pace of that trend to accelerate. 

The CMO job is getting more difficult by the day.  New pressures include the evolving media landscape, economic uncertainty and responsibility for corporate strategy.  Continually we are in a period where more is expected with less. 

In addition to all the traditional responsibilities (branding, direct marketing, market research, etc.) we place on the CMO’s plate.  In order to keep their jobs, CMO’s need:

• Innovation – Both in products and how they market them. 
• Revenue Growth – Sales team is execution, marketing owns the sales strategy.
• Alignment – Cross-functional, global, executive team all need to be aligned with customer.
• Accountability – Both in investment and a focus on constant improvement
• Strategy – Top level CMO’s are driving corporate strategy, marketing strategy and sales strategy using customer centric data.

The result is when done correctly, the CMO is the second most powerful role in the organization.  In the future we will commonly see CMO’s promoted to CEO.

By Bob Van Rossum 

In Part One we discussed from a basic perspective why it is so difficult for a CMO to drive success.  Now we need to go farther into the challenges all CMO’s and those who hire them face.  Some suggest that the average CMO tenure is closer to 24 or 28 months, in reality they are measuring too small a universe of companies.  CMO tenure is a problem that only gets worse as company size decreases.  Smaller organizations need marketing now more than ever, however they tend to have less of an ability to measure the ROI their marketing programs bring.  As a result they tend to jump from one program to the next with no strategic marketing plan.    

The CMO Dilemma:  CMO’s face a common dilemma, do you focus on long-term innovation and maybe miss short-term goals or do you focus on the next ninety days and ultimately get passed by more aggressive competition?  One thing is for sure, organizations with the best financial results have CMO’s who have been around a while and have a real seat at the table in the C-Suite. 

How to recruit a new CMO:  The biggest challenge in finding a new CMO is not all CMO jobs are similar.  Unlike the CIO or CFO role, the CMO job actually can have more differences than similarities.  We have identified 5 distinctly different CMO gigs, which means depending on who you hire if you are not aware of what type of marketing organization your company has your chance of success is 20%.  Ultimately, not only do you need to identify what type of marketing organization you have, you need to recognize what kind of talent you have reporting to your CMO. The functional expertise of your existing marketing team will also change the type of expertise you need the CMO to have.  Bringing in a new CMO is a huge opportunity, not just to bring in better talent, but to re-define what marketing needs to do for your company.  Last thing in the world you want to do is bring in a new CMO and ask them to continue with the status quo that led to last person to leave in the first place.  

One of our competitors has published a whitepaper on The Successful CMO.  Ultimately the whitepaper leads companies down a path that will set the new CMO up to fail.  In part of the whitepaper, they outline a CMO’s range of responsibilities and the reality is no one has a career with enough breadth of experience for them to come close to checking all those boxes.   You get to be a senior marketer by being an expert in one area first and becoming a generalist later.  This means there are one or two things you do extremely well, a bunch of things you are good at and a few things you have never seen before.  Question is does your expertise as a marketer line up with the type of marketing organization you are walking into?  If not, even the brightest mind will fail as the CMO gig does not offer on-the-job training. 

Ultimately if you are inviting someone into the C-Suite, make it a big gig and hire someone who can exceed all expectations.  If you only want advertising and marketing communications, then an SVP of Marketing will suffice.  You will get passed by your competitors who truly understand the CMO is becoming more valuable everyday and the value they provide includes understanding consumer (or business) demand, product development, achieving top line growth and delivering on margin goals. 

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