The 5 Most Important Skills to Cultivate in Your Marketing Department

When it’s time to bring in a new addition to your marketing team, finding the right person can be an arduous task. This article discusses what qualities in a marketer help make a marketing team stronger, as well as how to narrow down an overwhelming list of resumes to make the right hire.

Finding the Right Fit with the Right Skillset

Hiring good people is often a daunting task. In fact, an astonishingly low percentage of new hires do well; just 19 per cent succeed in their role, with the majority lacking the minimum level of coachability required of them. Incorrect hiring choices lead to a difficult training process — one that is often costly and, ultimately, wasteful.

Hiring exceptional marketers is imperative: Your marketing department is your brand, identity, voice, and reputation. They are the heart of any organization as they directly connect the consumer to your company. Much is at stake when bringing a marketer on board, so it is crucial to hire the best of the best.

Thankfully, hiring and training exemplary marketers is possible. Focusing on a few key skills can help guide you from the first steps — like sifting through resumes and conducting face-to-face interviews — to the last stages of onboarding and mentorship. It takes quite a bit of work to capture top talent, but if you devote yourself to the process, your marketing department will certainly be rewarded, regardless of today’s KPIs.

Here are the five most important skills to cultivate in your marketing department.

Versatility

The overwhelming majority of new hires fail due to a lack of adaptability. According to Leadership IQ, 26 per cent of them fail due to an inability to incorporate feedback from their bosses and coworkers. The smallest percentage, 11 per cent, were unsuccessful due to technical incompetency. By far, it is most important for workers to possess the unteachable skill of versatility: the ability to learn new things, excel at new tasks, and respond to failure.

Superb marketers aren’t necessarily ones with long lists of qualifications, certifications, or degrees. They have the ability to implement criticism into their work. They assess their own weaknesses and strengths. Most importantly, they are able to pick up new skills and technologies with ease.

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