When Do I Hire a Marketing Director?

One of the most common questions I get when I talk to my accountants, attorneys or wealth managers is do I need a marketing director. Unfortunately, the response I give is always based on the firm. Often times, I am considering several factors. Here is a quick test to assess whether you might be ready to hire a marketing director.

• Are the majority of your professionals actively involved in business development?
• If Yes, Are your professionals actively speaking or writing, or want to be that?
• If Yes, do you have buy in form your key stakeholders involved in marketing (partners or professionals providing the service)
• If Yes, do you have the commitment from your key stakeholders to invest the individual time that will be required to build a marketing function?

Answering no to these questions doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire a director. However, it does help you reset the right expectation for how and what to hire for. For example, if you have never done much marketing and primarily rely referrals form your centers of influence, then building a marketing function will require someone that can spend a lot of time educating your professionals on marketing and business development and building the culture. However, if you are a firm that has a lot of professionals already doing a lot of business development, then you may need someone that can come in and corral the activity and ensure its targeted and coordinated.

If you think you are ready to hire a marketing director, here are a few great resources to find people.

• Association for Accounting Marketing
• Legal Marketing Association
• American Marketing Association
• LinkedIn– Look at groups or their job post function
• Inovautus Consulting. (warning- shameless self promotion)