Vice President of Marketing at Loxo | Helping companies recruit more intelligently and effectively
Director of Marketing vs. VP of Marketing - what's the difference between the two? Companies are hiring like crazy for director/VP roles - Casey Graham and I chatted about this and here's what you need to know. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - VP of Marketing / VP of Demand Generation Core responsibilities - Has the vision/philosophy for how your company approaches the market - Deliver internal marketing/results to executives/board/investors Background - T-shaped marketer --> strong in the area they came up in, but always learning + quick to defer to members of their team who are stronger in other areas Analogy - VP is similar to the Manager (coach) of high-level soccer teams. They bring the best talent they can find to their team, help improve their skills in practice, but come game day, puts players in the best place possible to do what they do best - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Director of Marketing / Director of Demand Generation Core responsibilities - Internalize the vision/philosophy of the VP and craft a strategy that will lead to success when taking it to market - Know what tools to use + when, but always trying new things to continue to push the boundaries (***DO NOT CONFUSE THIS WITH SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME***) Background - T-shaped marketer --> similar to VP, strong in the area they came up in, but always learning + quick to defer to members of their team who are stronger in other areas Analogy - Director is similar to a football quarterback. They run the play call from the VP (coach/coordinator), but choose from a number of tools (run, handoff to RB, pass to WR 1/2/3, pass to TE, etc.) in real-time that will lead to the best outcome - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Marketing has CHANGED over the past 10-20 years as power has shifted from the seller to the buyer. There is more demand than ever for marketers who understand this and know how to build + execute a strategy around this. We went deep into the above and Casey even shared what he's done in the past to bring the best talent possible to his team at Gravy (spoiler alert - don't be surprised if he shows up at your front door). 🎧 Link to our conversation in comments #marketing #business #hiring
It is also assumed that a VP/ CMO is a master at: - understanding the business - collaborating with their peers - selling ideas - being the voice of the customer - understanding sales - setting the strategy These things aren't stated in a job description but you won't gain credibility without them. (And P.S. only 34% of CEO's have confidence in their CMO's. It's not about doing more stuff)
Thanks for posting. How about the span of control and level of responsibility on each stage? If you don’t have at least 3-5 people reporting to you, it’s hardly worth to have another layer. Marketer reports to Marketing Manager reports to Marketing Director reports to VP of Marketing reports to CMO. So the CMO has 5 vast functional areas reporting to him (all at VP level). The VP has 5 very large functional areas reporting to him all at Director level. The Director has 5 substantial functional areas reporting to him. The Manager has 5-8 people reporting to him. This is a pretty large Marketing organization…. To have that many levels, there must be an awful lot of functions and areas or vertical hundreds of Millions of Dollars worth? Or do we just give people nice titles every 1-2 years to keep them happy and ‘mark’ their tenure?
Ahh the shiny object syndrome. You don’t know if you have shaken it off until you meet someone who has it bad. I typically tell my managers and staff that tools are great at supporting solving problems. But finding a good tool to match a problem that’s not a high-priority is not a way to solution in marketing. You need to find the problem and then create multiple steps or phases to solve it. You can have your alpha version your beta version and then your company-wide rollout version.
Wondering, isn’t it about time to move beyond that idea of the T-shaped marketer? As a marketing leader nowadays you must have more than just one area of deep expertise. You’re in the details and know how things work, you might not execute everything but can guide the team more precisely. To be M-shaped, or Z or Pi or whatever other letter people is throwing, certainly takes time and dedication. OK </end-of-rant> I’ll go listen the episode and report back 😝
To add the startup/SMB layer to this, I would suggest for the Director Role that this person may or may not have an internal team/external vendors. Resources and tools, to some degree, for a VP are almost guaranteed, but not for a DoM.
"Marketing has CHANGED over the past 10-20 years as power has shifted from the seller to the buyer." This really stuck out to me. Absolutely something to keep in mind every single day.
Let's talk about the baddies straddling the interim at all the emerging enterprises 😅. I kid- this is fantastic and exactly the standard healthy teams should look toward. I'd also call out the huge difference between manager>director is the T concept you highlighted. Hire people smarter than you and flourish!
That's a very nice comparison. What do you think is the core skill that differentiates a VP from Director?
VP of Marketing/VP of Demand Generation = Andy Reid Director of Marketing / Director of Demand Generation = Patrick Mahomes A good VP + a good Director = awesome results.
Vice President of Marketing at Loxo | Helping companies recruit more intelligently and effectively
2yListen to our conversation on The Marketing Movement podcast here: Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-creating-demand-as-an-employer-and-as-a-candidate/id1602906578?i=1000547770630 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/01zYvco7f5kBqyO88UGMWn?si=5713540ce4054c75