The Only Answer a CEO Should Accept When Asking a CMO What’s Their #1 Responsibility
Steve Kahan
Advisor for Insight Partners, Best Selling Author, 2x Tedx speaker, and 2023 ISU Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year
When a CEO asks their CMO, "What's your #1 responsibility?" the correct answer should always focus on contributing to the company’s pipeline and revenue objectives. Any other answer raises red flags about the CMO’s priorities. Here’s why this answer matters and how CEOs can ensure their CMOs are aligned with revenue goals.
Why Pipeline and Revenue is the Only Acceptable Answer
CMOs are no longer seen as the “creative minds” behind campaigns and messaging alone—they are growth leaders. A strong CMO must understand that while marketing activities like brand positioning and demand generation are important, their ultimate value lies in how they drive sales pipeline and, ultimately, revenue growth.
Answering anything other than pipeline and revenue signals that a CMO may be out of touch with the company’s broader business goals. Marketing is data-driven and measurable. CEOs expect CMOs to not only launch campaigns but to deliver qualified leads, shorten sales cycles, and contribute directly to closed deals. The era of marketing being a support function is over—it’s a revenue-driving engine.
How CEOs Can Ensure CMOs Are Focused on Pipeline and Revenue
A CMO saying their #1 responsibility is pipeline and revenue is a good start. But how can a CEO verify that the CMO is actually walking the walk? Here are proof points that CEOs should look for:
Regular Reporting on Marketing-Sourced Pipeline
A CMO should be reporting regularly on the amount of pipeline sourced by marketing activities. This includes a breakdown of:
These metrics should not only show volume but also quality, indicating marketing is attracting leads likely to close.
Demand Generation ROI Metrics
A CMO focused on revenue will have a clear understanding of return on investment for various marketing channels. This includes data on:
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CMOs should be prepared to discuss which programs have the best ROI and which are being optimized or deprioritized based on their revenue impact.?
Collaboration with the Sales Team on Forecasting
A revenue-focused CMO isn’t just marketing in a silo. They should be actively involved in sales forecasting, ensuring their pipeline projections align with sales expectations. CEOs should see collaboration on:
If marketing is truly contributing to revenue, these meetings will highlight a shared ownership of pipeline goals between the CMO and the sales leaders.
What if the CMO Doesn’t Give the Right Answer?
If a CMO doesn’t emphasize pipeline and revenue as their primary responsibility, it raises critical questions:
These are red flags that marketing might be out of alignment with the company’s growth objectives.
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Vice President, Americas Marketing
3 周100%!!!! This should always be #1 or what is the point.
Marketing Content Production | Campaign Content Strategist | Content Consultant and Freelancer
3 周That should be the first responsibility of everyone at a company. I always asked candidates for open positions on my content team what they thought their focus should be. When they often would answer predictably that their first priority was to produce compelling content, I would correct them by providing the right answer: “to help the company make or save money.”
Director at Red-Track
1 个月Great insight as usual Steve! ??
Global & Enterprise Account Sales - Enterprise Software, Cloud, SaaS
1 个月Steve, good thought leadership here. This is an opportunity to strategically apply the Theory of Constraints. ToC provides the strategy framework and methodology for assessing and improving complex systems constraints. For instance, many adopt MEDDPICC but do not apply MEDDPICC account intelligence to continually improve the process of field resource assignments. Some (unethically) create 'fauxcast' pipeline opportunities to appease pipeline metrics. Instead, you get to the heart of this and how CMO's and Sales leaders can collaborate to drive improvements. Enterprises have to avoid the temptation of their individual silos implementing local optima improvements. Instead; focus on the primary KPI and assess which constraint(s) will improve throughput or flow across the entire system (revenue). Good Stuff!