Podcast 15: How can leaders develop their teams to adapt to the key changes in marketing?

Marketing is one of the fastest-changing industries out there, with shifts in consumer behaviour and new technologies evolving how organisations both market and sell their products or services. It’s therefore becoming increasingly important for marketing leaders to anticipate and adapt to these changes, to ensure their organisations thrive, both now and in the future.

Today we’re joined by Keshia Khan, Marketing Director at Hays Americas. Keshia is here to talk to us about the latest trends and how marketing leaders can build and develop their teams against a backdrop of constant change.

1. Before we get started, could you please introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a little bit about your career in marketing?

My name is Keshia Khan and I reside in the beautiful city of Toronto in Canada. I have close to fifteen years’ experience in strategic brand marketing and digital marketing. I’ve worked in fashion, beauty, lifestyle, FinTech, and within CPG (consumer packaged goods), retail and B2B (business-to-business). So really, a breadth of roles and experiences have shaped my career to date.

Did I know I would get into this back then? No. When I was in business school, I attended the Schulich School of Business in Toronto and I studied both marketing and finance, and I was actually intent on getting into finance at the end of school. But I had a super inspiring professor who opened my eyes to the world of marketing, and then my first role out of school was a marketing role, and I never looked back ever since then – and so that’s how I’m here today.

2. And what is it you like most about working in marketing?

The first would be change and disruption, marketing is constantly evolving and changing, there’s just so much excitement around it and you just have to keep up. I think that’s the one piece that really drives me within marketing.

And then the second piece is more around research and insights. I love the research and insights piece that informs your strategy and really getting to know your customer. And that is something that really excites me about marketing, because there’s so much you learn about humans and human behaviour and being able to take that and implement it into a strategy and a campaign that really resonates with your consumer, is super rewarding for me.

3. What key changes within marketing have you witnessed throughout your career and what do you think is really driving these changes?

I think the biggest change that’s impacted several functions in marketing has to be data, the access to data and then just what to do with the data. There’s so many different tools and technologies that have really impacted marketing, and now we have an influx of data, it’s really getting down to what nuggets of information are impactful and will help us make change and help us achieve the results we need. To me, this is the biggest change that I’ve seen that’s impacted marketing. And what it’s also done is forced marketing and sales and technology to have to partner and collaborate even closer than ever before. So, that’s one big change that I’ve seen there.

I think the other piece is an obvious one around digital marketing and the impact in reach of digital media. The fact that we talk about this all the time – the various algorithms and strategies that we have to be able to reach people at scale.

And then this kind of connects into social media and the impact and change that’s had on marketing, and the fact that social media allows consumers to have access to information immediately. And then the second piece is about the fact that marketers can no longer fully control the narrative of their story because of social media, and the ability for consumers to give their feedback right away and help shape your story.

Then the last piece that’s connected and that’s been a major change as well, is just the impact of influencers. I don’t just mean influencers in music or sports, it’s across the board and transcends industries. I think that the reason why this has really impacted marketing is because it’s almost become a channel of its own, where we need to understand the reach, the ROI on hiring influencers and their impact on your brand.

So, these are some of the key changes and really, they’ve all been fuelled by technology changes.

4. Marketers now have more data available to them than ever before. Meaning they’re able to clearly demonstrate the ROI of their activity and their campaigns. Do you think this is changing the perception of marketing within organisations?

Absolutely, it’s definitely changing the role of marketing and the amount of information and insights they’re able to share within an organisation to help make decisions. So, that definitely has impacted the role and perception of marketing within companies.

I think the other piece with data is understanding that now marketing’s role is changing. The other piece that’s changed for marketers is also being able to hone in on the right data, which I think is something I was mentioning before. How are we able to hone in on those great nuggets of information within the data, and then communicate this widely to the organisation as well? So that’s, what I see in terms of yes, did the perception of marketing change, but then it’s also brought on some new responsibilities from marketing that we may not have had in the past.

5. As a senior marketing leader, it’s obviously very important to keep abreast of all the changes going on and to adapt your strategy accordingly. How do you do this personally? And can you share any of your advice with our listeners?

The first thing I would say is make sure you’re reading daily. Read the news daily, even if you’re just scanning the headlines, just to make sure you’re in the know because it’s not just about knowing what’s going on in marketing, it’s about what’s going on in the world and seeing what things are happening. Then, what role can you play in impacting people’s lives? To me it’s about reading the news daily, knowing what’s going on. Some of my favourite publications to read; I love Fast Company, I love reading Business of Fashion. There’s such great insights on strategy and technology in the industry that are applicable from Tech Crunch, Wired and HubSpot. A lot of those different publications are what I read to try to keep up with what’s going on.

