Triangle Business Journal

David Chapman

Key Marketing Job Hardest Role to Fill – Businesses Often Turn to Consultants

The typical entrepreneurial story of today goes something like this: A few colleagues create a terrific product or service concept, develop a business strategy strong enough to attract venture capital, secure office space and hang the sign on the door.

Now comes the hard part – the frantic search for talent. They fast track the process of building a world-class team, interviewing countless candidates who don’t meet their experience, maturity and leadership requirements.

So what do company founders often do?

They roll up their sleeves and try to do it themselves, or they settle for a junior-level person who can “get the job done” and move ahead at warp speed without the critical executive sales, marketing or technology leadership needed to jumpstart and sustain the company’s growth.

According to a leading small business research study, the most elusive candidates are often directors of marketing and directors of business development.

A seasoned, experienced marketing or business development person can add enormous value – sharp leadership skills, vision and the perspective needed to get to the heart of what makes a company successful – building and leveraging the perception in the marketplace that you are better than anyone else at delivering what your customers want.

Yet the most successful corporate marketing and business development executives are reluctant to jump to smaller companies with limited resources and a “first generation” position where responsibilities and expectations continue to evolve well after they are on board.

So how do you find that elusive but indispensable heavy hitter?

One option is going the traditional search route via headhunters, Web site postings on www.monster.com, the sales & marketing executives Web site, www.smei.org, www.marketingjobs.com or The Business Journal’s jobs site at www.hirethetriangle.com.

Another creative option is to engage the services of a local marketing consultant. Under this scenario, you h ire a consultant on a contractual basis to create and implement marketing and business development programs.

The right business consultant is a seasoned self-starter who shares your entrepreneurial spirit. Someone who has built a successful consulting practice based on the proven ability to develop successful programs that have made a lasting impact on fast-track companies. Someone willing to take risks and challenge your ideas and the status quo in order to help map out a winning strategy. Someone who enjoys working in the chaotic, fast-paced and often undefined working environment of a growing company.

There are several avenues for finding a qualified consultant; check out the National Association of Certified Consultants Web site at www.national-bureau.com, network with contacts who have used consultants in the area and review the periodic listings in trade journals.

Consultants have the experience, the vision and understanding required to create branding systems for new products and services, and existing ones that need to be revitalized.

The right hire has the experience, vision and courage needed to ask and help you answer tough business questions before they are secretly asked by the prospective customers, distributors or employees that will help build your company. Those efforts can reap amazing results and catapult a small company to its next level of growth.

Chapman is president of 919 Marketing, a Triangle-based marketing and public relations consulting firm. He can be reached at (919) 557-7890.