What are The Two-Three Highest Impact Areas For a New CMO Post-Investment

‍‍Why CMOs never last.

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The reason is starting with the wrong focus.

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Most CMOs focus on the following:

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(1) Scaling, i.e. leads, team, capabilities- But without the foundations ready for scaling

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(2) Marketing first, i.e. their thinking is primarily on the marketing function- Lacking an alignment first view but thinking about themselves

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(3) MarTech, i.e. where to scale tech, creating infrastructure for scaling or replacing existing tech- Spending time in areas that don't lead to tangible results

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In reality, there are three levers of focus:

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(1) Pipeline | Understanding how the current pipeline can be optimised and aligned across the whole GTM team; quickly understand critical metrics for success, i.e. $XX in marketing-sourced ARR or ABM metrics / SQL / MQL (most appropriate for your GTM).

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(2) Audience  | Make a case for customers—not for marketing. The goal is clarity on the foundations of success. These, in order, are understanding the prospect/ customer ICP, challenges to evangelise, building an ideal audience profile, nailing the value proposition, and being clear on the TAM and content strategy to execute from months two to three. A plan for measuring an engaged TAM =, i.e. metric that defines audience building and engagement.

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(3) Conversion | Help sales improve the current deal velocity with tactical marketing interventions. What activities will you deploy to improve conversion rates and support sales?

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There is a magical *** bonus ***:

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• Alignment with the CEO

• Alignment with the CRO

•  Alignment with the CCO

• Alignment with the CFO

• Alignment with the CHRO

• Alignment with the CPO

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You'll go much faster and further by investing time in engaging and aligning with the leadership team, go-to-market as one team, and teaching the value of marketing.

Pipeline, audience, conversion, alignment. These decisions directly impact marketing success.