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Market update 2019: Go to Market
Our Go to Market (GTM) recruitment practice saw steady growth in 2018. As one of the foundational teams of the Robert Walters’ San Francisco office, we are proud to now have two very successful teams partnering closely with both Direct to Consumer and Enterprise Technology organizations.
The continued growth of the tech sector fueled the demand for significant recruitment throughout 2018. Despite a tumultuous political environment, the Bay Area has remained especially bullish, despite some global market changes. Marketplace and subscription services continued to dominate consumer spending, while an ongoing rise in innovation within the finance, healthcare and education sectors allowed consumers to challenge the way they previously executed daily tasks. Health-tech in particular is increasingly enabling a more transparent system for patients, providers and insurers alike; and is creating a new approach to healthcare that aims to put the consumer first. Autonomous automation is also a space that has continued to grow in 2018, with both direct to consumer as well as B2B organizations servicing this newly growing sector.
The need for analytical marketers will continue to rise in 2019. “Growth leaders” who can straddle marketing, product, analytics and engineering are in high demand, as businesses feel the need for data-driven campaigns more than ever. Investment in growth leaders ahead of a traditional VP Marketing / CMO is becoming ever more common. If marketing leaders can pull data, measure attribution and deliver insights that significantly lead to a decrease in CPA, their value is truly felt across the organization. Consumer businesses are continuing to invest in talent at the Head of/Director level, opposed to positions more senior, as the need for hands-on leaders continues to rise.
Investment in product marketers by early stage businesses will also continue to be a key trend this year. CPG marketers with traditional training in problem solving, brand management and P&L ownership are becoming sought after by early-stage teams looking to embed more process into their product and GTM functions. Product marketing will remain a highly sought after skill set in 2019 as both startups and unicorns look to continue global growth. Early stage enterprise teams are continuing to focus on attracting technical product marketing talent. With competition in industries such as AI, Machine Learning and Securities showing no sign of slowing down, start-ups have to ensure they are positioning their products correctly within the market in order to avoid being lost amongst the crowd. Fast thinking and highly strategic product marketers who come with experience working at top-tier management consulting firms will increasingly be in high demand.
Salaries for individual contributors within GTM roles have risen exponentially. Start-ups without the headcount or budget to grow large teams have to compete in a price war for IC’s who can operate successfully in an environment with little resource. Senior individual contributors hold the upper hand in today’s market as despite their high price tag, businesses save thousands in place of a wider team.
We are excited about continuing to expand our GTM recruitment practice with a new specialist team starting in April this year: Sales. Please get in touch with our San Francisco office to learn more about all of our GTM opportunities.
To discuss the current market, or get help with hiring, please reach out to:
Julia Horiuchi, Senior Manager - Enterprise Go to Market
Dir: +1 415 549 2006
Email: julia.horiuchi@robertwalters.co
Bethan James, Manager - Consumer Go to Market
Dir: +1 415 549 2004
