Ecommerce Shopping Cart - Search Engine Marketing Software

White Paper: Successful Marketing Executive Onboarding

(PRWEB) August 12, 2008 -- It would seem that as professionals become more advanced in their careers, making transitions should get easier. In reality, the higher someone goes in an organization, the more challenging career transitions become. The expression, ?It?s lonely at the top? is resoundingly true. There are fewer people at top levels of an organization who can serve as mentors, and who are capable of or have time to answer the questions of their aspiring peers. Also, candidates looking for change are established and set in their ways, and while they have plenty of experience to make judgments, that experience may or may not be a fit for another company?s culture and expectations.

As an employer, you have an entirely different perspective. You expect senior marketing executives (http://www.marketproinc.com) to hit the ground running based on the investment you are making in them ? as you should, but the more senior a candidate will be in your organization, the more important and challenging onboarding a new hire becomes.

So the stakes and challenges are high ? but different ? for both you and your potential new employee. This white paper explains how through a solid onboarding approach, both sets of challenges can be conquered. It explains how they must be overcome to maintain organizational stability in today?s global business environment.

Onboarding is a shared responsibility between your company and the newly hired marketing executive. This function needs the dedicated resources, attention and structure of any mission critical business function. A basic new-hire orientation just won?t cut it at the marketing executive level. The transition is more complicated, the risks are big, and it needs to be regarded and managed accordingly. The good news is that proper onboarding of new marketing executives is not complicated. It does take time, effort and attention, but as today?s proactive organizations are discovering, it is infinitely easier and less costly on multiple levels to take a calculated approach than to suffer the consequences without one.

Successful onboarding is about creating an environment in which everyone wins: the company, the new marketing executive and the shareholder. The unfortunate truth is that most organizations are not adept at integrating new marketing executives (http://www.marketproinc.com). Only recently have companies begun to recognize and address this weakness, that without a comprehensive onboarding program, they risk the financial health of their organizations. Depending on which research study you read, the turnover rate of marketing executive leadership hires is between 25 and 40 percent within 18 months of hire. It?s not hard to imagine why such turnover is damaging, and in many ways: training costs, employee morale, opportunity cost and ultimately the bottom line. Of course, there are also those marketing executives who decide to stay and achieve less desirable results than an organization wants, and yet they are also a

retention risk later on.

You can circumvent these risks if you have a solid onboarding program in place, creating a process and environment through which your marketing executives can succeed. Everyone desires success. Your marketing executives will stay in an organization where they can consistently achieve positive results ? ones that also meet your expectations.

Onboarding begins before you hire a new Marketing Executive. Candidates begin to build an impression of your organization based on the professionalism and thoroughness with which the interview process is conducted. You want to give candidates as realistic an impression of your organization as possible. Nobody wins if a newly hired marketing executive discovers that a company is not what was portrayed during the interview process. The interview process needs to give a transparent glimpse into where your company is, the challenges a candidate will face, and most important, a true sense of your culture.

It is unfortunate how many candidates walk away from an interview with an unnecessarily negative perception. For example, if your interviewing marketing executives arrive late and unprepared for the candidate?s interview, it reflects poorly on your company, potentially leaving the impression that you do not value talent. If a senior-level candidate is left alone for lunch with nothing more than a salad from the local sandwich shop, this is also going to be viewed negatively by the candidate. If you actually hire someone through an insensitive or disorganized process, it will take a long time, if ever, for the candidate to overcome the perception of how, or whether, you value your employees.

In addition to your own transparency during the interview process, and for the process to be successful, you need the same level of transparency from the candidate and your search partner. Too often, companies, candidates or search partners hold back information to facilitate getting the deal done. This can lead to a heavy price by compromising your ability to fill a critical position in a timely manner.

Understand the development needs of the candidate. If the search process has been thorough and properly conducted by your search partner, pertinent information and data about a candidate?s goals and potential development needs will be provided to you. Use that data to determine whether the goals and expectations of your organization align with the goals and expectations of the candidate. This is critical during the interview process, and if there is a fit, it?s especially critical to carry it forth if you hire the candidate. It?s important that there be a structured 360-degree feedback process for the candidate once they start, with the opportunity to meet and interact with senior leadership on an informal basis in an environment where the goal is about understanding culture, how things get done in the organization and establishing relationships built on transparency, trust and respect.

Communication and support are your keys to successful integration. Expounding on the 360-degree feedback process, let?s assume you received the right data from your search partner and you understand not only the goals of your new employee, but also what some potential obstacles might be in integrating the new employee into your culture. You can provide relevant data you received during the interview process to your new employee?s hiring manager, peers and some of their direct reports, so that you have a system in place to gain real feedback during the new employee?s first 100 days on the job. It is most important to provide complete data to those people in your new employee?s 360-degree feedback process. Communicate all of the reasons you hired this person, why you believe he or she will be a top performer and why you are excited about the new team member ? but also communicate those things you want key people to

watch for, and encourage them to raise a concern if one appears.

You also want to provide a feedback mechanism specifically for the candidate that fits within the culture of your organization. This should be a single resource, either someone in HR or preferably another marketing executive who is not the candidate?s manager, who can answer any questions on how to get things done within your organization. Essentially, I am prescribing another marketing executive who can coach the new employee proactively from the day they start ? not reactively after they stumble.

