For years I’ve heard people say things to the effect of, “marketing is marketing — the product doesn’t matter. I’m here to say that this is pure bullshit from folks who don’t get it.
To be effective marketers need to understand the context of their market and product. If the product is technical, make make sure your marketers can understand the tech and the customer problem. You marketers don’t need to be engineers -- and probably shouldn’t be. But they must understand.
This. Is. Critical.
A big part of marketing is translating from Product --- > Sales. Marketers must truly understand to play this role. For this reason, I favor marketing leaders with product management and/or product marketing backgrounds.
Beyond the technical side, look to match match marketing leaders with your go-to-market strategy. If you’ve got a high velocity, inside-sales driven business, there is a good chance that an enterprise marketer will struggle. And vice versa.
If you haven’t yet achieved go-to-market fit, find a senior marketing leader with a variety of experiences and the flexibility to adapt.
Overall, look for leaders with transferrable skills, market knowledge, relationships, and experience with your G2M approach. They don’t need to have done exactly what you’re trying to do --- but their experience, skills, and network should transfer. This is worthy of substantial probing in the interview process.
Domain knowledge, while helpful, is not critical for execution-level marketers.