People management skills are more important
“Even a nontechnical person can be a successful manager if given the right set of management skills. Technical competency in the department’s area of expertise is indeed an asset. However, being tech-savvy doesn’t conclude that a manager has to be able to do the actual work step by step. He just needs to know the basic and the overall understanding of the technologies being used to meet business needs, and how to utilize that in projects and departments. Marketing leaders can inspire their team even if they are not equally or more adept technologically as long as they have a clue what the department is about and have important skills, such as communication, can set and manage expectations, trust and respect.”
– Ryan Smith, founder, Ant and Garden Organic Pest Control
Your competitors are on top of tech trends
“Businesses thrive on new approaches, and, like it or not, the large majority of new ideas these days emerge from tech. Marketing managers and team leaders must know their material when it comes to new business trends and the technology behind them. If they don’t your business risks missing out on new developments that I can guarantee won’t be missed by your opponents.”
– Caroline Lee, co-founder, CocoSign
Missing the forest for the trees
“I find that most sales management spends too much time worrying over individual customers, deals or sales reps when, very often, the friction is in the sales process or technical. Really getting under the hood of the sales process and then the CRM is absolutely critical for a pipeline to flow.”
– Casey Halloran, CEO and co-founder, Costa Rican Vacations
A must for marketing leaders
“As a marketing leader, your job is the strategic deployment of this technology, which requires an intimate understanding of how it works. As the person with the most insight into the business function, a marketing leader needs to tell their employees how the technology will be used and to what end, including how it integrates with other organizational processes and workflows. Without a superior understanding of the tech, inspiring employees to fully exploit it will be next to impossible.”
– Sebastian Schaeffer, CTO owner, dofollow.io
Vision drivers must be tech savvy
“C-Suite executives provide the vision for company growth and forward movement along with the vision they need to properly understand how to tie their digital efforts in with their vision. Otherwise, the C-Suite relies on their tech-savvy teams to interpret how to achieve that vision with their tech tools. Those views may not always align with the C-Suite, and it leaves room for potential errors. Beyond that, having a full view of the functional capabilities of tech allows the C-Suite to understand which visions and goals are achievable, and which currently aren’t.
– Devin Johnson, CEO, Kennected
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