marketing talent
Momentum ITSMA Staff
April 6, 2022
Marketing talent trends in 2022 - we’ve been talking with marketing leaders about what’s important to them as they build their teams.
This article was shared before we integrated Momentum ITSMA into one single company, bringing all of our capabilities together. Learn more.
Much of our research looks at trends in B2B marketing, with the intent of helping marketing and business leaders drive growth. For years, we’ve heard from clients and members just how important it is to have a team of strong marketers delivering on your business strategy.
However, as the term “the great resignation” becomes cemented in our vernacular, we’ve been talking with marketing leaders about what’s important to them as they build their teams to have the skills and the intelligence to continue to break new ground.
On a recent account-based marketing podcast with Momentum CEO Alisha Lyndon, Navin Rammohan, Vice President, Segment Head Marketing at Infosys, said he is hiring for attitude, the ability to learn, and multidisciplinary experience: “We’re looking at people who would be able to be problem finders and not really problem solvers… who have different kinds of experiences. We don’t want people who are functional experts anymore; we want people who have more general experience… and then we train them into what marketing requires.”
And at Marketing Vision 2021, our panel of CMO experts weighed in. Carol Carpenter, Former Chief Marketing Officer, VMware told me, “Everyone wants to be a valued member of a winning team with an inspired mission.” Thus, VMware has a rotation program, epic days off, and awards programs. All of which, according to Carol, helps people “see that their efforts have impact… if people feel valued and they see that there is a career path and that there is a way for them to continue to add value and also get value, they will stay.”
Sarah Kennedy, VP of Global Growth and Demand, Google Cloud, pointed to the company’s willingness to let employees work from their chosen location, which offers people “quality of life and choice, [which] is critical to their success and [the company’s] overall talent.” She went on to describe the role of the marketing leader as mentor: “I very much view our role as marketing leaders to be those counselors in a career and to be leaning in and proactive around how we set up people for success and give them opportunities to develop” whether that role is internal or outside the company.
Antonia Wade, Global Chief Marketing Officer, PwC, offered even more concrete data on how PwC is trying to retain talent: “First of all, you need to try and make where you are attractive as a leader, right? You have to sell to your people why it’s a good place to grow their careers in the longer term. And so for me, that is partly making sure that everyone’s clear about your vision and where you’re going to go. The second thing is to show a level of investment so whilst you might not be able to match the salary, you show what you can do in terms of looking at your competency frameworks and reinvesting in training. We’ve spent a lot of time putting money and effort behind people more broadly, outside the functional skills—things like growth, mindset, presence…creating an attractive environment.”
Data from the 2022 B2B Marketing Trends Survey backs up these compelling anecdotes, showing that marketing organizations face difficulty in finding talent, have yet to define career paths, and overall, offer limited training days.
Marketers indicated that the most needed areas of talent in 2022 are:
And the skills most difficult to find include:
There’s definitely overlap. What’s more, fewer than half (44%) of the marketers we surveyed indicated that they have defined career progressions or career development plans, and on average marketers receive just 3.7 days of training per year.
Since talent acquisition, development, and retention are clearly a concern for marketing organizations, we are trying to dive deeper to understand exactly what marketers want from a career, what skills and capabilities marketing leaders need in their organizations, and how to bridge the gap.
ITSMA’s 2022 B2B Marketing Talent, Organization, and Skills Benchmark Survey was in the field in early April, targeting marketers who lead a B2B marketing organization or serve as an individual on a B2B marketing team. The survey was looking to gauge:
Results from the research will be presented during our webcast, Marketing and The Great Resignation: The Impact on Hiring and Retaining Talent, on May 12.
This is a give to get survey; all participants get an executive summary of the results and ITSMA members get a complimentary copy of the research report. If you’re interested in participating in future research like this, please contact us at info@itsma.com.
