What’s happening in the world of FMCG sales, marketing and category jobs?
In our last blog, Mike spoke about his feeling that we were on a path to a better place, based on gut feeling and some hard evidence. It turns out that optimism was well-placed, as the new financial year has brought a flurry of hiring across our core disciplines. What are we seeing specifically across Sales, Marketing and Category?
Sales has reached boiling point
Demand in sales has picked up considerably, with a big uptick in demand in the last month as new budgets land. Good customer managers are worth their weight in gold, with strong negotiation skills and relationship-based selling absolutely key given how tough the retail environment is currently, so it’s becoming a candidate’s market. This is exacerbated by the fact that businesses are being very discerning in their demand for tried and tested experience versus up-and-coming potential. They’re happy to wait for the perfect candidate rather than compromise.
Marketing is increasingly competitive
The shortage of roles and candidates we saw a mere few months ago has significantly shifted, with businesses ramping up hiring in the new financial year and more candidates now feeling confident in changing companies despite the economic pressure that everyone is feeling. This has resulted in plenty of good roles becoming available, but the competition for them is intense. Marketers need to overcome what for many of them is their greatest challenge – marketing themselves!
Category is still the steady ship…for now
Category continues to tick along, with a steady stream of mid-level roles on the market. The function is ever-evolving within businesses, especially with the growing importance of RGM and the tendency for it to sit within category teams, meaning that incumbents are likely to be getting continued development opportunities without having to change roles. I think we will see an increase in category opportunities towards the end of this year and into early 2025 as this evolution continues, with the creation of more roles which are about ensuring through the line execution of activation plans that are aligned with category drivers and retailer strategy.
What else is happening for the [axr] Sales & Marketing team?
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