Are CMOs An Endangered Species? The Importance of Marketing Like an Owner
We've all heard it—the average tenure of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the lowest among the C-Suite. According to one study from executive search firm Spencer Stuart, the average CMO tenure is at its lowest level in a decade and falling incrementally.
Management expert Peter Drucker famously said, "Business has only two basic functions - marketing and innovation." So, if marketing is a central pillar of business, why do CMOs so often find themselves on the chopping block? I contend that it is because a number of marketing leaders today fail to view marketing from an owner's perspective.
In a June 2023 LinkedIn / Ipsos B2B Benchmark analysis, hundreds of marketing leaders reported that the top 10 skills necessary to succeed as a CMO today are:
Creative Strategy & Execution
Marketing Technology / Data Analytics Mastery
Problem-Solving
Innovative Thinking
Entreprenuerial Mindset
Consensus-building
Sales
Forecasting
Speaking the Language of Finance
Risk Assessment
If you removed number 2 from the list above, you might have a hard time distinguishing these skills from those of a founder. So, what does this mean?
I was a founder who fell in love with marketing. When my business was acquired in 2008, I took on the role of marketing leader, helping other B2B founders grow their revenues 2-3X a year. Along the way, I've successfully partnered with CEOs, sales leaders, product leaders, client success leaders, CFOs and investors to help them capture the market and achieve their goals.
Here are the 5 essential perspectives that have helped me market like an owner and, along the way, become a founder's best friend and secret weapon:
Take Ownership
Marketing is more than just a supportive role. When done well, marketing positions the brand and product(s) in a way that drives consumer affinity, demand and loyalty. As a CMO, you must be ready to leverage your unique perspective of the customer and the market to improve the brand experience at every stage in the buyer journey - before, during and after the sale. This requires looking beyond brand and demand and supporting the buyer throughout the sales process, onboarding, and over the lifetime of their experience with the company. Successful marketing increases trust, loyalty and the likelihood of people telling others about the business.
Work as One Team Toward Achieving Revenue Goals
Working as one team to exceed revenue goals requires not only being prepared to support the buyer at every stage in the buyer journey but also learning the roles and languages of your sales, product, client success and finance teams.
To do this well, you must be prepared to:
Work outside the "normal" scope of your position
Take initiative to solve problems
Consider company and customer challenges as your own
At a practical level, you may find yourself building financial models, analyzing product heatmaps and usage data, cold calling alongside the sales team or joining customer check-ins with the client success team because, at the end of the day, a win for one is a win for all.
Understand the Business Fundamentals
Marketing like an owner means understanding the fundamentals that drive the organization forward and what counts as a win at each level of the business. To accomplish this means learning how to read a profit and loss statement (P&L), understanding the goals of the founders and investors, finding ways to be resourceful, and identifying more cost-effective ways to achieve results. Understanding the business fundamentals will also help you see how your efforts fit into the larger equation and will reveal opportunities for you to work in tandem with other team leads to reduce expenses and optimize for revenue.
Fully Leverage Marketing as a Strategic Multiplier for the Business
Less effective marketers often spend most of their time and resources filling the pipeline and supporting sales teams. Both are important, but if this becomes the predominant role of the marketing leader, it can rob the business of important growth levers that only marketing can deliver. To market like an owner means fully leveraging marketing as a revenue multiplier. This includes developing new markets, revenue streams, strategic partnerships, brand equity, loyalty, and demand. As hinted earlier, your influence, effectiveness and seat at the table are ultimately contingent on bringing forward a relevant understanding of the customer (their influences, preferences and behaviors) and the market. That, of course, is the essence of what it means to be a marketer in the first place.
Clearly Communicate the Roadmap and Demonstrate ROI
Mark Stouse, founder of ProofAnalytics, recently shared an analysis with me that he conducted, which involved looking back at the termination of 5 CMOs at 5 separate companies. The review showed that 4 out of 5 of the terminations were ultimately proven unjustified since the companies that terminated their CMOs actually went on to achieve the results their marketing leaders had promised before their removal.
The reason why B2B CMOs have such short tenures, according to Stouse? "B2B marketing teams have not yet done the work to understand what's needed to demonstrate their impact."
According to Stouse, time lag is a B2B CMO's most significant challenge since CEOs often assume things aren't working when they cannot see them working. That is why it is essential for marketers to clearly communicate their roadmaps and act decisively to demonstrate ROI in a way that garners greater trust with investors and their C-Suite partners.
The CMO Challenge
As we know, the field of marketing is ever-evolving. In the past, CMOs could be promoted based on their use of data and technology, specific channel expertise and general supportiveness of sales, but not anymore. Today’s CMOs are expected to leverage their strategic intelligence, business acumen and leadership abilities to help the company grow. This is why marketing like an owner is essential. As the market continuously changes, so too must our marketing strategies and approaches. The 5 perspectives above offer a pathway to improving your relevancy, impact and possibly even your tenure as a CMO.