Thread by @jasonlk

I’ve interviewed 100s of VP of marketing candidates over years and I can tell you one thing — it’s >easy< to spot the ones that won’t work out

And yet, CEOs hire them again and again

Here are my Top 10 Interview Questions to make sure you don't hire the wrong VPM: ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

1. What are the top 3 things you think we should upgrade in marketing?

This question tells you everything they will actually do

If demand gen isn’t in top 2 things to upgrade= — you don’t have a demand-gen focused VPM

2. What “commit” did you hold in your last roles? How much of it did you meet?

Great catch-all to see if have someone that can do demand gen. If they didn’t hold a real commit — in Opportunities, in Pipeline, Leads — they didn’t own anything that matters in revenue cycle

3. How have you worked with the sales team in the past?

Another catch-call question to learn if the candidate really has supported sales for real. In most SaaS companies, marketing’s job at the end of the day is to help sales close more. How have they done this?

Listen

4. What should our marketing budget be?

If the candidate knows your ARR today and your ARR goal 12 months from now -- tell them -- they should have a good answer. You may not like the answer. But a candidate that can execute will have an answer.

5. How big a team do we need?

Many marketing leaders these days just want larger teams. They are tired of doing it all themselves, which is fair enough. But too many candidates will need just need too large of a team. Better to find out upfront.

6. What have you done to increase win rates?

This is another great question to see how your candidate has supported sales. Do they build anti-FUD collateral? Do they do the right types of product marketing for your stage? Marketing isn’t just getting folks into the funnel

7. What should we do to market to each of our top 3 segments?

If you sell to customers Small, Medium + Large, ask them how they’d split up their time and budget into each segment. What you’ll often learn is they really only want to work on one of the segments in particular.

8. What agencies would you bring in to help us?

Agencies are double-edge sword in marketing. Too many weak marketers hire ton of mediocre agencies & spend a ton. On other hand, great agencies are terrific leverage for great VP of Marketing.

So just ask, listen, learn.

9. How much should we focus on building up brand and product awareness?

This always matters, especially after have a mini-brand. But most VPs Mktg you hire before $5m-$10m ARR shouldn’t put this #1. If they do, be wary. They may be better suited from a startup further along.

10. What sort of customer marketing should we do?

I love this question because while most VPs Mktg aren’t doing enough customer marketing (i.e., marketing to base), the best ones all know we should be doing more. If they have no ideas, you don’t have a real VP.

Even just questions 1-5 above will get you there. If you ask them and just listen, you’ll be able to screen out 90% of the candidates that look good, sounds good, maybe even are good — just not at your startup.

More here:

saastr.com/top-10-questio…

And a deeper dive here: