The jump from IC to VP of marketing (Exit Five Newsletter #139)

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↗️ How This Senior PMM Made The Jump To VP of Marketing

Jessica Andrews didn't expect to become VP of Marketing at Copper so quickly.

When her CMO came to her about stepping into a leadership role, she was a Senior PMM and wasn’t sure she was ready (and spoiler alert: she still has imposter syndrome). But she knew she had to jump on the opportunity.

So for the last year and a half, she’s been perfecting what it takes to make the switch to leadership from an IC role. And she hasn’t looked back.

Whether you’re hoping to land a marketing leadership role ASAP or you’re just planning ahead, this is the exact toolkit that’s helped her thrive in her role:

1. Become Intentionally T-Shaped

Most marketers rise by becoming the go-to expert in content, product marketing, or demand gen. But leadership requires you to know a little about every piece of marketing.

You have to…

• Identify your deep expertise area (the vertical line of your T)
• Deliberately expand your knowledge across all marketing functions (the horizontal line)
• Take courses in areas where you lack experience
• Shadow team members from other marketing disciplines
• Manage projects that force you outside your comfort zone

Example: For Jessica, demand gen was her biggest knowledge gap. She tackled it head-on by taking certification courses and eventually stepping in to temporarily manage the function when a team member left. Then, she knew exactly what she needed when she hired for the role again.

2. Build Relationships Before You Need Them

There’s nothing worse than feeling like someone is trying to butter you up before making an ask.

The time to build relationships across other teams isn’t when you need something from them. It's before you need their buy in or support.

• Join Slack channels outside your immediate team
• Answer questions even when not directly tagged
• Meet with top performers across departments

Example: In her previous role at Cision, Jessica built a strong relationship with an account manager who was eager to learn about a technical product tracking PR content views. She taught him the ins and outs, and he became incredibly successful selling it.

Soon, he became her internal champion and it opened doors across the entire sales organization.

3. Learn to Dig Deeper When You Get Requests

Most ICs get handed tasks to complete, but that's not what leadership is about. When she gets requests, Jessica reframes them as opportunities to deliver more strategic value.

• Ask “why” when other teams come to you with requests to understand where they’re coming from and potentially find lower lift ways you might be able to help
• Reframe requests into strategic opportunities
• Suggest other solutions beyond what was requested
• Position yourself as a problem-solver, not just a task-completer
• Say "let's talk about it" instead of jumping straight to no

Example: When Jessica gets a specific request, she digs deeper: "Show me the Gong conversation where you decided this was needed." This usually shows the real need and opens the door to better solutions: "What if we did a video? What if we put this in the help center?" This positions you as strategic rather than reactive.

4. Develop Sales Champions

When marketing tries to implement new programs, sales adoption can make or break success. Jessica has found a foolproof approach to getting sales on board:

• Find motivated sellers (especially those looking to advance their careers)
• Focus on those already hitting quota
• Quantify success in terms that matter to sales ($)
• Use those success stories to drive broader adoption

Example: Rather than trying to convince everyone to adopt a new approach, Jessica finds a hungry performer who wants to stand out. When they’re successful, she quantifies it in commission dollars earned, not marketing metrics. Then, others want to get involved.

P.S. Listen to the full interview with Jessica here.

It's a great conversation – what she said about imposter syndrome and trusting your instincts really resonated with me.

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🏢 OPEN ROLES

Who's hiring right now?

🔥 HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: Overjet is hiring a Head of Product Marketing to own the GTM strategy for its practice business. This isn’t just another PMM role where you inherit messaging and tweak a few sales decks. You’ll be building the function from the ground up. If you’ve built a best-in-class PMM program before (think Gong, Clari, Drift), this is your chance to do it again—only bigger.

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Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:

• Clara is hiring a Contract Social Media Strategist
• Neara is hiring a Demand Generation Manager
• Overjet is hiring a Head of Growth Marketing
• Great Question is hiring a Senior Demand Generation Specialist
• ThoughtMetric is hiring a Director of Marketing
• EcoInteractive is hiring a Marketing Coordinator
• Baymard Institute is hiring a Product Marketing Manager
• CardFlight is hiring a Head of Growth Marketing
• Ceros is hiring a Senior Product Marketing Manager
• Neuron7 is hiring a Content Marketing Director. Fully remote, US Only.
• Databox is hiring a Lifecycle Marketing Manager
• Mutiny is hiring a Content Lead
• Drivepoint is hiring a Content Marketing Manager

See all open roles

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