The Crucial Criteria for Hiring a Head of Marketing

Name: The Crucial Criteria for Hiring a Head of Marketing
Uploaded: 2023-09-19T14:30:11+00:00
Duration: 52 s
Channel: Jason M. Lemkin
Description: In this brief talk, Jason M. Lemkin advises startup founders on hiring their first head of marketing. He argues that there is a single, non‑negotiable…

19 Sept 2023 · 1 min

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In this brief talk, Jason M. Lemkin advises startup founders on hiring their first head of marketing. He argues that there is a single, non‑negotiable criterion: the candidate must have previously "hit and held" a concrete marketing number—such as leads, opportunities, pipeline, MQLs, or sales‑accepted leads. Lemkin notes that about 95% of candidates cannot point to a specific, owned metric from a prior role, making them easy to eliminate. By asking candidates what number they owned at their last startup, founders can quickly rule out the majority of applicants and focus on those who have demonstrable performance ownership, ensuring the hire is more likely to succeed.

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So when you go to hire your first head of marketing, VP of marketing, director, whatever you're going to call her, but your head of marketing, there's just one criterion you should look for. And nobody does this, and they make a hire and the hire fails. You need just one thing. They have to have hit and held a number. It could be a number of leads per year. It could be opportunities. It could be pipeline. It could be MQLs, marketing qualified leads. It could be sales accepted leads. It doesn't really matter where they're in the pipeline. When you go to meet a so-called head of marketing, You will find, believe it or not, that 95% of the candidates you meet, by hook or by crook, they never held a commit. They never owned a number in a pipeline. So you can rule out 19 out of 20 candidates when you ask them, what number did you hold at your last startup? Well, I didn't— I mean, I did. It was best efforts. Ah. OK, what was your— what number did you hold? I worked mostly on brand. Ah. Later you'll need brand, right? You need someone that held the number.