3 Soft Skills You Should Look for in New Marketing Talent

Companies are always looking for talented marketing professionals who possess the required hard skills needed to do the tactical things required for the job. As important as these technical skills are, there’s no downplaying the critical soft skills employees need in key marketing roles to be effective.

So what soft skills should you look for when scouting marketing talent for your organization?

Here are the three C’s to keep in mind:

Communication

Perhaps the most important soft skill marketers should possess is the ability to communicate effectively. When you hire an employee for a marketing role, they’ll be required to communicate with both internal and external stakeholders, from clients to outside vendor partners. They may also often be required to present data, prepare pitches, and conduct training or awareness sessions.

It’s imperative that your newly hired candidate have strong communication skills. This includes written, conversational, public speaking, and presentation skills. They also need to know how to take criticism and process it to help them learn and grow.

Collaboration

Just as you need someone with strong communication skills on board, you also need an individual who is a team player and can collaborate with other employees, both from their own department and from other areas of the business. Marketing departments, by nature, are required to work with other areas of the business to achieve shared goals.

Your next marketing professional should be a collaborator, someone who is willing to work within a team. They should be receptive to feedback, ideas, and criticism, and offer assistance in situations where they have something valuable to contribute.

Curiosity

Finally, make sure the person you hire for a marketing role displays curiosity and a desire to learn more. Marketing is an industry that’s constantly evolving. There are always new trends, skills, techniques, and strategies to learn. A marketer committed to this field will take the initiative to stay updated with the latest trends and share their observations with the rest of the team. This will help you adhere to the best marketing practices and achieve impactful outcomes.

If a candidate doesn’t seem to be keeping up with new trends, skills, and technology in the industry, or doesn’t stay abreast of what your competitors are doing to enable them to adjust their strategies, the chances are they’re not growing and evolving and will likely be caught flat-footed when change happens.

Hiring marketing talent is more efficient when you bring in Brookwoods Group to help you with your staffing needs. As an executive staffing firm and agency for sales and marketing recruitment in San Antonio, we’ll help you find the perfect-fit candidates who have the right skills and can help move your business forward.