In this space, I typically write about hiring, managing and motivating salespeople. But with the explosion of content marketing, email campaigns and social media, an increasing number of my clients are asking me about adding a marketing coordinator to their staff.

These VARs recognize that marketing is critical to sales success and they’re starting to see the value in hiring someone for that role.

Ask and ye shall receive. In this post, I’m going to focus on the skills VARs need to focus on when they’re hiring a marketing coordinator from an external pool of candidates. In my next post, I’ll shift gears and hone in on the attributes to look for when you want to fill the marketing coordinator role from within.

Before I dive into the actual skills marketing coordinators must have, let’s talk about what this role is typically responsible for within VAR organizations. In my experience, this includes:

In larger VARs, a marketing coordinator might report to a marketing manager, but it’s more common for this role to be the person solely responsible for all marketing activities. If they’re supported at all, it’s often by companies like mine that assist them with defining the lead generation strategy, coaching them through implementation and working with them to analyze results to improve the marketing qualified lead rate.

With that said, here are the top 12 attributes and skills to look for when interviewing candidates:

You might notice that I didn’t include specific parameters around experience.

In a perfect world, I think you should look for someone with a few years of relevant marketing experience, but that’s not always financially possible. If you can only afford a candidate right out of college, look for someone who had a marketing internship in college and showed initiative before entering the professional market.

Regardless of where your candidates fall on the spectrum, you want to be sure you find someone who possesses the core skills your marketing function needs to thrive, and displays a willingness to learn. Beyond that, most other skills and responsibilities can be developed over time.

Not looking to hire someone externally? Stay tuned! In my next post, I’ll share tips for filling the marketing coordinator role by recruiting from within your organization. Need help hiring a marketing coordinator? Email me and let’s discuss how we can help.

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert, author of the award-winning books, “The Sales Magnet” and “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the small and midmarket business (SMB) segment.