Talent Drives Marketing Performance

A talented marketer with no marketing budget can achieve more than a weak marketer working with a $50,000 marketing budget.

It cannot be overstated the importance talent plays on marketing performance.

Peter Drucker wrote, "Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems." It doesn't matter how much money you have at your disposal. A talented marketer can spot opportunities, engage clients and achieve results.

Talent is the X-factor between a marketing administrator and a marketing superstar.

Talent is the throttle

Talent is a set of skills and aptitudes that are useful for a particular activity.

When you work with people with the right talents it's like stepping on the gas. It's surprising how far and fast you can go.

But if talents are misaligned then performance is limited. It's like driving on bald tires. You just can't get traction. There's always something holding you back no matter how hard you step on the gas.

Essential Marketing Traits

Marketing is a multi-faceted function. It incorporates strategy, analysis, project management, creativity, communications, as well as specialized skills such as writing, search engine optimization and design.

One person will not be an expert in all aspects of marketing. Companies have to choose the right people for the right job with the right skills and aptitudes. And obviously that is easier said than done.

There are a few principal traits to consider in every marketer:

• Intelligence. More is better.
• Creativity anchored in business acumen.
• Analytical skills. The ability to find and understand the information required to make decisions.
• Writing. You can't market without being a proficient writer.
• People and communications skills. You've got to love working with people and sharing ideas.
• Curiosity and self-directed learning.

When you pay peanuts you get monkeys

Great talent doesn't come cheap.

Small and mid-size companies often compromise their marketing by hiring undeveloped professionals, because they're cheap. But cheap talent is like driving your marketing on bald tires.

Focus on working with the right marketing talent. As Jim Collins wrote in Good To Great, "Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people."