Career Opportunities And Perceived Value

Tell me the last time you observed these titles at a business-to-consumer organization (non-vendors):

• Vice President of E-Mail Marketing.
• Sr. Director of Web Analytics.
• General Manager of Business Intelligence.
• SVP of Catalog Circulation.
  

It's interesting that many businesses have an executive in charge of information or technology (CIO or CTO). Many businesses also have pay scales that are very favorable to information technology employees. In other words, an e-mail manager might earn a base salary of $75,000 per year, while a comparably skilled information technology individual might earn $90,000 per year. The information technology individual might have a limited career path, but at least she gets compensated for the unique skill set she offers to her company.

Which brings us to the typical e-mail, catalog circulation, web analytics, SAS/SPSS programmer, data miner, or business intelligence individual.

What is the career path for the web analytics individual using software that doesn't even capture 100% of online sales?

What is the career path for an e-mail manager that is given no budget, but is criticized for generating only $0.09 per e-mail delivered?

What is the career path for the SAS programmer who provides the intelligence that an information technology individual cannot provide, yet is considered a "computer geek" by Sr. Management?

What is the career path for a catalog circulation manager that is criticized by eco-friendly organizations for cramming unsolicited junk mail down the throats of helpless consumers?

In my opinion, there is one common theme across each of the four jobs I described ... perceived value.

The e-mail marketer is a spammer. The web analytics individual measures only one channel, and cannot frequently tie out net sales to finance-based reality. The SAS programmer is a computer geek. The catalog manager is always wrong, why would you mail a catalog that 98% of the people hate, can't you only mail the catalog to customers who will purchase?

Remove the information technology expert from your business, and your order entry system might stop taking orders. That's what "perceived value" is all about.

Stop sending e-mail campaigns, stop sending junk mail, stop creating a report that requires a complex merge of e-mail address and multiple mailing addresses, stop showing that conversion rates are flat, and who cares?

Career opportunities are often based on the perceived value of the individual. I know this is true, I've experienced it. I've been told by leadership that I'm not qualified to do any other job than an analytics-based job.

Conversely, merchants, those who choose product, are perceived to have high value, perceived to be able to lead finance individuals or marketers or information technology experts or call center leadership.

So many of my loyal subscribers are e-mail marketers, catalog circulation experts, web analytics professionals, or business intelligence / data mining wizards. Collectively, we have two problems.

• We have low perceived value.
• We do a terrible job of marketing our skills.

Not surprisingly, these two issues are interrelated.

There are three types of employees in the multichannel world.

• Employees with scarce skills, like the folks in information technology.
• Employees with leadership potential or those with the ability to "move the needle" on sales. Think CMOs and merchandising executives, as examples ... especially CMOs, folks who either drive a big increase in sales, or are kicked-out within two years.
  
• The rest of us.

In order to reap the benefits of career opportunities, "the rest of us" must market ourselves as indispensable individuals. Either we cannot be easily replaced, or we provide such significant value (sales, profit, leadership, consumer insights) to the business that we cannot be ignored, or we must market our value to the rest of the organization to increase our perceived value. Otherwise, we must be at peace with our lot in life.

At this point in time, few promotional opportunities exist within multichannel brands for my readers, causing my readers to switch jobs across brands, or to venture to the vendor side of the equation to find opportunities. It might be time for us to start marketing our abilities, to begin increasing our perceived value, or to actually prove that we are highly valuable.

Career Advice: Jane

This character, "Jane", is a composite of numerous individuals I've met during the past three years. At the end of this brief career description, you are encouraged to offer "Jane" career advice.

Jane is the Director of Circulation for a multichannel cataloger. She worked her way up the corporate ladder, from an entry-level merge/purge analyst in 1992, to a housefile circulation analyst in 1995, to a housefile planning analyst in 1997, to a circulation manager in 1998, to her current position, which she was named to in 2002.

During the past five years, Jane has helped her organization go through a significant transition. In 2002, just twenty percent of transactions occurred online. Today, sixty-five percent of purchases occur online, and half of the online transactions are driven by Jane's catalog mailings.

Earlier this year, Jane's boss, the Vice President of Marketing, left the company to pursue other interests. The CEO decided to name the Online Marketing Director as the new Vice President. This angered Jane. The new VP of Marketing had just six years of total experience, though all of it was in e-mail marketing, paid search, affiliate marketing, portal marketing, and shopping comparison site management.

Since the promotion, the new VP of Marketing and Jane are not getting along. The focus of marketing has clearly shifted toward the online channel. With catalog marketing appearing to be less effective, the new VP asked that Jane give up catalog advertising dollars, so that the dollars could be allocated to online marketing activities, regardless whether the catalog marketing activities drive online sales or not.

Jane mentioned that her "file forecast" indicates that if this strategy is employed, the online channel is likely to lose sales, not gain sales. The VP of Marketing chided Jane for her comments, pointing out that online conversion rates are at a two-year high of 3.294%, thirty percent of all site visitors come from paid search, and that online sales are up thirteen percent over last year. Conversely, "telephone" sales are down seventeen percent vs. last year.

Jane also inquired about taking over the Online Marketing Director position. The new VP of Marketing informed Jane that catalog marketing skills are not relevant to the needs of the Online Marketing Director position.

If you were in Jane's shoes, what should the next step be in her career?

Online Marketers and Career Planning

Here's a question for my pals on the online marketing side of the business. These are the folks that manage search, portal and affiliate programs (even e-mail campaigns) at B2C companies.

Has your company outlined a career plan for you that goes beyond the Vice President or Director of Online Marketing? Is your company developing your general management skills so that one day you can run your company or division --- or is your company expecting you to stay satisfied within your niche? Is your company even talking about these topics with you?

Lastly, do you see your career path happening within your company, or do you see yourself jumping to another company for better opportunities?

I bring this up because I am starting to see challenges for folks who are developing skills in the highly specialized niche of online marketing. What are you observing, and how do you plan to deal with the questions I raise?