Stress Amongst B2B CMO's: How to Buck the Trend

Last week, I received an email newsletter from Forbes. The title?

This Year Is Weighing On CMOs

Which, honestly, is something I've been predicting for a while?

Why?

Because at SOME POINT, the rest of the company was going to ask about the VALUE our marketing team's are providing. And for a LONG time, it hasn't looked good.

The report, put together by Bospar, CMO Huddles and Redpoint shares the following:

69% of B2B CMO's believe their industry is in a recession

And why might that be? Because many are seeing:

- Budget cuts and revenue declines

- Longer deal cycles

- Staffing cuts and layoffs

- Increased pressure to deliver more with less

Which results in another interesting stat:

61% of B2B CMO's felt the last 12 months were the most difficult of their career.

So, how can we make it a little more PLEASANT to be in the CMO seat?

Let's take a look at each of the contributing factors and explore what marketers can do to make their lives a little simpler. Oh, AND create a marketing department that's a revenue generation engine, not just a cost center??

Declining Revenue & Budgets

According to the report, 38% of marketing leaders indicate their companies are experiencing flat or declining revenue. And what happens when revenues go down? So do budgets.

And it's not just 38% of companies with decreased marketing budgets. It's 77%.

Now, let's get to the brass tacks of this.

If we were generating revenue with our spends, they wouldn't be being cut.

Pure and simple.

Except for AGES, marketers haven't HAD to generate revenue with their spends. So now, it's like they don't know how.

In the last 15 years, greater and greater percentages of the marketing budget are going towards technology and digital transformations. The problem is, according to 67% of the CFO's of the polled organizations, there has been underwhelming progress on digital transformation projects.

Yeah, that relates to that tech stack you've been building up for years, and continuously paying for, that adds NO value to the organization. Maybe even NEGATIVE value.

At some point, someone was going to notice.

And now they have. And the victim is the marketing budget.

On a related note, according to Gartner's 2023 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey, 70% of CMO's reported their enterprises lack sufficient budget or resources to deliver their marketing strategies successfully.

Seems like, a lot of people have assumed that it's a certain budget number that will deliver marketing results.

Except that's NOT actually the case.

Throwing more money at an inefficient marketing program, won't get you more results.

But there are ways to use the money you HAVE to generate what you NEED.

YUP. I SAID IT.

You CAN generate MORE results with less resources.

Because most marketing organizations are NOT operating efficiently.

So the answer to this problem as a CMO? Taking a hard look at your current resources, and 1) eliminating tech spends that aren't creating any value, and 2) empowering your people resources to do the most effective things that DON'T have a cost.

Interested in exploring what that might look like? Let's chat.

Longer Deal Cycles

Ok, here's another interesting stat mentioned in the report:

54% of marketing leaders say deal cycles are longer now.

Apparently, what used to be a 60-day sales cycle is now 75 days. And the average start-up has experienced a 24% increase in sales cycle length.

The report states that longer sales cycles need more marketing touches. But what it DOESN'T touch on is, what marketing efforts are actually CONTRIBUTING to this?

You see, there are TONS of marketing efforts that actually INCREASE the sales cycle. So, unless we're looking at what we're doing that's contributing to this number, we're not really doing our due diligence. In fact, there are likely things we're doing that we're PAYING for, that make the sales cycle longer. And by cutting those efforts, we save time, money AND shorten the sales cycle.

And if the report is accurate in it's ARR calculations, and a reduction from a 4-month cycle to a 2-month cycle results in an 143% increase in annual recurring revenue, well then, that's something to be explored, isn't it?

Staffing Cuts & Layoffs

Of the B2B CMO's polled for this report:

50% of their companies experienced layoffs, with 41% seeing cuts within the marketing department specifically.

Well, what do you expect folks?

One of the factors cited is that, "marketing is often perceived as a cost center rather than a revenue generator". But it's not the perception that's the problem.

If your marketing department BEHAVES like a cost center, it IS a cost center.

And if your people aren't demonstrating value to the organization, then of course they're at risk of being laid off.

One of the other interesting stats published is that 76% of marketing leaders are under more pressure to deliver pipeline results.

?? That's what a revenue engine does, folks ??

If you're not delivering pipeline results, you're NOT a revenue engine. You're a cost center.

You have to decide which one you're going to be.

And do the work to create the required outcomes.

Because I'll tell you one thing, if your marketing department WAS a revenue engine - and you can PROVE that with data - your company wouldn't be cutting your budgets; OR your people.

Impacts on Personal Well-Being

Because humans aren't robots, these pressures have also impacted the personal lives of CMO's. The adverse effects are numerous, including exercising less, taking less time off, eating less healthy (leading to weight gain), sleeping less and an overall decline in mental health.

Probably not ideal for a company leader, right?

Add to that the decline in CMO job postings (62% decrease YOY), and that "CMO" as the top marketing role is now 1/3 what it once was, and the future doesn't look so bright.

But what are some of the factors behind this decline?

That a lot of the marketing roles are being consolidated under Chief Growth Officers and Chief Revenue Officers. Which, if the goal is a revenue-generating marketing engine, I think makes perfect sense.

But that also means, as marketers, our future roles lay in revenue and growth. And then we have to look at whether or not we know how to use our resources to GENERATE those things.

ROI. Business Outcomes. New Customer Acquisition.

Those are no longer nice to haves. They're MUST HAVES.

The things we DO: the branding activities, the website updates, the CRM projects, the messaging updates, the market research...

They all CAN drive results.

If that's the intention behind them.

They can also equally NOT drive results without that shift.

Opportunities to Adapt

If we're going to buck the trend, we need to ADAPT. Change. Modify our purpose.

We are not just here to "put stuff on the internet".

We are here to drive revenue.

We are here to make our efforts COUNT.

And I have to respectfully disagree with the ideas shared in the article as to what can turn the ship around.

? Expanding your role to MORE things you CAN'T deliver on? Not a good idea.

? Creating metrics to prove your worth instead of business results? Just yuck.

? AI Implementation? Didn't we already talk about the ineffectiveness of our digital efforts?

And while I do believe that "Focus is your friend", what is it we need to focus on?

My answer?

Finding YOUR way of turning what YOU have (from a Marketing perspective) into revenue.

There's a unique formula that will work just for you.

And no, no one else has figured it out yet.

It's YOUR job to do that.

Are you ready?

If you ARE ready to go, and you don't want to go alone, it just might make sense for an Authentic Marketing Advisor to help you along the journey ??

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