The other piece as well for me, is undertaking courses and upskilling myself. So, getting out there and taking courses and networking with people outside of what you do. A big piece, again, and other advice that I give my teams is about networking with people in sales and understanding what they’re going through such as the obstacles and the pain points. Those are things that really help propel a marketer’s career.

We were talking earlier about data and the impact of technology. So, building relationships from a networking perspective to learn with developers. Developers are here creating a lot of the technology that we’re using, so building relationships with them and learning what they’re working on in their thought process are some of the things that I do personally, and I think it would be my advice to listeners as well.

6. How do you think the makeup of a traditional marketing team is changing? Are there any new roles or different areas of expertise that have been created recently?

The next change I’ve seen in terms of the transition of the traditional marketing team is around technical skills. So, the need for more advanced Excel skills, stat skills, overall analytical skills, and then bringing those to life visually. The other piece within UX and web design, is even more important in terms of having a strong understanding of the tools required to be able to do that. The same thing with content, and things like eCRM (electronic customer relationship management).

So, skills that come up like SeQuel are becoming even more important for marketers to at least have a general knowledge of in their career. These are things that I see have been changing and evolving in terms of, the traditional marketing team really becoming more digitally savvy and more connected to tech and sales in a stronger way than ever before.

7. You’ve mentioned the importance of being more digitally savvy, and of course new technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning present amazing opportunities for marketers to focus on value add tasks whilst technology and tools can assist with more manual administrative day-to-day activities. How would you recommend marketing leaders guide their teams through this transition and help them adapt?

I think this really depends on what technology is available, what you’re able to invest in and afford that makes the most sense. But, I think once you’re there, you’ve made a decision and this technology is being implemented, for me in terms of guiding your teams, it’s all about clear communication, but making sure that you’ve prepped this communication and change plan before the technology is launched. So, making sure that you have a good understanding of the impact of the technology, why it’s important for your team and how it will make them more efficient.

Have you created communication that really resonates with them, so they understand what’s in it for them? I think it is super important to make sure that you’ve clearly thought through and planned out the messaging, made sure that you have several points of repetition because just saying it once and talking about the change once isn’t enough. So, repetition and open lines of communication are key.

Leveraging external examples of how this tech or implementation has happened in other companies and how it’s made the teams more productive can really help to reinforce the change, credibility and acceptance of this on the team.

8. When building teams, are there any technical or soft skills that marketing leaders really should be looking out for when they’re hiring?

If we’re going to look at the technical skills perspective;

• SeQuel web design, graphic design at least at a basic level, except if it’s going to be a specialist role, in that is very key. So, these things are super important and even more important now in terms of digital marketing.
• Writing skills and seeing examples of this throughout the hiring process. Always ask for writing samples and even going so far from a presentation standpoint to see them in action before you hire. It’s always good to get those examples for writing and presentation skills, so that you feel confident in terms of what this person could potentially bring to the table. So, to me, those are very important things to make sure you uncover throughout the hiring process.

And then from a soft skill piece;

• Quick thinking and the ability to adapt and look for real examples of how they’ve showcased this.
• Insights-driven, are they really starting from the consumer in everything that they’ve done. Is their thought process, to start from the insights and then build out a strategy? And so, you want to really uncover examples from a potential team member through the hiring process to really uncover this piece.
• Results-driven, I think that’s a given and a no brainer, but really focusing on driving results.
• Collaboration, whether it’s remote teams or just within the team itself, collaboration is key. So, looking for true examples again, that they’ve showcased being collaborative on teams, listening to other perspectives and then how they’ve used varying perspectives to implement strategy and change in their careers.

9. Is it also important to consider and assess potential rather than, or in addition to a list of skills and qualifications on a CV?

Absolutely, it’s crucial to also assess potential. When you’re going through the interview process, you also want to make sure that this person can also operate in the next role that could be in their future. Are you going to be able to give them stretch projects? Do you know that they have what it takes to get there, and that they’re ready and willing to take on coaching, and have that open mindset and attitude?

So, potential is just as important because those people who are open and willing to learn, you know that you would be able to drive them. And that’s across the board, I’m constantly evolving, my team is constantly evolving and that’s based on potential.

10. I assume it will become more important for marketing leaders to support their teams in taking ownership of their own upskilling and development. After all, this will help them better adapt to and thrive in this constantly changing environment that we’ve been talking about. How can marketing leaders support their teams in doing this?

