Dear SaaStr: What makes the ideal Demand Generation candidate for a growth-stage SaaS company?
90% of the candidates you meet will not have:
- owned a funnel revenue goal/KPI: pipeline, leads, opportunity, revenue; that
- at another SaaS company that sold about around your price point.
Find both, are you’ve got a real shot. Almost all candidates won’t meet these 2 criteria.
Then ask them:
- “What will you do the first 60 days”. This, in the end, is all they will really do. More on that here. There is so much you can do in marketing. And 95% of candidates will just do the 2-3 things they most want to do it. The rest of the marketing stack, they’ll at best do a little of it, or do it half-hearted at best. Or hire someone mediocre to do it.
That’s it. That’s the 3 part test.
There's so much to do in marketing
But 95%+ of VPs of Marketing focus on 3 core things when they take a new position
The 3 things they are best at, that they know
It 100% makes sense
Just make sure those are the top 3 things you need before you make the hire
— Jason ✨2022 SaaStr Annual Sep 13-15 ✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 21, 2021
If they didn’t really hold a commit, if they can’t explain that commit and how they hit it. And if they haven’t marketed at your price point. Don’t make the hire for VP of Marketing / Demand Gen.
And if what you hear that they’ll do in the first 60 days doesn’t sound right, or inspire confidence, or isn’t what you believe. Don’t make the hire. You won’t believe in them.
A related classic post here:
Bad Fit image from here
