The 3C Framework: Everything CMOs need to nail the board meeting

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As we all find out sooner or later, being a marketing leader is a much different role than being an individual contributor. Not only do responsibilities change, but so do the skills you need to excel.?

Jaleh Rezaei , Mutiny's CEO, learned this the hard way when she was put under the microscope for the first time at her first board meeting as Head of Marketing at Gusto.

"It felt like such a huge deal and I didn’t want to mess it up. Yet I had no idea what was expected and how to prepare for it.”

Sound familiar? Unfortunately, there’s not much guidance out there about how to effectively work with your board. So she collaborated with 8 other CMOs, CEOs, and board members to put together the playbook she wishes she’d had.

Jaleh finds that a successful board meeting boils down to three key areas:?

• Communication: How to set your presentation up for success
• Content: How to present the right information, the right way
• Context: How to get a pulse on the bigger picture

Note: This post shares an insight from each area, but her?full writeup goes into much more detail.

Communication

Your goal is to clearly convey the strategic impact of marketing. This is hard because most board members come from finance, product, or sales backgrounds.

This means that few actually understand marketing. But…they do understand how companies grow.

Sarah Franklin , CMO of Salesforce explains this perfectly:

Content

Be sure to define your core objectives clearly and upfront. Jaleh recommends 3 evergreen ones for CMOs:

1. Pipeline: To hit current revenue targets
2. Awareness: To hit next year's revenue targets
3. Conversion: To drive overall efficiency and faster growth

Repeat these in every meeting.

Have trouble talking about how marketing is connected to revenue? Follow this tip from Gainsight CEO, Nick Mehta :

Context

Book a check-in with your CEO in advance of the board meeting to get a gut check. Align on where you should focus in this meeting (including questions to prepare for).

Why?? Dave Gerhardt , ex CMO at Privy explains:

The best part of nailing this playbook??

It earns you the right to invest in longer term initiatives that are hard to measure. Ahem, brand.?

By showing that you know how to connect your work to revenue, the board will trust you to take bigger bets with a longer revenue payback.

?Read the full 3C Framework here.