It's not always easy to know where to start when you're sizing up a new opportunity. Chances are you're dealing with an organization you know very little about; you have lots of questions, there are lots of unknowns. You can go in there and wing-it, or you can borrow a page from someone like myself, [...]
Once upon a time, business as usual was often good enough. No more. Where we're going- or actually, where we already are- is dead. The way we work will never be the same, the skills we need are being redefined. Winning or losing is happening faster than ever before. Businesss now must driven change, and [...]
Developing a B2B marketing organizational structure for a B2B business can be a daunting task. It might have started as a back-of-the-envelope sketch. Now, you've got a lot of gaps to fill and you want to be sure you're positioning key roles in the right place at the right time. Just a few years ago, [...]
Much has been written about the strategy and successful execution of ecommerce. I address many of those topics in this blog. But when it comes to job descriptions, less ink is usually devoted to the subject of ecommerce leadership. Most companies state that they're looking for a "strong" leader, or an "experienced" leader, or some [...]
Even after more than 25 years of Chief Marketing Officer recruiting, each time I place one I learn a lot. I learn not just what skills and qualities companies are looking for in these captains of commerce, but I also glean valuable insight into why candidates fail to make the final cut. You’ll find plenty [...]
The demand for digital marketing talent continues to grow As we turn into the backstretch of 2020, I look back as I always do this time of year and look for trends in the kind of searches I conducted- specifically, areas where demand was strongest. This past year, even despite the onset [...]
People often ask me: What trends am I seeing these days in the recruitment and hiring of digital commerce leaders? One definitely stands out: The steady rise in B2B. McKinsey reports that two-thirds of businesses surveyed said digital engagement of customers is among their top three strategic priorities and that's leading to a steady rise [...]
Recently, I visited a client as part of the launch of a new earch for a Vice President of Marketing. We got the section where the semior leaders work, and the CEO proudly pointed to a spanking new office, the one where my candidate will sit, complete with a freshly minted Vice President of Marketing [...]
Formulating the right questions to ask before you start the interviewing process is key when hiring senior ecommerce leaders. Spring traditionally ushers in my busiest season of the year when it comes to ecommerce executive recruiting. That was certainly the case in 2019, and the COVID pandemic notwithstanding, I have been getting plenty [...]
Some of you may have seen my recent LinkedIn posting, “Can B2C’ers transition to B2B?". It was the most read and most commented posting I have put up all year. It really struck a chord because so many marketers have worked on both sides of the fence. In an effort to assemble all responses into [...]
Resourcing and staffing for ecommerce success During my 30 years as an ecommerce recruiter I've had the opportunity to work with many hundreds of online businesses, both B2C as B2B. I've placed executive ecommerce leaders and entire ecommerce teams with established Fortune 1000 companies all the way down to early stagers and start-ups. [...]
As many of my blog readers know, I've written about B2B digital transformation for many years. The shift by many old-line industries into digital has been a slow move. For the vast majority of my clients who have made that transition, the pay-off has been well worth the investment, both in terms of budgets and [...]
No doubt about it- 2019 was a banner year for executive-level Digital Marketing candidates. The number of searches I conducted as a Vice President of Digital Marketing recruiter was up considerably over 2018 with the majority of them newly created roles rather than just replacements, which of course speaks to the growing importance of digital [...]
I write a lot about the importance of digital marketing cultural transformation when it comes to recruiting and placing leaders in digital marketing and ecommerce. It was important when I first started recruiting senior marketing leaders some 32 years ago, and cultural transformation in digital marketing is important today. In fact, candidates as well as [...]
Managing your ecommerce career can be hard enough during good times, let alone during times of crisis like we're experiencing now. If you're working at home and not commuting to the office, you might find yourself with some extra time to think about your future. The Great Recession of 2008-2009 led to dramatic changes in [...]
All of a sudden, it's cool to be a digital marketing remote worker. It's amazing to think that just one month ago I was still having difficulty convincing stubborn clients who believed there was no room for remote work in digital commerce. Everyone needs to be in the office where they can collaborate and share [...]
The growth of B2B digital commerce is forcing employers to look hard—and pay well—for managers and executives who know how to digitally engage customers . It’s still a candidate’s job market for qualified executives with the right skill set in B2B digital commerce, and the right candidate for any ecommerce job may, in fact, be [...]
