Whether you're a renowned tech company or a budding start-up, planning ways to sustain your business's growth is a priority. With marketing, sales, and product development to consider – you can start to see why businesses employ a dedicated head of growth to plan, apply, track, and tweak short and long-term growth goals. But what should you look for in a `head of growth`, exactly? Well if this is all a new area to you then read on. This is our beginners guide to the basics of what you should be looking for and to know that you need to start at the begining with what do they do? ⬇
What does a Head of Growth do?
According to industry expert Neil Patel, a Head of Growth (sometimes called a Growth Manager or Growth Hacker) specialises in finding ways to propel a business's revenue and reach via these four pillars:
1. Customer acquisition
2. Customer activation
3. Customer retention
4. Customer reactivation
Growth managers know how to pull strings in any customer-facing or backend department - including sales, marketing, and product – to reach the desired growth goals they set out. So what should you look for?
1.Your head of growth will be a skilled marketer and salesperson.
Hybrids are hard to come by – we know! Most of us are either witty marketers or hot sales professionals, but if you can find a rare species which understands every part of the funnel, you're laughing.
2. They will understand your full channel mix.
It goes without saying that to create any successful strategy your growth manager needs to have a working knowledge of every channel your business uses. Whether that's PPC, SEO, CRO, PR, email, social, or what-have-you. They should also have a brilliant understanding of your customer persona, their thought processes, and the typical journey they travel through when investing in your business.
3.They’ll make decisions based on data.
The mind of a marketer but the soul of a salesperson – your ideal head of growth will build a realistic strategy with digestible steps, based on proven data and results.
4. They’ll focus on sustainable strategies, not just quick wins.
What would you rather have – one unbelievable month and 11 break-even ones, or 12 months with a gradual incline? While we can agree that quick wins are impressive, setting the bar too high sets a business up for more stress and uncertainty than it's worth.
5. Your head of growth will adapt quickly.
The tech industry shifts so quickly and even the most skilled, switched-on professionals abort projects if something better comes along. The ideal growth manager will weigh up the pros and cons of every move they make, ensuring the business doesn't lose money or a slice of the brand awareness pie if things don't work out. They will be motivated to experiment and use any resources they have access to.
6. Good growth managers are part talk, mostly action.
It's easy to voice a brilliant strategy to retain customers or to increase a slow month's revenue – but taking steps to make those ideologies a reality is tough.
7. They'll be realistic.
Above all, your head of growth will talk frankly, avoid `sugar-coating`, and will be comfortable in critiquing their own strategies for the good of the business.
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