Comments on: Why Are Marketing Automation Managers So Hard to Find?

By: Melissa Davies

Melissa Davies — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:41:04 +0000

As a Marketing Automation Manager my biggest problem is finding management that actually gets it (it being Marketing Automation)and wants to move forward.

IMHO: This is the biggest issue: “2-5% of B2B firms have invested in full-featured Marketing Automation.” The reason why – this comes from a lack of leadership vs. lack of talent.

By: LoopFuse Blog » Blog Archive » Job Requirement: Experience with Marketing Automation software ?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:00:05 +0000

[...] recently read a great post by Jep on LeadSloth entitled “Why Are Marketing Automation Managers So Hard to Find?“. Although it was a great read, the one thing that kept bothering me was that the first [...]

By: Jep Castelein

Jep Castelein — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:59:46 +0000

Erik, great suggestion to look at the webmaster or road weary sales engineer. I could totally see that working.

By: Erik Bower

Erik Bower — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:50:17 +0000

A lot of my customers have this issue. They want to find exactly this mix of technical skill and marketing subject matter expertise. Not an easy formula.

Sometimes those people are very often right in front of their eyes. The company webmaster is a perfect candidate to mentor into this role. They have the seat-of-the-pants get it done experience from working on the website, and probably have been reading all that content so they know the product/service.

Another good internal candidate might be a road weary sales engineer. One thing about sales people I always say is that they are like comedians. They know which lines make people laugh, in their case, buy. So a sales engineer will know messaging and also have the technical skills.

So maybe look internally if you are underwhelmed by external candidates. I agree with the other comment about how business school grads are obsessed with branding. They need to go to the school of “where are my leads” for a while before they shake off the whole branding thing. Brand people have their place, just not in marketing ops.

My two cents.
Erik Bower

By: Jep Castelein

Jep Castelein — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:26:05 +0000

Ian: good advice to split up the workload

David: totally agree, see also my post on Marketing Automation ROI

Jeff: the really smart consultants will show you that that $400 is earned back many times over :- )

Kevin: love to chat more about this with you. I believe there will be a need for outsource marketing automation services, but haven’t seen a lot of demand yet.

By: Kevin Joyce

Kevin Joyce — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:24:02 +0000

Hi Jep, timely post! As we exit the recession the problem of finding these people is likely to increase. I feel that Marketing Agencies have a huge opportunity to pick up the slack and offer marketing operations services to companies who can’t attract or afford the talent full time. But that appears to be happening only slowly. Are agencies so buried in other opportunities they don’t have the bandwidth?
-Kevin

By: Jeff Stannard

Jeff Stannard — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:49:12 +0000

Yes, these skills are at a premium. No wonder why consultants can charge $400/month for very part-time work in this area.

By: David Satterwhite

David Satterwhite — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:16:32 +0000

Jep: love this comment “…in my opinion a marketing person is a sales person with budget!” Too often Marketing teams don’t realize that unless all that Marketing ties to Revenue it’s really a waste of money. Scott and I are totally in synch on this at Genius and had a good time doing a webinar with Geoffrey Moore on the subject a month or so back.

By: Ian Anthony

Ian Anthony — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:56:05 +0000

Great post Jep and some really interesting replies. My view would be that you are making things too hard for yourself by trying to find a single person with all the skills undoubtedly need to gain the full business benefits of Marketing Automation Technology. Why not split the task into more manageable chunks? Split out initial implementation including the definition of processes especially the interface between sales and marketing. Audit your contact data and segment to understand what else is required to support your goals. Devise a balanced lead nurturing strategy that will guide the required number of prospects through the funnel. With all this in place you can focus on running campaigns supported by the tool that are aligned to the business goals. Instead of trying to find one person to do all, this find one to manage it all by locating the appropriate resource either internally or externally to carry out the tasks.
Ian

By: Jep Castelein

Jep Castelein — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:32:01 +0000

Maria: demand generation is a great addition

Jeff: that makes a case for a multidisciplinary team rather than a single person

Jame: good point, we need to promote our profession better! :- )

Scott: thanks for clarifying your job requirements, and thanks for the link to the Hubspot book chapter: that’s an interesting read (I think I have to order the full book now ;- )