B2B Marketing Jobs: Employment benefits

Considering recruiting a fresh face to your team in time for the New Year, but stumped as to where to find the right candidates? There is a wealth of B2B marketing talent available, writes Mark Tobin; companies just need to know where to look

To some marketers, the weekly trade publications are essential reading. To most of those who have grown tired of marketing for Brand X and feel theyve got just what Brand Y needs, the b2b marketing job ads are a useful place to stop and browse.

However, for B2B marketers hungry for something new, the weeklies – arguably the pre-eminent recruitment channel – can often be a depressing read. There is a paucity of good B2B marketing roles in these jobs pages.

Matt Anderson
Can it be that Marketing and Marketing Week reflect the true state of the market? Are there really so few opportunities in B2B marketing?

Matt Anderson, MD of Hays Sales & Marketing, thinks not. “Marketing and Marketing Week like the juicy FMCG headlines and, naturally, those advertisers will follow. The lack of good B2B roles advertised in these titles doesnt reflect anything other than the fact there is a lack of media focused on B2B marketing jobs.”

The challenge this poses is how a B2B organisation should best market its own vacancies to eager candidates. As in every market, the pendulum swings between buyer and seller. Currently the jobs market favours the candidate. “Were in a candidate-driven market and will be for some time,” claims Paul Sykes, director of Michael Page Marketing. “The trawl for talent is increasingly difficult.”

There are more roles than there are qualified and experienced people and the laws of supply and demand dictate that candidates can be incredibly choosy. This puts onus on B2B firms to be more effective in the way they advertise their roles.To help ease the pain, B2B Marketing has garnered opinion from leading recruitment experts and put together golden rules for the recruitment of B2B marketers.

1. Attract passive seekers
Given the skills shortage, it is imperative recruiters cast their nets as wide as possible and reach candidates who may be ideal, but who are not actively seeking. “The reality is you have to market your role in as many different media as possible to attract the passive searchers,” says Sykes. “If you rely on candidates who are actively looking, you will be reaching people who have lots of opportunities on the go.”

The increased use of online recruitment is one of the ways to reach this pool of talent. Michelle Brown, communications manager for Monster, recommends people have their CVs live at all times. “This enables companies to get details of whoever fits their criteria, whether that person is actively seeking a new employer or not.”

2. Integrate channels
“Recruiters have to remain open-minded and look at a variety of channels,” says Sykes. “Make sure the combination you choose gives you maximum exposure for a reasonable price, and the opportunity to hire the best in the market and not just those who are available locally or reading a certain publication.”

Michelle Brown
Traditional offline channels – classified ads in trade publications and regional press – are increasingly ineffective. Regional press readership is not targeted and is limited to specific locations. While it may be cheap, the likelihood of hitting a B2B marketing specialist is low. Trade titles are more expensive and, for the extra cost, the recruiter will be reaching a higher volume of well targeted people. However, there is a dearth of specialist B2B titles, and as Brown attests, “By the time an ad appears in the weekly titles, many of the roles will be filled or have a candidate list.”

Circling ads in classified pages is also less than subtle. “It's easier to browse online than in print,” says Jacqueline Evans, head of business at The StopGap Group. “You can refine searches and filter what you're looking for from all sorts of angles.”

However, it is not a simple case of online trumping all other channels. Online can offer breadth, but not necessarily the depth of search offered by specialist channels. Here, integration pays dividends.

Mark Power is CEO of digital marketing agency, Concep. His company specialises in B2B and has found recruitment of people with specific skill sets difficult. “There are very few people in the market who have the skills to be able to come in and start making an immediate impact to our business.” He says the most effective way of recruiting at an expanding company is to exploit a number of avenues to market.

3. Effective use of online
Online media has many benefits but the market is cluttered. Achieving effective cut-through is essential if your ad is going to work.

“It's important to use your logo online,” says Anderson. “It sounds simple, but some businesses try to cut corners. It makes a difference – there are a lot of vacancies online and a logo will help you stand out.”

Sophie Relf, head of business at Totaljobs agrees, and says that recruitment should be treated like a marketing campaign. “There has to be consistent messaging with a single tracked destination point – such as a vacancy URL – so that your business can monitor responses and the campaign media performance.” Creating a destination point not only enables measurability, it is also attractive for candidates.

“Space on jobs boards can be limited. Use them to attract people and then whisk them off to your own site where you can go into more detail about job specifications,” adds Anderson.

4. To sell or not to sell?
The idea of selling roles and opportunities is contentious. While brands baulk at the idea – passionate candidates shouldn't need to be sold to – consultants will counter that in the current market selling is a necessary evil.

