The CMO Mess & How We Can Clean it Up
One of the best things about being between gigs is the field research. Some would call it networking, or interviewing, but it’s felt more like a research project to me. It’s been an eye-opening inspection of the current state of Marketing across various businesses, industries, practitioners, wanna-be practitioners, and super smart people.
It’s been a refreshing and much-needed break, this new project of mine. It’s given me a chance to step back, catch my breath, and get a whole new perspective on our ever-evolving, somewhat frenetic Marketing profession. (A profession, btw, that has only a faint resemblance to the one I came into 20 years ago).
In the past six weeks I’ve met with many executives—from investors and CEOs to recruiters and CMO peers—all who heretofore, in my hectic CMO life, I’d have limited time to chat with. And I’m just loving it. Our profession is alive and well, as vibrant and thriving as ever. There are more opportunities and upward mobility in Marketing than ever before. Companies are hiring marketing execs in droves and young bright talent is entering our ranks every day. All great news.
And yet … our profession is One. Big. Hot. Mess.
Regardless of the industry or company size, many of the same issues quickly became apparent during my research:
1) Massive Confusion Exists Over What Type of Marketing Exec to Hire.
Yes, companies of all shapes and sizes are looking for stellar Marketing Leaders to catapult their product or service to the top of their class. The problem is … there are now so many different types of Marketers, with varied strengths, backgrounds, and skill sets, that many companies get lost in the scramble to hire the right-fit marketing leader for their business.
There have been several articles written recently on the topic of CMO hiring mis-steps — most notably the HBR article “The Trouble With CMOs: Why CMOs Don’t Last” in which the authors cite the mismatch between CEO expectations and CMO authority as the core problem; along with poor job design. Add a recruiter into the mix and confusion mounts.
It's no surprise that recent survey results reveal that 80% of CEOs don’t trust or are unimpressed with their CMOs, according to HBR.
In a nutshell: Companies have prioritized the CMO role, but few are happy with their CMO in seat. But Why?
2) Technology Has Greatly Complicated the CMO Skill Set Landscape.
The influx of MarTech tools (and ensuing digital strategies) forever changed the face of marketing. In the early days there were 2 types of marketers: MarComm specialists (content, collateral and PR) & Creative strategists (design, web, and brand). But technology gave birth to many new breeds of marketers: demand gen experts, marketing automation and/or marketing ops specialists, digital marketers, social media marketers, Inbound marketers, SEO experts, and Analytics folks… just to name a few. In short order our industry expanded and imploded. And confusion has ensured.
“The range of CMO duties - from pricing to sales management, public relations to e-commerce, product development to distribution - is mind-bloggling." (HBR)
The result: Everyone is confused — especially when it comes to hiring a strong, get-it-done Marketing leader in 2017. Many skill sets are needed - if not in the leader, then in the team composition.
3) The Trump Card: Demand Generation or Brand Messaging/Positioning Expert?
Going further into skill set confusion when trying to find the right CMO hire, many recruiters and CXOs aren’t sure if they need a strong Demand Gen guru, or a well-rounded strategic marketing dynamo (aka “a full stack Marketer”), or both. In a pure SaaS environment, the demand gen expert typically wins the bid, but then comes under fire for not creating the best product positioning and messaging to alleviate customer pain points. Common CEO complaints include:
"They aren't aligned with the business priorities."
"Sales doesn't feel supported"
" They're good at brand but not lead gen" OR "They're good at lead gen but not brand."
This very healthy demand gen obsession has muddied the waters quite a bit. Every team needs a strong data-driven demand gen expert, but the team also needs a strategic leader that can work with product and sales to create the go-to-market positioning, messaging, sales/marketing alignment and thought leadership platform.
In sum: CMOs today need to be very adept at building scalable, systematic demand gen engines and hiring the right data-driven demand gen experts — a requirement and profession that didn’t exist 10 years ago. CEOs need to prioritize strategic leadership if they really expect the CMOs to "move the needle."
The 2017 CMO Mandate: We Need to Reflect on our Core Strengths & Better Brand Ourselves
What’s a CMO to do in this chaotic environment? The onus is on US, the branding experts, to carpe diem and clearly articulate what KIND of Marketer we are and where we best fit. In other words, it’s time for us to do the positioning work we advocate our customers do with their own brand and products.
