Thursday 19 April 2012

Why Hire An Interim Marketing Director?

Marketing is an absolutely crucial part of any company’s activities, so if you are running a business you need to have somebody in place who understands how the world of marketing works. If your marketing director leaves, you are a start-up company with a limited budget or you simply want to boost flagging sales, one option for you is to consider hiring an interim marketing director to keep your marketing efforts on track and even bring in some fresh ideas.


Often companies simply hire in temporary marketing directors while they are looking for someone more permanent, but in fact one of the biggest advantages of hiring someone in is the fresh perspective they are able to bring to your company. They will be aware of the latest trends and will be able to train your sales and marketing team in the most effective ways to implement these. Therefore, even if you are not looking to hire a marketing manager full time, you may still want to consider bringing someone in on a temporary basis.



There are other good reasons for hiring outside your company: If you are having trouble generating new sales leads and decide to hire an internal employee to fill the role of marketing director, they may not have enough knowledge of the wider market context or awareness of what your competitors are doing. Sometimes what you need is an entirely new approach and somebody who has been immersed in your particular company culture for a long time, however capable they are, may not be able to provide this.

Hiring an interim marketing director is also much quicker if you need to fill the role in a hurry. For example, what if your current marketing director resigns suddenly and you have a very important promotion or event coming up? Going through the process of interviews to fill such an important role can take a long time as it’s crucial to get the right person. The great thing about interims is that they are used to working in a different way – they don’t need to take time to settle into a role so instead can grasp what needs to be done quickly and get things moving.

Lastly, when it comes to the end of their time with you, your interim director can be invaluable in helping your hire a more permanent head of marketing to carry their work further. They will be able to comment on a candidate’s experience and qualifications and will know the right questions to ask in interviews in order to measure their suitability for the role. Also, because somebody who specialises in fulfilling interim marketing positions will have no interest in the full-time role themselves, they can be completely impartial and offer you solid, objective advice.

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