Future-proofing your career is clearly top of mind for many professionals during COVID-19. We are receiving many calls from candidates keen to ensure their career path remains on track. COVID-19 has impacted the way we all work, as well as the nature of BD & Marketing communications activity.
Recently, Seldon Rosser surveyed 32 CMOs from professional services firms in the APAC region across the sectors of law, accounting and engineering. We asked them which job functions and skills they believe will be more or less in demand post-COVID-19.
The results may be affirming or confronting to read, depending on the nature of your role. Many firms have been pro-active and successful in deploying team members from the job functions in less demand to other areas of the business.
Many CMOs that we spoke with were pleased to see the activities on the decline and felt this was a catalyst which led to a future long overdue. Without having to focus on those activities on the decline, we are hearing that BD&MC teams now have much more time to focus on client initiatives and marketing campaigns focused on winning work and profiling the business capabilities strategically.
“This is our chance to recalibrate the mix of BD & marketing towards a more go-to-market approach”. CMO respondent
Which soft skills will be increasingly in demand
We also spoke to these CMOs about the soft-skills they value in their team members, which they believe will be increasingly in demand in this profession.
“It’s more mindset than skillset” CMO respondent
The most common responses are:
- Facilitation
- Influencing
- Internal Consulting
- Advising & Coaching
- Scoping
- Qualification
- Commerciality
- Prioritisation
- Change Management
- Work from home efficiently
5 Tips to Future-Proof Your Career
Whether you are in a BD or marcomms role, it’s important to stay connected to what your CMO and the business needs from you.
Here are our 5 tips on how to future-proof your BD /marcomms career:
- Ensure that you are adept at the activities closely aligned to winning work
- Embrace the chance to learn new skills – positivity and a ‘can-do’ attitude will position you well with your managers and senior leaders
- Help your firm to achieve its goals
- Cultivate your soft-skills as well as your hard skills
- Maintain open communication, seeking feedback
Talk to us if you would like to discuss how to future-proof your career.