#failurefriday - #11 - failure to recognize the importance of a title
Years back I was the VP of Growth. I was leading marketing for an otherwise absentee CMO. (a story for another time) and getting none of the credit for it. That CMO was fired when we got a new CEO, but the new CEO did not automatically promote me even though I had been doing the CMO role for 2 years.
Suffice to say, I was upset. The satellite office of 55 people I oversaw were also shocked and mad for me.
The new CEO eventually gave me the role but when he offered it to me he said he didn't want to give out any more C-titles. And silly me, I said I didn't care about the title. As long as I was compensated for the work, to me it didn't matter. But it should have cared.
The lesson - Titles absolutely matter.
Here's why it mattered and what I failed to recognize in the moment:
- The entire company, even outside of the satellite office, felt as if I ran marketing already, they already considered me the CMO, but it would be hard to reflect this on my LinkedIn profile or in my resume without blatantly saying "part of ELT" or "reported to CEO"
- Although the SVP of Sales is one of my besties to this day, the sales leader and the marketing leader should have equal seniority in title otherwise it signals to the business one function is more important than the other and that causes GTM mis-alignment.
- It impacted my salary and my negotiating power for my next role. (ladies, pay attention to this one)
Why your marketing title matters
Recently I did a poll on LinkedIn about the "Head of Marketing" title and asked if people felt it were more of a Director level or VP level. The results were fascinating.
General takeaways from people who I think really would have preferred a 3rd option of "it depends" were:
It depends on the size of the company, the level of responsibility, the reporting structure. Also, if a company had the title it indicated they were "small." Some thought the title was purposely ambiguous.
Some other thoughts...
"I’ve always felt the “Head of …†title was the most confusing and career limiting title a company could give someone. It suggests large scope but ambiguous authority. Seems to be still around in smaller companies that are trying to attract good talent, but aren’t ready for a seasoned executive." ~ Josh Francia
“Head of†signals that the person is the senior most person in charge of execution but not the senior most person in charge of strategy. At start-ups, the “head of†is likely still beholden to the strategy of the founder (even if the founder is a Dev and the dept is Marketing). ~ Harold Vass
"When I hear Head of Marketing as a title I actually don't think about seniority per se. I think "small company," I assume it's a small company and the person will be the most senior marketing person with few to no direct reports." ~ Brandi Starr
"No one in bigger companies has a "Head of Marketing" or at companies where marketing is an equal to other departments.On the "Leadership" webpage you won't see any other leaders described as "Head of X" - and you likely won't see a Head of Marketing, either." ~ David Kirkdorffer (he/him)
领英推è
Deep dive into the data takeaways:
After the poll closed with 248 votes resulting in 55% felt the "Head of Marketing" title was Director level and 45% felt it was a VP level, I then went and looked at every person who voted.
Who filled out the poll?
- 59% marketers, 11% sales, 6% product, 6% customer success, 4% CEOs, 4% HR/Recruiters, 4% Engineering, 3% operations, 2% growth, 1% legal & finance.
- 12.1% were ICs (non-people managers), 11.7% were "Heads Of X", 27.8% were C-Suite/SVP/VP, 48.4% were middle management (Director/Manager/Sr Dir/Sr Manager)
Overall net results
Specific Results for those who thought it was Director level:
- 55% and 56% of Marketing and Sales folks, respectively, felt it was Director level.
- 67% of Engineers and 64% of Product thought it was Director level.
Specific Results for those who thought it was a VP level:
- Of the Marketing folks who currently hold a VP or Head Of Marketing title and who felt Head of Marketing was a VP level, 100% have never been a CMO
- Of the Marketing folks who were CMOs who thought it was VP level, they have been a CMO between 1-5 years.
If you liked this article then subscribe to my Substack to read next week's post on Negotiating for Women.
We give you customer insights and automate customer retention so can grow revenue with confidence
3 周Job titles in marketing tech can be tricky. I've noticed how the same role can have totally different titles - and responsibilities! Sometimes a "data analyst" in one company is basically a "chief insights officer" in another.
Passion for Helping People | Recruiter Extraordinaire | Make your next career move happen | Recruiting and Consulting | Are You Ready?
1 个月I recently had this conversation with a former colleague, now friend. This was about moving from VP to ED. She wasn’t interested in advancing to ED level and I told her that no one should know that in the workplace. If your manager and others know you don’t want to advance it could be detrimental to you and used against you.
?B2B Start-Up Growth Marketer | GTM, Demand Gen & Messaging | AI & Buyer Enablement | 23 Start-Ups, 5 Public Companies, 60+ Recommendations. ?? Fractional | Interim | Advisory | Special Projects
1 个月Tracy, thank you for thee breakdowns. Were you surprised by any of the poll results?
Marketing that drives Engagement & Revenues for Trade Associations | B2B SaaS/Enterprise Software | Hydrogen and Clean Energy
1 个月Loved the deep dive on your poll results re senior marketing titles, Tracy Sestili, and your direct quotes (with attributions) highlighting opinions/insights from several key poll respondents. The discussion reminds me a bit of the divide in tech marketing between Marketing Communications and Product Marketing, Biz Dev, Lead Gen -- basically, any part of marketing that can point to contributions to revenue. Rise to the top of Product Marketing, Marketing Strategy, or Lead Gen, and you might have a path to the C-Suite. Rise to the top of Marketing Comms and you risk getting stuck in the "pink ghetto."