Once upon a time there was a King who ruled The Land of The Purple Squirrel. He was a good King, growing his Kingdom from start-up to an esteemed producer of fine yarn. His castle was made of the finest stones. Inside, 20 spinners labored to turn clean fluffy wool into yarn for garment makers [...]
As a Vice President Ecommerce executive recruiter, I can tell you that employment contracts are the exception rather than the rule for most VP-level digital marketing and ecommerce leadership positions. But I just had an employer tell a candidate to expect one. This particular candidate has never had an executive-level contract like this in the [...]
I was recently honored with the opportunity to speak to graduate students at the University of Minnesota Carlson School Management about digital marketing career opportunities, where Kathy Amundson teaches a class on digital commerce. These are the future leaders, the future movers and shakers, the future entrepreneurs and the future technology envelope pushers who will [...]
Technological innovation has put marketing departments in a state of flux for the past decade, and that won't change any time soon. Marketing technology hiring to build a leading, technology-empowered marketing department isn't easy. It's entirely about balancing comfort zones vs. fear, strategic vision vs. tactical execution and stakeholder obligation. Jerry Bernhart of Bernhart Associates [...]
A lot can happen in 30 years, particularly when it comes to technology in the recruiting industry. In the late 1980’s, there WAS no technology. There WAS no such thing as a digital marketing career. State of the art was 3X5 index cards in plastic boxes. That was pretty much my “Salesforce” of the day [...]
Jerry Bernhart featured in Internet Retailer I am proud to be featured in the April, 2017 edition of Internet Retailer: "What Qualities Online Retailers Seek"
Most of the US economy is driven by consumer spending versus B2B or BtoG (government), so B2C commands the lion share of ecommerce and digital marketing spend. But as this B2B digital marketing recruiter looks back on 2016, fully half of the searches I conducted this year for ecommerce and digital marketing leaders were B2B, [...]
The new President and CEO of Procter & Gamble is not exactly the first person you think of when the topic turns to developing an ecommerce recruiting strategy to attract the best talent in digital marketing and ecommerce. Not to belittle his accomplishments, of course. Roger Taylor worked his way up to the top job [...]
When it comes to digital marketing hiring trends, ever wonder how long digital marketers and ecommerce specialists stay in one job? It’s something I think about often, and one of these days I’m going to do what I did back in 2009 when I tried to answer that same question. Many of you with more [...]
Recently a candidate reported back after an interview for a senior digital marketing leadership role with a client of mine, and she was still asking lot of questions. That’s a good thing. I want my candidates to ask lots of questions to fully understand the scope of the role, reporting relationships, company culture, among many [...]
Recently I received an Ecommerce Director job description from a client (actually, it was spelled “E-Commerce” Director, but don’t get me started on AP style rules!). Nothing unusual there, except that it was exceptionally well-written. I think I write a pretty mean job spec myself. As a Director of Ecommerce recruiter who specializes in this [...]
Jerry Bernhart is proud to be widely recognized as a “thought leader” in matters related to jobs and career development in ecommerce and digital/multichannel marketing. This section features dozens of original and timely blog postings offering unique insight and fresh perspective on hiring key talent in these highly specialized fields. We hope you’ll find the [...]
During the course of any given week I read dozens of job descriptions for digital marketing and ecommerce leaders. For the most part they’re very well-written, drafted by owners and other stakeholders who’ve become pretty savvy when it comes to online marketing. In fact, many of them who contact my office are actually doing part [...]
With the recent completion of a Chief Digital Officer search, I thought it would be timely as an experienced Chief Digital Officer recruiter to examine the growing demand for CDO’s (the rise of the Chief Digital Officer), and how success in these senior leadership roles is defined. I know that among the IR-500, about a [...]
For the first time as a Vice President Ecommerce recruiter, I am recruiting and placing VP Ecommerce leaders who are card-carrying members of the 15 year-club, those who have at least 15 years of experience or more with dot-coms. I am matching them up with a growing number of businesses that are asking for a [...]
Recently I sat down with the President of a small B2B company about the need to hire a new digital product leader. The role represented a whole new level of leadership in digital product development for this particular business, so making the right cultural fit was mission critical (which is why I spent time on-site [...]
