Introduction
One of the biggest challenges an organization must face when it wants to grow is how to find new talent and hire top-notch leaders. Companies that are able to handle this challenge effectively have a significant competitive advantage because they can attract the brightest minds in their field with ease.
In order to find the right fit, you need someone who has a unique vision for your company, who understands your culture and values, and who is willing to take on the role of CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) for you.
Someone who will be able to help you expand your brand’s visibility, attract new customers and develop a loyal following.
What this basically means is that if you want to grow as an organization, you need a fractional CMO — someone who will help carry out strategic projects on an independent basis while reporting directly to the CEO or other organization leaders.
However, that doesn’t mean you should just hire anyone and everyone at your company because having half-assed CMOs at every level would be counterintuitive to growth.
Why? Because if you have weak leadership in your company or none at all then any leader can come in and screw things up really fast.
Instead, what you need is a strong team dynamic that allows everyone to contribute effectively towards building a strong future together as one organization instead of many small ones.
What does a strong growth culture look like?
In order to build a strong growth culture, you must build a strong brand. This is imperative because your customers are looking for brands that are going to offer them value and trust. To create this, you need to have a well-rounded team with different backgrounds, skillsets and personalities.
A strong growth culture also requires clear communication and transparency on the part of members of the organization. This means that everyone needs to be able to speak up in meetings and feel like they have a voice in the company.
Focus on mission-driven individuals
In order to build the right kind of growth culture for your company, you need people who are mission-driven.
These individuals will take their positions seriously because they know what it takes to grow as an organization from day one on board. Simply put, these people understand the importance of “the big picture” and what it takes to make things happen at scale within your industry.
To find these types of individuals, start by interviewing potential candidates within your network or recruiters from reputable companies in your industry. If you can’t find anyone internally who is mission-driven then try hiring outside talent that knows how to grow businesses at scale.
Finding a Fractional CMO
There are many ways to find a fractional CMO. Some of the most common methods include hiring an executive search firm, looking for employees at other organizations who are qualified, and building your own team.
What you should make sure of is that when you’re on the hunt for your fractional CMO, they have experience in areas such as marketing strategy, digital marketing and social media management.
This will ensure that you can get the best out of what they have to offer without having to worry about them not being able to do the job effectively. You should also make sure that they have current industry knowledge and experience with the latest marketing trends.
The Growth Advisory Board
We’ve all heard of the growth advisory board, a group of people who serve as advisors to the CEO.
However, it’s not unusual for a company to have this type of board even if it doesn’t call it that. The growth advisory board is often made up of employees who are in roles such as marketer, software engineer, or business analyst and is responsible for developing a strategic marketing plan for the organization.
But what about when you don’t have an office? What about when you don’t have resources and capital so you can hire a separate person to fill this role?
The answer is—you shouldn’t! Instead, you should hire a fractional CMO. A fractional CMO would be someone who is able to do all the work involved with creating a digital marketing strategy while reporting directly to your CEO or other top leaders in the company.
What does this mean?
It means that as long as they have the ability and talents necessary, they can take on tasks that might otherwise be very time-consuming and complicated in order to help build your company in any way possible.
This could include anything from web design work to social media management or even just website content development.
Hiring for growth: The recruiter’s perspective
A CMO is required to help grow an organization and advance its brand. So, what exactly do you look for in a candidate?
As a recruiter, I like to think of the CMO as someone who will be able to take a company from market leader to market dominator – someone who has the ability to transform a company’s growth objectives into reality.
That’s why I want to know that potential candidates are not only talented, but also willing and able to work hard and make sacrifices for their mission. They need to have a commitment and willingness that can lead them through thick and thin with your company for the long-term.
If they are not willing or able, then it might be better to find another CMO altogether. For example, if they are only looking for a short-term gig or aren’t open-minded about how you can grow your business together, then they won’t be able to contribute positively towards building an effective team dynamic.
It doesn’t matter how motivated they are if they don’t understand your culture and values at all. And if they don’t understand your vision then there’s no way they can execute on it in any meaningful way either.
Finding a Growth Leader
The first step to finding a growth leader is having the right culture. You need a company where people are proud and proud of their contributions to the company’s success and are willing to take part in the progress.
This can be achieved by creating a culture that values teamwork, building strong relationships with others, and treating all employees as equals.
The next step is making sure you have clear roles for everyone in your organization, so someone can fill the role of Chief Marketing Officer without stepping on anyone’s toes.
Not only does this make it easier for new hires, but it also helps departments stay focused on their respective goals and objectives.
The final step is determining what kind of person you need for this role. You need someone who has experience managing a marketing budget and knows how to build content strategies from scratch. Someone who specializes in digital marketing strategies would be ideal because they are able to see opportunities that other leaders might not notice.
Lastly, make sure you don’t hire just anyone! Hire someone with a good track record of being successful at what they do, someone who cares about your company as much as they care about themselves.
The hiring manager’s perspective
The hiring manager is always going to be the person who’s responsible for hiring the CMO.
This creates a potential point of friction between the two since the hiring manager is not always going to be an expert in marketing or have experience with leading marketing efforts.
That being said, there are some instances where this may not be necessary. For example, if you have a small company that doesn’t need any significant marketing investment then it might make sense to hire someone whose primary skill set is marketing and let them do their own thing without having to report back to multiple leaders.
Conversely, if your company needs a more focused approach with more development and less chaos, then you should probably look for someone who has experience in leading teams and will work well with your existing leadership team.
