What Should Be Included in a MarCom Manager's Job Description?

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from someone about a Massachusetts company looking for a MarCom Manager.

The job description read the way many similar marcom job descriptions read (identifying details have been removed):

Job Details

• Write and maintain print and online sales collateral, including Website
• Track, review and analyze marketing programs
• Support PR activities

But it was the job qualifications that got me thinking:

• BA degree required, MBA preferred
• 5 – 10 years of marcom experience
• Ability to develop strong relationships with the sales team and press
• Excellent written [sic] and oral communications skills required [that should be excellent *writing* skills]
• Ability to manage multiple projects on tight deadlines

After much thinking, it occured to me that MarCom professionals can and should do a whole lot more than simply write collateral and manage multiple projects (I can do that with my eyes closed).

To be a true resource and an asset to any company, a MarCom professional should bring to the table the following:

Knowledge of the sales lead process — When I first started my business, I was *clueless* about the sales process. Thankfully, the cosmos sent Mac McIntosh my way in 2001, and ever since then, I’ve made it my priority to learn everything about sales including the difference between a sales funnel and sales cycle. 

Ability to see the ”big picture” – One thing I’ve learned, from working with my client Sequent Learning Networks, is that Product Managers need to understand how marketing, the company’s products, and the product life cycles fit in with a company’s overall business objectives.  MarCom professionals need this information, too, in order to understand how their work supports big picture objectives — not just the next product launch or PR campaign.

Business knowledge – MarCom people know a tremendous amount of *stuff* about the various products they support. However, they should also know about the company itself and the industry, understand the basics of marketing, accounting, manufacturing, and product development, and how globalization affects their particular company and its products — to name just a few things.

Ability to grab the ball and run with it — Sure, it’s great if MarCom professionals can “form relationships” with those on the sales team and within the marketing department. But if the product manager (PM) — the person with whom many MarCom types work — doesn’t have a clue about how to successfully manage his or her product, effectively develop and manage cross-functional teams,  and talk the language of business, then the MarCom professional needs the cohones to suggest to the PM (and management) that both of them should take a PM training course so that they’re both on the same page.

Yes, Marketing Communications is about communicating a company’s messages.

However, given that communicating in today’s world entails a whole lot more than writing crisp copy for a brochure or datasheet, and given that marcom is an important function within marketing and sales, and indeed, within the company as a whole, marcom professionals — and the people who hire them — need to demand more than simply the ability to play nicely with others and manage multiple projects.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?