Introduction As talent data becomes increasingly available with new technology, research tools, and team expansion, leaders outside of executive talent want in. Calls for market maps are increasing, as stakeholders look to executive talent leaders to gain a comprehensive understanding of the talent landscape, track executive movement, and ensure that team outreach is being invested wisely.Depending on the scope of these increasing asks, the research required often makes market mapping a major challenge for executive talent leaders since it requires prioritizing time-consuming, strategic work over urgent hiring needs. When does it make sense to take this on? Last week, the community sat down with Cameron Berry, a resident market mapping expert who leads research and data services at SearchEssentials, for her take on how to efficiently approach market mapping executive talent in this era of data request overload. The Two Types of Market Maps Cam highlighted that market mapping as an output can mean many things to different teams, including: Understanding who sits where at any point Showcasing information from the marketplace Tracking executive talent movement from a key group Option one only requires the most basic market map, whereas two and three include additional fields that add research complexity and therefore require a more comprehensive map. Let’s dive into two examples to showcase the difference. Basic Market Map Your stakeholders want to know every executive leader across your company’s top 10 competitors. A basic market map layout, comprised of a simple X-Y axis, with functions listed on the X axis and companies listed along the Y axis, would suffice. Simply finding the correct executive in seat and linking their LinkedIn URL would be enough to satisfy the request. This estimated time to fill this in would be approximately 45 minutes, assuming you already know the competitive landscape. Because the data is static, you would need to set reminders to review the accuracy each month or quarter. Existing tools in your tech stack, such as Google news alerts for companies, or LinkedIn company alerts, could also indicate when a map needs updating. Comprehensive Market Map If your company wanted to see additional candidate information, you might expand on the columns included above to further specify things like: Region or desired location Bespoke tags (function, experience) Experience milestones Data around tenure Every new piece of data adds to the time it takes to complete a mapping project, so the more complicated the request, the more research is required. For example, let’s assume your team lead wanted to understand the backgrounds and relevant experience of potential Chief Financial Officer (CFO) candidates in Europe, including their industry backgrounds, previous deals, and tenure. The company also had a vested interest in promoting female CFOs and wanted to understand common trends in their career trajectories. This market map would look vastly more detailed than the basic example above. It would require additional database access tools to verify company-specific events such as rounds of funding, exits, mergers, acquisitions, and market and employee growth, which would then need to be cross-referenced against executive tenure to triangulate the overlap. With all of this included, it could easily take one hour per candidate in research time, and thousands of dollars in licenses to access necessary research and database subscriptions. That is if you have enough team members to complete the work, which, at the executive talent level, many organizations do not. What is the alternative? Scope Dictates Resources Community members cited limited resources, both in terms of team capacity and budget, as a main challenge standing in the way of producing market maps. Additional setbacks included a lack of publicly available data, uncertainty about whether teams had uncovered all “hidden gems” in the market, and how quickly the time-intensive research became stale. Despite these challenges, we polled seventeen executive talent leaders at enterprise organizations and found that roughly 90% of all teams are doing some degree of mapping internally. Teams that answered “primarily internal” tended to produce the more basic market maps, whereas those leveraging a mix of internal and external were more inclined to occasionally produce comprehensive maps that required special research subscriptions, technology, or team resources. For teams with larger budgets, many hire external firms to outsource the research completely– though talent leaders cited the astronomical cost associated with going this route. The typical price range a search firm charges is anywhere between $75-125k, depending on the breadth of research (plus more if the map results in an executive placement, which could add a 30% fee). When Is Market Mapping Worth It? To evaluate a market map’s potential impact, Cam reiterates the importance of understanding the underlying goal behind the research. For example, are you going to be reaching out to candidates for business development purposes? Are you expanding your network? Are you identifying the market as a whole? Once you know this, the next step is to figure out what information you need to accomplish this goal. Then you need to weigh the time and total costs associated with completing a market mapping project internally versus externally. If you plan on tackling market mapping fully internally, stick to the most basic format that will answer the research need while also bolstering your available research team. Cam suggested assigning one person to lead each market mapping project, and offering support when possible in the form of additional researchers, data analysts, or tools to help with data visualization. This approach also requires the right tech stack to tackle different data points (ex. Pitchbook for company M&A events and Thrive to see tenure overlap), and a commitment to maintain this data over time. Train your team in data reporting best practices, such as keeping presentations high-level enough so you don’t overwhelm the audience, sharing methodology and limitations, and explaining time spent to better align expectations around the scope of the ask. After completion, it’s important to track the impact over time to justify future research projects. Cam suggests approaching this by selecting relevant metrics that matter most to you. For instance, how many introductions did your team make? How many new notes were added to candidate profiles? Was your team were you able to establish a relationship with a candidate who was ultimately placed in the firm? Were you able to bring in more business because of that relationship and that knowledge? Conclusion Market maps help build trust with executives, align organizations’ hiring strategies, serve as a single source of truth for the market, and activate action. The downside is that they take a lot of time, technology, and investment to produce and quickly become out-of-date. The more strategic the goal of a market map, the more justified many feel in putting additional resources behind the project. If you’re a solo executive talent leader, however, it simply may not be feasible to take on completing even a basic market map yourself. If you simply don’t have the team capacity and don’t have the budget for working with a traditional search firm, Cam’s team at SearchEssentials offers a different approach to market mapping, with transparent pricing ranging and super fast delivery. Executive talent leaders at enterprise companies need to decide how detailed they’d like to be with each market map depending on the goals of their research and determine whether they have the resources available to produce them within their own teams or via external resources. If you have additional questions for Cameron Berry, our guest speaker, please contact her at cameon.berry@trueplatform.com.