Moving Up: From a Sales to a Chief Marketing Officer
Sales used to be all about cold calling and pushing to close deals. The focus has shifted now, however. Modern sales methodologies are about new techniques such as consultative sales. To sales professionals who find themselves in the middle of such an evolution, there is often a desire to move out of sales, and into a field such as marketing.
Sales used to be all about cold calling and pushing to close deals. The focus has shifted now, however. Modern sales methodologies are about new techniques such as consultative sales. To sales professionals who find themselves in the middle of such an evolution, there is often a desire to move out of sales, and into a field such as marketing.
Understanding The Challenge
Sales and marketing responsibilities have a lot in common. Both jobs require excellent communication skills, an ability to understand what the buyer needs, a meticulous and logical mind and problem-solving abilities. For this reason, switching careers is not very difficult.
A number of sales skills can translate into the marketing field. The ability to understand the needs of the buyer and to put the buyer on the path to making a decision, skills in communication, skills in interviewing and conversing with clients, expertise at engaging clients with email, and the ability to keep the goal in mind at all times, are among them.
Sales is different from marketing as well, in some ways. For instance, while sales professionals constantly focus on selling, marketing professionals are usually required to focus on creating a better buying experience rather than on selling aggressively. Taking points from CMO resume samples, here are some few things to prepare when shifting from being just a salesperson to the Chief Marketing Officer.
To Begin, Sign Up For Certifications
Since marketers use many tools, it’s important to begin by signing up to learn about them. A Guide to Marketing Certifications posted by Business.com clearly put up how marketing certificates can advance your career.
Certification courses are common, and offered by services such as Google and Hubspot. Courses such as email marketing certification, contextual marketing certification, inbound marketing certification and analytics certification are all important. All you need to do is to choose the course that seems most relevant to your needs and talents, and then sign up.
It’s also possible to gain knowledge of marketing tools and technologies through open courses, webinars, online classrooms, and so on.
Many marketing teams suffer from a big data skill shortage. Anyone coming in with data skills is likely to be an asset. Learning about data analytics is an excellent idea for anyone planning a shift. Other skills to learn are in the areas of SEO, copy, data analytics, AdWords, and conversion analysis.
Create Your Own Great Blog
One in two marketers believe that content creation is their most important priority in inbound marketing. Putting your own high-quality content on a blog is a great start to proving that you have the skills needed. You can try new optimizations and tests, keep records and use them when you write your resume one day.
It’s important to remember that while creating a blog is a good idea, it’s something that every marketing professional does when they try to get hired. It also compliments well with your resume. To set yourself apart from the rest, you need to rank the blog well on Google, and build a subscriber list. It can take a great deal of skill to do it.
Show employers why you are suitable
Employers want to see why a sales professional is suitable for employment in marketing especially in a higher position. It’s important to show them that you have different qualities — that you’re a lifelong learner, that you have the ability to take interviews and come up with actionable ideas. Remember, a Chief marketing officer is:
- A team player.
- Creative
- Customers come first.
- Good in communication.
- Knows data and analytics.
Making the transition from sales to marketing can be challenging in the beginning, but it is doable. It only takes an ability to focus on learning the skills needed.