If you’re a CMO, VP, or Head of Marketing in any capacity—look at your LinkedIn from a recruiter’s perspective. Are you making it easy for them to decipher where your true strengths lie? Are you a full-stack marketer with strategy, demand gen, and marcomm skill sets—or a different flavor?
This article by Erica Seidel categorizes the different types of CMOs into 4 buckets: Strategist, Business Developer, General Manager, Marketing Specialist — does one of these categories fit you best? [I find them to be more applicable to B2C vs. B2B CMOs - but that’s a topic for another day]
The mandate is clear: It’s time for US to take control of our own destiny. In the confused and crowded Marketing space, it’s imperative that senior marketers clearly communicate who you are, what key skill sets make up your marketing toolbox, and where your core strengths lie.
So ... What kind of Marketer are YOU?
PS. Have you experienced any of these issues above? I'd love to hear your thoughts, these are simply my opinions from one CMO POV.
Full Stack B2B Technology Product Marketing Professional | Growth Marketing Strategist | Mentor, Coach & Advisor
6 年Jennifer, you raise some good points. However, the one key issue that I still have not seen mentioned in most articles, especially as it relates to being a CMO, is how the CMO positions the overall marketing organization as one that provides value to the business and helps drive sales and revenue, so that marketing is seen as an asset or enabler and not a treated as just a cost center (which is the reality of many marketing organizations). While I agree that the CMO needs to have skills and background and understanding across numerous aspects of marketing, the reality is that the CMO is the marketing leader for the entire company, so this person needs to combine being visionary, being strategic, and being focused on revenue contribution. Otherwise, the CMO (and the marketing organization by extension) becomes viewed as nothing more than a tactical function (which is one of the key problems CMOs and marketing organizations face today).
AAS Architectural Design and Drafting, MBA Marketing
7 年Another CMO skill needed: Internal Sales. My biggest challenge was managing internal expectations (which held tightly to traditional, expensive marketing), versus meeting the changing expectations of the target customer. I tried to avoid getting into the details of the new technology, but rather "sold" it on things everyone (sales, engineering, management) could understand and support - in my case it was something like increasing sales leads. Oh, and one more thing ... it never ends! Stay positive and resilient.
Managing Director at Mackrell International
7 年Whatever type of CMO or Marketer you are, to truly deliver value to a business, you need the versatility and openness to walk in the shoes of the other key members of your Senior Management Team, understand their drivers and obstacles and work with them. The best leaders, irrespective of their discipline, are ones that listen, understand and build strong, co-operative networks both inside and outside of their business.
Creating the brands that align organisations to new opportunities
7 年I'm delighted to see an article written by someone who seems to understand the issues and impressed by your readership - judging by the comments. However, I think what you and your commentators have said in some instances needs a little more definition before I can while-heartedly agree. I touched on this complex subject in an article a few weeks ago. https://bit.ly/2hLpnVL. My belief is that all organisations these days are marketing organisations, that businesses are about customer experience, product is secondary (successful businesses these days often don't even have inventory let alone manufacturing capability) and because digitisation has, among other things, compressed the product lifecycle, businesses that fail to recognise their brand community as the core of their organisation and marketing as the primary driver will make up the 40% of legacy brands that will fail in the next few years. This being so, marketers should be running organisations and as my article mentions it seems they are increasingly doing so, but for the fact that there aren't enough marketers who really know what marketing or brands are. This is why the majority of CMOs aren't up to the job. Brands are communities of people with shared values and beliefs and for all kinds of reasons, successful businesses will be those who focus on building their communities/brands. Marketing is the process of aligning organisations to market opportunities - yes, its a big subject and a large part of that task is to drive efficiency (in the broadest sense). The traditional sales role, meanwhile, is largely redundant - digital natives don't want to deal with salespeople and disintermediated offers, increasingly driven by AI will see away the few who are hanging on by their fingertips. Nice article, great subject, but too complex to debate here.
CMO / GM Japan & Asia Pacific @Oracle @salesforce.com @Symantec @Unisys
7 年The role of Marketing to to produce momentum for your company in the marketplace you want to win. The discipline of Marketing is moving from marketing as an art, to marketing as a science, to marketing as a business. This is marketing’s journey and each stage has different metrics, first reach & frequency (art), second conversion rates (science) & third ROI (business). But beyond this is a level for all business to aspire to, which I call “Return of Momentum”. If your company CEO & CMO can find the common ground to align on this, then the magic can begin. I've seen it happen and be wildly successful, I've seen it not happen and be wildly destructive.