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22 Critical Tips in Hiring a Great VP Marketing (From Marketo, EchoSign, Insightly)

By on May 22, 2014

A few weeks back we had our second SaaStr Social.  It was quite a hit, with over 700+ SaaS entrepreneurs, execs and VCs getting together at Storm Ventures.

The first time, we just had BBQ and cocktails.  That was pretty fun as it was.

This time, we added some terrific, standing-room only content — on How to Hire a Great VP Marketing.

The first session was together with my VP Sales, Brendon Cassidy (ex-VP Sales Adobe EchoSign, first Head of Sales at LinkedIn) and VP Marketing, Loretta Jones (VP Marketing, Insightly; ex-VP Marketing from Day 0 at EchoSign).

The second session was a great 1-on-1 with Jon Miller, co-founder and VP Marketing at Marketo.

There were some great differences in opinion and approaches, which I think made the discussion even more valuable.

We’re broken the sessions down into bite-size chunks below, and here.  Check out the ones that can help you!

Album:

Videos: 

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Loretta Jones (VP Marketing Insightly, EchoSign) and Brendon Cassidy (VP Sales EchoSign, Linkedin):
1) When it comes to VP Sales v. VP Marketing, which should you hire first? (and when?)
Screen Shot 2014-05-20 at 4.56.09 PM2) How much should you budget for the VP Marketing hire?
3) Sales Team v. Marketing Team: Who takes responsibility/owns leads?
4) Who’s to blame when leads grow faster than revenue?
5) When making a VP Marketing hire, is it OK if they don’t have a lead commit?
6) How important is it to lead commits and sales goals in the early stages of a company?
7) How and when do you know if you hired the right person for VP Marketing?
8) How important is it for the candidate to have experience in your target deal size?
9) Where and how do you find the right candidate?
10) You’re not going to get the perfect hire, so what qualities in a VP Marketing do you compromise on?
11) Loretta on what she learned from her VP Sales, Brendon Cassidy:
12) Brendon on what he learned from his VP Marketing, Loretta Jones:
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Jon Miller (co-founder and VP Marketing, Marketo):
13) Are things easier/different now that Marketo has gone IPO?  Aka, When did you know Marketo was going to make it?
14) What are the different types of VP Marketing, and which one should you hire?
Screen Shot 2014-05-20 at 4.56.59 PM15) What should we do to drive growth in our company the way Marketo did in its early days?
16) How should we consider a candidate’s potentially different areas of Marketing expertise when making a hire?
17) When hiring a VP Marketing, which qualities should you insist on, and which can you compromise on?
18) If the candidate has never had a lead/opportunity commit, should you still hire them?
19) What are some more qualities that you would not demand from a potential VP Marketing?
20) How important is it to hire a VP Marketing from a company that is about two stages ahead of you?
21) How much should you budget for your VP Marketing hire?
22) How early should a company think about investing in their brand/DemandGen, and how should they best go about it?
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Screen Shot 2014-05-20 at 5.04.46 PM

(Cross-posted @ saastr)

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Co-Founder and CEO of EchoSign from inception through tens of millions in cash-flow positive SaaS revenue and acquisition by Adobe Systems Inc. Jason then served as Vice President, Web Services at Adobe, where EchoSign was named the most successful acquisition of 2011-12, posting 199% YoY growth.