Looking for the perfect candidate for your company might not be the easiest task to accomplish. There are hundreds of candidates all over the country with excellent resumes and good conduct. This often makes selection a complex process. However, the task is not impossible.
The key to finding an eligible and fine candidate for your company is by asking the right kind of questions. This brings out the best or the worst among the most. If you are keen on finding someone who would completely suit the position of a Vice President or Director, then consider this article to be your sole advisor. All interesting and intriguing questions have been discussed in detail only for your benefit.
Do keep in mind that the questions you ask should be in “case-style”. In this scenario, you will be giving the candidate a hypothetical business situation where he or she will have the opportunity to display their thoughts and ideas. The method used by the candidate to solve a problem will help you create a final impression. This will surely make work much easier for you.
Top VP of Marketing Interview Questions:
1. Strategy of the funnel:
Grab a marker and create a funnel on the blackboard. This funnel should show 500 leads, 10,000 visitors, 50 opportunities and 10 new customers. Now tell your candidate to pretend that they are the Vice President of the company and ask them what his/her marketing team should do in order to improve their skills at marketing.
How to Go About It: Usually, the first thing the candidate will do is pick one section of the funnel to lay emphasis on. If they do not, you must encourage them to do so. When they have finally decided upon the area, ask them about the steps the team should take in order to improve that particular section.
Make sure you encourage them to speak to you about the tactics they are keen on using. Once they have answered your question, you can once more ask them to revise through the whole funnel and identity on how they think the first metrics have shown change. If you still have some time left, go into the other parts of the funnel.
2. Scoring the Lead:
Tell your candidate to assume they have an excel sheet which consists of about 10,000 leads gathered within the last couple of months. The length has been expanded for so long that the leads sale cycle was also passed.
The file is full of valuable information such as title, size, company, and industry. The file also shows if they closed as customers and the cost of the order. Now ask them something like “Provided with this information, do you think you can come up with a lead score? If yes, how are you going to execute it?”
How to go About It: Several will start off by going through the data carefully. Some will also work towards sorting it. This is where you need to ask them how they would go about it in Excel. It does not make any sense to just look at the data when there are over ten thousand rows in total.
Statistic analytics needs to be used here. They could also speak about just one factor like industry. In case they do so, you should ask them on how they would react if a small company has good leads and if another bigger company has good leads? The basic idea is to keep pushing them until they are at a loss of words.
3. Deciding on Homepage for Websites:
You can start off by telling them to assume a particular situation where the company has been offered with two designs for the homepage of the website. But the candidate is still unable to make a final choice. There are places where he/she likes one design and there is somewhere he/she likes the next. What is the best solution to a situation like this?
How to go about it: When they choose one of the designs, ask them the reason behind it and the goals he/she has in mind for that particular homepage. The basic idea is to keep pushing them just to see the kind of choices they make and the decisions they take, especially in situations when it isn’t possible to find data that is 100% correct and clear.
4. The Product Launch:
This is a straight forward and direct question. Your candidate should be able to answer this at ease. Tell them that there is a new product that is to be released in three months. Ask them on what they will do in order to launch this?
How to go about it: This is where you need to see whether the candidate is innovative enough with their ideas. This is actually a very good way to see whether they prepared themselves for the interview or not.
Make sure that your candidate has understood the question properly. Tell them to explain all the tactics of inbound marketing and the ways in which they can be tied together to form a proper plan.
5. Blog Evaluation:
This question is also very simple. You need to tell your candidate to assume that the CEO of the company would like to evaluate the blog you have freshly prepared. Ask them on how he/she would handle the situation and what they will tell the CEO.
How to go about it: Make sure you ask the candidate about the metrics used for preparing the blog, the goals and the customers it engenders. Also, ask them how much they are investing in this? This is a great way to check whether the candidate has read through your blog or not.
6. The Social Media Question:
In this case, you must ask your candidate how they can produce good content for inbound marketing apart from those posted on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
How to go about it: The best is to be in search for those candidates who would advise you not to pursue this at all. They should be encouraging you to start off with content that pleases the customers and prospects of the company.
The candidate should also come up with a plan that includes speaking to the customers during interviews or surveys. This will help you understand what type of content is best for them and the sort of social networks they often use.
7. The Difference between Marketing and Selling:
Whether a company is big or small, internal conflicts are still inevitable between most marketing and sale groups. They rise out of different opinions such as the role marketing play versus the role sales play. In that way, the question can be quite controversial and you will get to learn a lot about the candidate and his perspective.
How to go about it: Try and see whether the candidate possesses a fundamental sense of respect and whether he will be able to work properly with the sales team. In case the candidate shows a dismissive attitude, he will either increase or make conflicts worse between the marketing and sale groups.
You are certainly not looking for that. Instead, you want a candidate who will understand the needs of the company and work towards its success.
8. Personal Brand:
Ask your candidate about his/her personal brand. This can be a tricky question but will certainly help you understand the person you are interviewing. This gives him/her the opportunity to speak about her identity and experiences in the marketing world.
How to go about it: You need to check upon the priority of the candidate. See whether he or she is interested in helping your team to grow into a larger and stronger organization. Try to see if they are interested in just advancing their own career.
Since you are in search of a Vice President, a personal brand would be a great asset. It will certainly help you enhance the integrity of the organization.
Conclusion:
You can finish the interview by asking them several other minor questions like if they are open to shifting and how committed they usually are to their projects. Their behavior is also something you should constantly keep a track of. Since they are going to represent your company, you might want to hire someone who would help you maintain the standards of it.
Yes, it is difficult but this article must have given you a clearer idea on how to tackle interview and the sort of questions that’s shouldn’t be missed out on. If your candidate can nail all of these questions at ease, then they can certainly handle a few serious problems the company might face in the future.
No matter what, never miss out on case style questions. Remember it is the best way to understand the candidate you are interviewing. On that note, good luck and all the best!