Yes, I agree, it’s very important for marketing leaders to support their teams in terms of upskilling development across the board. One thing that leaders can do is set up their own coaching sessions. So, taking time, maybe it’s over lunch, maybe it’s a breakfast meeting to coach the team on presentation skills, and doing some active workshops there. Maybe it’s on how to build a strategic brief and you take time with the team and really go through and explain all the sections and have them engaged in examples from a workshop perspective. It could be digital 101. So, it’s taking different topics and actually setting up, creating the opportunity to coach them on things that you may not have otherwise taken time out of the day to do in the day-to-day tasks. So, I feel like one option is around setting up your own coaching sessions.

Another thing that I love as well is for marketing leaders to leverage their peer groups, their previous colleagues, friends, et cetera, who are in the industry, who have something to say and inviting those people in to do talks with the team on various subjects as well to help engage them and give a different perspective. So, from a guest speaker perspective, I love that, and I love engaging my network into coaching, coaching my team as well, I think that could be a great suggestion.

Lastly, the other thing that I think is so important, and to me this is top of the list is career one-on-one coaching. Do you have consistent touch points set up with your team to just talk about careers, just talk about strengths and then where they want to go in the future and just having those type of conversations – and, you’re not doing the talking, you’re letting your team do the talking.

So, you can really listen to what they like, listen to what they’re struggling with. Maybe give some examples of things where they could take their career in the future and start to help them build out a strong career development plan. So, that’s very important and that must be consistent and planned and put into the calendars to make sure that’s not forgotten, they know that’s important to you and that you’re there to help coach them. And what can come out of this is for your team to go outside of the workplace and start upskilling on different things on their own because they’ve had a good conversation with you internally.

11. Do you think showing a genuine interest and support of your team’s personal development and upskilling can help marketing leaders retain top talent?

I mean absolutely, there’s no question that showing a genuine interest would help to build that relationship and build that confidence with your team around their careers. And, it will help you see where you might need to build out your team and what gaps you might have on your team as well. So, I think it kind of works both ways. But the biggest thing for me here is, when you’re showing a genuine interest, you really have to listen to your team and understand what drives them, because every person on your team has different motivators and drivers and you want to make sure that you really know what those are, so you’re able to set them up for success.

12. Skills gaps and competition for talent are on the rise. Is there anything else marketing leaders can do to keep hold of their top talent?

Yes, I think there’s no right answer here. I think some of the examples I’ve given before in terms of really getting to know your people and having consistent, booked, scheduled career chats with them which helps let them talk. Let them talk about their strengths, areas of development, where they may see themselves in the future and make plans towards upskilling and building out that true career development plan. And from those types of meetings, you might see various projects that come up where you can assign stretch projects to them to help in their career growth. And having these meetings with intent, so you and your team members are on the same page in terms of career development and that you’re genuinely there to help them succeed and get to the next level.

13. What do you think the role of a senior marketer will look like in 10 years’ time?

This is hard to say. My gut feeling is that I don’t think it’s going to be much different. I think that we’ve been evolving so much, and in 10 years’ time I think you’ll see even less of a line between marketing and technology teams.

We’re already seeing a stronger collaboration and connection between marketing and technology. The core foundation of marketing teams is evolving and changing to have more of a digital foundation, insights that are based on technology and gathering that data. So, I feel like in 10 years’ time there’s going to be less of a divide between marketing and technology.

And I think in 10 years’ time, who knows what disruption in marketing is going to look like? It’s so busy, there are so many messages coming at us at all times. So, I think that’s going to be a big piece as well to see what disruption will really look like in 10 years’ time, just looking at how fast-paced technology is and how access and personalisation is improving every day.

That’s where I think it will go, but I don’t see it being much different from what we’re doing now, except that it’s just going to evolve quicker and solidify partnerships with tech in a bigger way.

14. Now, finally we have one last question, which is something we ask all our podcast guests, what do you think are the top three qualities that make a good leader?

So, trust is a big one. It is so important for me as a leader, to make sure that my team, my people come first, that I’ve taken the time to get to know them and build trust. I need them to know that I have their backs throughout their learning and development, throughout their mistakes, their triumphs, all of that. So, to me, trust with your people is so important on the team.

The second thing is being an excellent storyteller. This is so important and transcends so many parts of what we do. So, your ability to influence, to motivate, to gain alignment on projects and new initiatives and campaigns across the board. I always look at this as the art of storytelling and are you able to convey your idea in an interesting way that resonates with people throughout various functions? That is something that is key to a good leader in order to also be able to influence and motivate a team.

And lastly, results. Those of you who know me, I’m very obsessed with results. You need to be accountable to the results as a leader, guide your team into that direction and never stray away but always have a focus on that. My team will probably say, I harp on about it a lot, but it’s always starting off with what are we trying to achieve from a numbers perspective? And then working back and holding yourself accountable to what you set out.

To me, these are the top three qualities of a great leader.

Did you enjoy this podcast? Here is some related content that you may be interested in:

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