THERE has been a misconception by many, that good marketers are those that speak well and have fancy looks.
It is no wonder many people consider marketing a feminine occupation.
This notion emanates from clear misunderstanding of what marketing really is.
I remember some time back, while attending my marketing classes how one of our lecturers used to emphasise the need for marketers to always look and dress presentably.
He would point out the distinction between engineering professions and marketing.
He would say that engineers did not need to appear and dress presentably since they are not usually in interface with customers.
In the recent years, I have attended a lot of interviews for marketing, business development and public relations jobs.
From these interviews, I have come to learn that employers have become particular on engaging individuals who demonstrate ability to produce tangible results.
Because of this most interviews for marketing related jobs are now being structured in a way that would probe into past achievements of the candidates.
Questions like give us an example of your accomplishments in your recent jobs?  Or can you give us in quantitative form of how much revenue and income you helped generate for your previous organisation in a year, are now prominent.
Sweet-talking and good looks are no longer appealing in the marketing profession.
Practicality and achieving results are now becoming increasingly critical for people aspiring for marketing, business development and even public relations jobs.
One of my friends, who is now late used to boast to me that the mistake any organisation would make, was to invite him for an interview, because according to him he would get the job.
At that time I did not understand him. With time, however, I came to understand that the gentleman was very good at talking his way into jobs as he was a gifted comedian.
What today’s marketing professionals should know is that your good talking or smart looking appearances will not guarantee you that job you are aspiring for, unless you can convince your would-be employers that you have delivered before and are able to deliver now.
There must be some proof and evidence of your achievements and works.
Modern employers are interested in goal-getters and not lip-service.
Today’s marketers must build a reputation for themselves because the marketing must begin with the individual.
Building a profile of accomplishments is important as this helps to show your potential employers what you have done.
In my experience with interviews, I have also observed that as a marketer you will stand a chance to get the job if you can point at some work or project which you successfully initiated.
An example could be, ‘I managed the re-branding of such and such company’ or ‘I was behind the launch of such and such product on the market’.
There are those who may wonder where this leaves the up-coming new marketers who may not have much experience in the industry.
To be honest, it will not be that easy for the novice, unless one is able to demonstrate that they have capacity to deliver on promises, achieve goals and are practical.
As I have always stated and I will state again, marketing is about results, statistics and visibility.
These are important and are often used as a yard stick for measuring the success of individual marketers or marketing organisations.
Every organisation, which has an effective prolific marketer, will be seen from its effective market positioning and brand visibility.
An organisation that is silent visibly and poses no threat or challenge to its competitors on the market clearly has no marketer.
What I am trying to say is that when an organisation has a marketer or marketers and still has no impact on the market then that marketer or marketers are not achievers, they are not goal getters.
When an organisation engages the services of ‘results hungry’ marketers its market presence will be felt through its various marketing activities.
For us in marketing, activities such as new product launches, sales promotions, effective branding signify the practical effectiveness of the people behind marketing in an organisation.
Marketing is increasingly becoming a challenging profession because organisations have begun to realise its strategic role.
Organisations now believe that to be successful in the highly competitive markets, they need to be able to retain the numbers, that is; expand their market shares and increase the numbers of their customers or clients.
This is the primary responsibility of marketing people.
The success or failure of every business depends on the calibre of its marketing people. The more practical and result oriented the marketer is, the higher the chances of an organisation’s success.
The late Steve Jobs for example, was such a remarkable marketer that even today one cannot disassociate the Apple brand from him.
Steve Jobs was not only practical but he was also results oriented person, he was a goal getter.
•Author is Manager for Marketing, Business Development and Public Relations at Zambian Open University.
Email: dennis_sokondhlovu@yahoo.com