New marketing executives (http://www.marketproinc.com) who are not fully integrated within six months, rarely ever become integrated. Much has changed in today?s global business environment, but relationships are more critical than ever. Networking and relationship building among new hires within your organization are critical to their short- and long-term success ? and yours. Take advantage of any opportunity or excuse within your new marketing executives? first six months to put them on a plane to meet and get to know other global marketing executives.

Bob Van Rossum is President of MarketPro, Inc. the leading retained executive search firm for marketing executives. MarketPro works with Fortune 500 / Global 2000 / Technology / Software companies to improve the quality and speed of marketing executive level talent acquisition. Bob regularly speaks to the media and organizations on topics related to talent acquisition, retention, succession planning and the effects of retiring Boomers on the workforce.

This press release was distributed through eMediawire by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.

###

Shopping Cart Uses Top Google Keywords to Maximize Revenue
Ecommerce shopping cart hosting uses search engine marketing software to sell products online. Use top paying Google keywords and PPC campaigns to maximize revenue and boost your income stream. Get a merchant account for credit card processing and make money on the internet with merchandise sales.

MORE ARTICLES:

Website Marketing Firm Brick Marketing Launches Local Search Engine Marketing Product at Brick Marketing Local
Brick Marketing, a respected full-service website marketing firm known for its success in increasing the sales of clients through online marketing, has launched a new local search engine marketing product. The new local online marketing package gives brick and mortar businesses the opportunity to achieve higher exposure in a wide range of local search engines.

Merchant Account Insider Secrets - Accept Credit Cards Online
The process of learning how to accept payments on the Internet is similar to the course of figuring out how to launch a business. What at first seems puzzling and intimidating may be viewed as straightforward and easy to understand if one has the right guide or manual.

Search Engine Marketing Firm Netconcepts® Upgrades Powerful Ecommerce Web Solution for Online Retailers
Enhanced search friendly online retail management platform provides "baked in" optimization features.

Search Engine Marketing Offline Sales Tracked With Online Advertising Analytics
ClearSaleing's new enhanced CRM integration program is an online advertising solution for search engine marketers.

Online Credit Card Processing - How to Accept Credit Cards - Ecommerce 101
Back in 1998 (through 2000 or so), I worked for a small company (called PaymentNet / then Signio) that handled online transactions. Verisign later purchased this company, and the product team I led integrated the "client" - the portion that took the credit card information and sent it to our servers for processing.

Apply For A Credit Card Merchant Account Online
Who should? Why, you should, of course, if you want to grow your business and maximize sales volume! In this day and age, more and more business functions are moving into cyberspace, which means that business owners must be ready to travel to this relatively unknown domain if they want to maintain strong customer ties and stay a step or two ahead of the competition. Dont worry if youre not Web savvy; most online processes that are geared to the general consumer are not hard to perform. In fact, most are downright easy.

4 Reasons Why You Must Try PPC Search Engine Internet Marketing
PPC (or Pay Per Click for those not in the know) search engine internet marketing is a form of internet advertising model that uses the power of the search engine, the flexibility and connectivity of advertising networks and a whole host of content based people pulling websites to generate audience volume

Shopping Cart Software - Making Internet Shopping Easier
People are increasingly turning to the Internet when they want to earn extra income or even begin earning a primary income from home. So many different jobs and sources of revenue on the Internet have evolved over the years that making money on the Internet has become quite easy. If you think about it, it's obvious why. The Internet can reach more customers than a physical store location can.

PPC Marketing, PPC Advertising, Pay Per Click, Internet Marketing
PPC Means ProsPerous Campaigns!

Arquan Announces Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software For Web Designers and SEO Professionals
Arquan announces Xonca 3.0 ecommerce shopping cart software for web designers and SEO professionals who need complete design control, power, simplicity, and search engine friendly features. Xonca is also very easy to operate for the end user.

Advertising Your Work From Home Internet Business With PPC Search Engines
If you want to make money online with a work from home business then you are going to need lots of good targeted traffic to your web site and or affiliate links. One way to get good targeted traffic is to pay for it.

Pinnacle Cart Releases the Next Generation of Their Successful Shopping Cart Software  Pinnacle Cart 360
Pinnacle Cart announces the release of their latest ecommerce software solution, Pinnacle Cart 360. Designed from a marketing perspective, this tremendously successful shopping cart application is designed to increase website sales, average sales amount and organic traffic.

Shopping Cart Software - Boost Your Online Sales
More and more people are going to the internet in order to find a means of making a living. There have been so many advances in the ways of the internet that have made making money easier for many people. This concept is actually relatively simple; on the internet there is an increased ability to reach many more customers than in person.

eCommerce Solution - Shopping Cart Software
Build Your Own Ecommerce Website Ecommerce has been the rage for the online community. Now over half of the world prefers to do shopping on Internet through various ecommerce stores. Every businessperson wants to build own an ecommerce website in order to get their business an impressive online presence and an ultimate global exposure. If you are also running a business and are looking for a perfect way out to reach the millions of customers from all over the world, there is no other way to do this than building an ecommerce website. However, if you are planning to build your own ecommerce website, you should not that it is not an easy task to do. You need to look into several factors. Let us go exploring. Professional Design W...