Evans claims the B2B sector must realise its marketing roles are often seen as less alluring, more complex and often offered by less attractive brands than in B2C. “If you are a marketer you should be good at positioning things,” she says. “B2B marketing jobs are no different.”

“Consumer brands understand this,” argues Sykes. “There is an onus on businesses to communicate the benefit of joining their organisation. Telling a business they might have to sell themselves doesn't always sit well. They don't like being in that position, they like people to want to work for them.”

Anderson says selling needn't be a dirty word. “B2B does have to work harder. But it's basic stuff, such as using a logo and being proud of your identity. Talking about opportunity and growth is how you will attract candidates who are passionate and aspirational.”

5. Consultants: the devil and the detail
Opinion on recruitment consultants is polarised. Even by Evans' own admission, they are viewed, “somewhere alongside estate agents”. Yet they can benefit those recruiting in B2B.

Chris Sykes
“A good consultant will open up a network of people you won't necessarily reach through advertising,” claims Sykes. “We have time to sit with candidates and explain why they should consider something a little different. This is a gain for those brands that would not have generated enough interest through advertising alone.”

However, some remain unconvinced. “I do not use, and do not like, recruitment consultants,” says Power. “I've yet to find a good B2B marketing recruitment consultant.” Powers position is understandable given his recent experience. Early in 2007, his company worked with a consultant that backed them into a corner. “We short-listed and short-listed, but although we got down to two candidates neither was right. Nonetheless, the consultant wanted us to choose.”

There are things a business can do to mitigate this happening and to create a good relationship with a consultancy. As Anderson explains, “It is unscrupulous for a consultant to force the issue with a client. We believe in building a relationship. A company has to get close to the consultant, develop a working relationship. Draw up a service level agreement so that you know what type of behaviour to expect, what the process will be and the timelines that you are working towards.”

The following are key questions a business should ask of a consultant at the initial tender, according to Sykes.

Where does the consultancy get its candidates from?

Where will it advertise?

How has it filled similar roles?

How well does it understand challenges in B2B marketing?

How many candidates does it have?

Who does it network with?

6. Unrealistic and scared of risk
Irrespective of channel, getting a good candidate is tough. Recruiters compound the problem through being unrealistic about what they can get – and how much they can get it for – and tunnel vision.

“We often have to set our clients' expectations about who they are likely to get as a candidate,” says Evans. “It's important to be realistic about the nature of the role and the nature of the people who will be interested in the position.”

Businesses should also be prepared to look further afield, and sometimes in unlikely places, for the right candidate. “UK businesses have a tendency to recruit a square peg for a square hole and aren't prepared to consider what else they would get if they just thought a bit more laterally,” says Sykes. Transferable skills and a fresh perspective will often be more rewarding than old blood.

7. Getting good grads
Digital marketing is one area with very little old blood. As a result, Power has made graduate recruitment a central tenet of his recruitment philosophy.

“Graduate recruitment is a long term strategy because you have to allow time for these people to become effective,” he explains. “The great thing is that graduates arrive without any laurels, with the eagerness to learn. If you have the right kind of programme in place they can become effective in 6-12 months.”

The best way to get graduate recruits making a positive impact on your business according to Anderson is to have a well structured programme in place. “There have to be clear career development plans in place. A good graduate is hard to find. The last thing you want to do is take one on, train them up, and see them leave because you didn't explain clearly that their future lies with your business. We recommend that graduates have mentors when they join. They should be offered continued training in the form of marketing diplomas and so on.”

8. Social networking
Graduates have the potential to be the future of the business, but what of the future of recruitment? Online has mushroomed and the channel is at the heart of most recruitment. As with so much of the Internet, the next step is toward social networking sites.

“There is a massive shift toward social networking, to sites like Linked In,” says Evans. “I don't think Facebook will become another Linked In, but there are other forums like that. This is going to be the way forward.”

This should come as no surprise. To many, good old-fashioned networking is still the most effective form of recruitment. “We like to look at our own network, through the industry bodies that we have, through the clients that we've got and the people that they know,” Power says. “A lot of our clients are very well connected. We would often say that we're looking for a particular person and they would come back with someone who fits very well.”

Sykes is in agreement. “Organisations that have individuals who are better networked tend to hear of good potential employees before anyone else. That's fantastic in the current climate: if you can get to people before your competitor there's a chance they will come your way.”

Recruitment is rarely an enjoyable process. It is usually a distress purchase that is high-risk and expensive. However, as Web 2.0 grows and social networking becomes pivotal, B2B marketing brands will be able to confront some of the barriers to recruiting good marketers and become better at positioning themselves as attractive, challenging and rewarding employers.