Recently, McKinsey & Company issued a report entitled “Using marketing analytics to drive superior growth.” Marketers already know how the development of more advanced analytical tools in recent years- most notably artificial intelligence and machine learning- has given them a big boost in their decision-making firepower. But this particular report had a talent angle to [...]
A lot has been written recently- white papers, research reports, cover stories, you name it- about the skills and abilities required for success as a modern marketer and the competencies that will be needed in the future. As a Vice President Marketing recruiter who has placed nearly three dozen Vice Presidents of Marketing in the [...]
In the spirit of President Obama's State of the Union address last week, I’m here to tell you that as ecommerce executive recruiter who has specialized in the marketing field for some 27 years, the state of the union- as far as ecommerce and digital marketing jobs is concerned- is sound. In fact, it's about [...]
Last week I sat down with a retail client to talk about a new digital leadership position they’re creating in 2016. Mind you, we're talking about a brand that has been around for nearly 75 years, and like many employers that contact my office the leaders of this particular business find themselves standing at a crossroads: Either continue [...]
Each this time year in my ecommerce executive search practice, I like to look back on the year just passed and reflect on the candidates I placed into digital marketing and ecommerce jobs, and what it was that made them attractive to the employers who hired them. They came in at all levels, from President [...]
Recently, I received a call from a nationally known financial services firm we all know, and they were interested in talking with me about a search for a Director of CRM, their first such hire. What they really needed was a VP, but they just didn’t know it yet. That would have been the perfect [...]
Thinking about your hiring needs for 2016? If you're thinking about hiring a Digital Marketing Manager- roughly 7-10 years experience- you should start thinking about it now. CareerCast has released its list of jobs that it predicts employers will have the most difficulty filling next year, and it comes as no surprise that Marketing Manager [...]
The Vice President of Ecommerce is the chief steward of the organization's electronic storefront (transactional website). Their goal is to drive new traffic, create and deliver an online experience that will endear users to the brand, and turn visitors into customers while maximizing overall profitability of the online business. The responsibilities of the ecommerce "czar" [...]
Do you rely largely on "gut feel" when determining whether or not a candidate is a good digital marketing culture fit with your organization? Many of my clients have told me they do. At many companies, human resource managers use behavioral-based questions to help detect cultural fit. But because hiring managers can put their individual stamp [...]
Look up the word "change" in the dictionary, and you just might redirected to see "Chief Marketing Officer." As if the role of the Chief Marketing Officer isn't big enough, the responsibilities of the modern CMO continue to evolve and broaden. All you have to do is look at a typical Chief Marketing Officer job [...]
Companies are paring back their budgets on traditional advertising and allocating more marketing dollars to digital. In many organizations, digital marketing now accounts for the majority of their marketing spend. Traditional ad campaigns are increasingly offering extended content on the web. Practically every print ad, catalog, and television commercial is driving customer engagement online. As [...]
In my position as an experienced omnichannel marketing recruiting specialist, I deliver a lot of presentations on talent management. I talk a lot about the value of “A” talent. These are the multichannel marketers who personify the gold standard of exceptional performance and distinguish themselves by consistently delivering outstanding results and inspiring and motivating others. [...]
With 2021 just around the corner, it's time for my annual ecommerce recruiting forecast, when I take my crystal ball off the shelf, peer through its smooth, round glassy dome and see what's ahead for marketers, and more specifically, marketers who are thinking about making a move. While the overall volume of hiring in the [...]
Excellent question. Last week I got a call from a Talent Acquisition Director at a company that is considering the use of a third party recruiter to help them hire a new VP of Ecommerce. I could tell from the tone of the discussion that she was not entirely sold on the idea of going "outside" [...]
For the past month or so, I've been working on updating my list of ecommerce acronyms and abbreviations which first appeared in my book. Last year, I began noticing some new ones popping up on resumes and published a list of those ealier this year. I thought it might be useful to add some [...]
These past nine months of 2020 have been unlike any period I have ever experienced since the beginning of my recruiting career more than 30 years ago. The COVID crisis has turned the hiring landscape in digital marketing and ecommerce recruiting totally upside down. A year ago, certain specialties within digital marketing were in severe [...]
I am often asked as a digital marketing and ecommerce recruiter: What is the one question candidates ask me the most? This one, BY FAR: “I feel stuck. How do I get to that next step in my career with more responsibility, a bigger title and higher compensation?” After nearly 30 years as a multichannel, [...]
