How to Assemble a Goal-Centric Marketing Team
Building a successful team doesn’t have to be a headache. Follow this game plan to assemble a team that meets – and exceeds – your goals.
Finding the right people to join your marketing ops team can be challenging—and you may not get it right the first time.
Whether you are new to your role or a veteran at the company, employed by a startup or an established company, the right team can improve or hinder your ability to achieve what you set out to do. Start making a name for yourself with the people closest to you, your team.
When you’re looking for best practices for building your team, doing it can feel like the recipe for success.
The state of the team
Understand the current state of your team—think in terms of productivity. Marketing Ops is demanding and the backbone of the sales organization. Whether your current team is thriving or struggling to keep up, when you inherit a team, you’ll likely have legacy members alongside several open positions. These vacancies may have been vacant for some time or may have been a direct result of a change in management (ie the reason you are here).
Former employees may have witnessed many changes during their employment and formed good or bad opinions about how those changes were managed. Start listening to your team. Interview each employee individually, paying close attention to understanding their current roles and how they view their contribution to the team. By asking each team member similar questions, you’ll gain a basic understanding of how work is perceived.
Consider these key questions:
- Is this the role you envisioned when you were hired?
- How has your position evolved over the course of your tenure?
- Are you currently satisfied with the way you work and the overall workload?
- When were you the happiest at your company?
- And what, if anything, would you change about your current role?
Building a good relationship with current employees will not happen overnight. Be patient. Waiting for changes a month from day one will make no significant difference to the overall success of your long-term goals.
Making hasty decisions before you have full perspective can ruin your chances of success. Give yourself and your team time to bond and reassure them that you have their best interest in mind, even though their best interest may not be in taking a seat on your team. Show support for your employees. Look for opportunities for advancement or training for current employees you want to keep to ensure they know they are valued. Help them advance their careers while expanding your team’s capabilities with advanced skills.
Match goals with teammates
Consider the workload and skills required to achieve your goals. If you have the lofty goal of doubling down on lead generation efforts, think about how to get there. When you need to employ a content strategy, email campaigns, social media promotion, and SEO boost, among other tasks, you need to determine if your current team can handle the workload. Armed with the insights from your current reports, reassess the filled and open positions in your team and determine if they are necessary to achieve those goals.
Make a list of relevant job responsibilities, including any specific support requirements such as technology certifications or expertise requirements. Start by matching current employees to these needs and make sure you identify primary and secondary responsibilities.
Be careful not to overburden any particular employee – spread the workload evenly. Try to fill gaps and deliberately overlap responsibilities to avoid performance silos. Encourage cross-team collaboration and ensure adequate coverage for employees on vacation or busy periods. The outcome of this exercise will determine the roles your team will take on.
Write job descriptions for everyone on your team—including yourself. Establishing clearly defined requirements and responsibilities for each member of your team will help eliminate confusion and ensure you have the team needed to achieve your goals.
Distribute these job descriptions to members of your team and meet with each one individually to ensure you are committed to their newly defined roles. Consider including a future skill or two that may present a challenge for any employee. This offers an opportunity for career advancement and the reassurance that you are investing in the growth of your team.
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Be sure to fill in gaps
Target your vacant roles, starting with your personal network. Consider past employees or colleagues because you know their past accomplishments. Distribute open job descriptions within your company and ask current employees and colleagues for recommendations.
If you’re still having no luck finding the right job and if your budget allows, you should consider working with HR to enlist the services of a recruiter. If you choose to work with external partners, share the job descriptions you’ve written for your entire team, including the open position, with the recruiter. It’s important that they also understand the dynamics of how the new person will share the workload.
Identify the right fit and seal the deal. It’s more than just ticking the responsibilities of the position—ensuring they work within the established dynamic of the overall team. Make sure they are a team player and proactive in building relationships with colleagues to continue the culture you have worked hard to build. When everything falls into place, it’s time to make the magic happen! Make the offer and secure the team member to round out your marketing superstar team.
With a little pre-planning and reflection on the overall needs of your marketing team, the journey to building a successful team can be straightforward.