Q: We can't decide whether our vice president of marketing should be an expert in branding or product management.
A: The decision is based on two key factors.
1. At a minimum, marketing must support sales and channel with the materials they need to effectively sell your product.
2. Are your customers businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C)? Branding is much more important for consumers, less so for business clients. For B2B, product management is the critical navigator that researches the market and customers and makes decisions as to what to sell to whom. Without it, a company can get lost pretty quickly.
Deciding qualifications
Q: We can't decide what the qualifications for a key hire should be. The executive team is split in their opinions. How do we proceed?
A: The reason you can't decide is that the various stakeholders are projecting off their individual experience, each with a slightly different version of the position in mind. Sit everyone down together, construct a flow chart and review the current state, business goals, what you want this hire to accomplish and what they need to know to be successful. Treat it as an equation rather than an opinion poll, and you will quickly come to a consensus.
Same industry?
Q: We can't decide if a sales executive hire needs to come from our industry or not.
A: There are two factors for deciding whether a sales executive must have industry experience. One is knowledge of deeply complex products, the other is a great Rolodex in the industry. If those two are critical, then an industry hire is indicated. But remember:
