The Perfect Fit

New St. Louis Search: Sales & Marketing Manager #11042

We're pleased to announce our newest retained search.  Should you have friends and/or colleagues who you respect and believe would be interested in learning more about this opportunity, we would certainly appreciate the referral.

General Description:
This newly created agency position is responsible for developing leads for our    client, creating and executing an online advertising strategy, including paid ad placement and supporting our client’s sales and marketing process.  You’ll be responsible for identifying, qualifying and tracking prospective clients.  Once identified, this manager will contact those prospective clients to create preliminary awareness of and interest in utilizing our client's services.  You’ll work closely with management and sales colleagues to increase our clients’ online presence to deliver more sales prospect leads.  You’ll conduct online research to identify prospects in our client’s key vertical categories.  You’ll develop tactics for relationship advertising.

Primary Responsibilities:
Develop and utilize an online marketing/advertising strategy including online media (including social), LinkedIn and appropriate portals to purchase online advertising for our client (your employer), exposing their brand to more prospects.  Help develop an efficient protocol for following up on prospects while constantly building the online brand.
Identify, qualify and make initial contact with interested prospective national clients utilizing multi-market marketing communications.  Qualify the relationship with the prospective client and help them move to our client (your employer) for their marketing communications needs.
Support our client’s new business account executives to develop and maintain long term client relationships resulting in their loyalty, ongoing satisfaction and sales.

Experience:
We're looking for an enthusiastic, ambitious and entrepreneurial sales and marketing pro who has three to five years of agency or Marcom digital media experience.  You must have experience with paid online media buying, social media tactics and have experience developing a consistent online brand presence.  You must have experience utilizing SEO, and analyzing web data and metrics and refining approach as needed.  Previous experience involving client interaction on the telephone is essential.
We want someone who personable, outgoing and has proven the ability to multi-task while being extremely detail oriented.   This is an opportunity to achieve increasing responsibility and satisfaction in a fast paced, creatively professional environment.

Compensation:
There is a base salary commensurate with your prior earning history and experience.  Additionally, there is a comprehensive benefits package including medical (dental and vision option) and 401K with company match.
 
About our Client:
 Our client is over 20 years old and a consistent leader in their marketing thinking, working with a diverse base of loyal national clients who are leaders in their categories. Their business has consistently grown year over year. There is a veteran staff of professionals to support your efforts, resulting in tactical executions that assure your clients’ ongoing satisfaction. Our client’s leadership team is smart, forward thinking, nimble, entrepreneurial and innovative, always thinking about developing new ways to help their clients communicate their message. The environment is creative and professional and your colleagues are passionate about high end creative, in support of strategic marketing communications and content development.  EOE

Please apply through our website (www.Bishop-Partners.com). 

The Benefit of Urgency in a Talent Short Market

I ran across this blog posting yesterday.  I think it's excellent because it addresses many of the points that I try to make to my clients, both existing and prospective.  It was written by Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest.  You can find the original here.

"The job market has been picking up, and hiring managers are aggressively trying to increase human capital to reach their 2011 revenue goals. Having the right people in the right seats is key, and we see many companies take too much time when seeking to hire good talent. The most successful recruiters create a sense of urgency for their hiring managers, whose priority is acquiring top talent.

 It is folly to assume there is an unlimited talent pool in this market. The current 8.9% unemployment rate (based on February 2011 data) is deceiving. First, the actual unemployment level is higher than the numbers suggest because of the number of people who have stopped looking for jobs. Also it is distorted. Many of the jobs that were eliminated during the recession are never coming back. So looking at unemployment levels alone will create the one thing you cannot afford to create: complacency.

In our experience, many recruiters understand this, yet they too need to act on it. (Referenced as “the knowing:doing gap.”) And their challenge is often to help the hiring manager (and the organization) understand it.

Another challenging reality is that the best talent may already be working. This is especially the case in fields such as healthcare, science, and technology. As an example, hiring clinicians who have management experience is a challenge for many healthcare organizations. It may also be the situation for the unique job requirements in your company. While the first challenge is finding qualified candidates, the bigger challenge is closing the deal and hiring them. The reason: they have options. Time is critical!

So, when a candidate or candidates are identified, understand that they will be vetting you as carefully as you are vetting them. Delays and perceived indecision will be seen as a lack of interest in their candidacy and they will quickly move along.

There are four critical points of contact for viable candidates, and they are:

1. Their first impression of you
2. Their first impression of the hiring manager
3. Their general impression of the organization garnered from interviews with other people in your organization and their travels within your organization
4. Follow-up

In hiring highly qualified people for your organization, there are no casual moments. Just because a candidate has agreed to an interview doesn’t mean they will be excited about and stay committed to your opportunity. All it means is that they may be ready to take your job if it is the best opportunity at the time for them and their career. If the candidate is greeted by interviewers who are late, unprepared, misaligned in interview approach, appear harried and rushed, and do not get back to the candidate (in a timely manner) with information they promised, there is a very strong likelihood that only the weakest candidates (with the least amount of options) will still be interested...