The Decline of the CMO Role

0:00All right. So we are going to talk about the decline of the CMO. Have you heard about this recently? Have you? I mean, this has been in the news for the last couple of years. I don't know if this is what you're talking about, but I have read a lot about CMOs are no longer CMOs. They're looking for growth people who are working across multiple divisions. But I don't know if you're talking about something specific when you're saying decline and the role of the CMO. Yeah, I'll share some things here, then I'll share my screen. So it says the average tenure of CMOs chief marketing officers at the top 100 advertisers in the U.S.

0:31fell to 3.3 years in 2022, the lowest level in more than a decade. This is from a drop of 40 months in 2021 and then down slightly from 4.5 years before. So CMOs are facing a number of challenges. Biggest reason why most CMOs fail and most lose their job is by not meeting the KPI set for the role. So customer acquisition costs, conversion rates, and ROI of marketing efforts. The way I look at it is when it's specifically CMO roles, I think more businesses want people that just provide growth. and whether it is a startup or whether it is a fortune 1000 company, it's really simple. I spend X, I get Y back.

1:07And if you can't show more growth, more profitability, numbers continually compound, people just aren't as satisfied as much anymore. And to do well, you can't just think about marketing as just marketing. You got to look at it from a whole product perspective or business perspective. I'm driving leads to sales. What's salespeople doing to follow up and make sure they're getting ahold of those leads? Oh, we're driving in a thousand leads a month. They're only getting ahold of 200 of them. If we're driving a thousand qualified leads and 200 are being talked to, that means 800 aren't. Let's create follow-up sequences for the sales teams to get more of them on the phone.

1:41Oh, when a lead comes right in and if we know it's qualified, let's just use a schedule once or a calendar lead to put it up right in the sales reps calendar. So then right then and there, we can end up getting things right into their calendar and send text reminders that people should show up to the calls. So that should improve the quote unquote, the conversation rate, right? The next part in the funnel. But that's what I'm getting at. Mark's had to look at the whole funnel. Oh, here's the design of this landing page that the design team created. It's not converting really well. Let's work with them and run AB test to maximize their conversions there.

2:13So check out my screen and I'm going to read a couple of things here. So here's what it says. Bank of America and Johnson and Johnson believe the role of the CMO is obsolete or best subsumed by other job titles. but I am fervently convinced that it's in desperate need of reform. So let's continue on here. And then it says, short CMO tenure is a reflection of a lack of understanding of how powerful this role can be really in terms of driving business outcomes. This often leads to lack of clarity around tangible deliverables and also to hiring a CMO whose skills and experiences may not be aligned with business needs.

2:45Remember, there's that story, we're not going to name him, but one of our friends, he had a great exit for his company and he had the CMO experience from hell. Oh yeah. He heard something from like a cruise line or one of those old school companies. And I remember they ended up pulling off some stuff where they're just like, oh, we're going to create an affiliate program. He's like, okay. And she showed him, look at all this affiliate revenue we're generating. He's like, whoa, how'd it go up all of a sudden? So he's looking at it and doing his analysis. And he's like, wait, you just went to all the people who are promoting our product and our business for free and gave them affiliate link.

3:19he's like now we're paying him money for the same sales because we're not seeing our revenue go up and he started investigating because they were saying look at all this affiliate revenue when the total revenue of the business was staying flat and he's like something's off here he was pissed on that one and there's more there's more so so before we continue on here he was like okay share the share sale which is the affiliate login right he's like share the login and password with me it's like oh no no no let us give you a week we'll give a report for it he's like share the login and password with me right now.

3:48He's like, no, no, no, no, no. And so it just kept going and going and going. And then eventually, when he told Neil and I this story last year, we were speaking at the HubSpot conference. We were having dinner, and it just seemed like he went to hell and back. And you can see there's a lot of pent-up anger there. Here's the thing we should say, too. But he sold his company, so at the end, it all worked out. It worked out. Yeah. So, okay, check out this thing over here. And I'm going to get to my point. There is a point that ties in with this story. So one other thing here, according to a 2020 study from Boathouse.

4:17I have no idea what Boathouse is. Oh, it's an agency. Okay. Only 34 % of CEOs have great confidence in their CMOs. Only 32 % trust them, which is a story that we kind of just gave. And I think one way to counteract this is that the interesting thing for you, Neil, and for myself is the companies we own, we own the companies, but we're also marketers. And I think that's a very unique perspective. And I think it's important for CEOs to understand at least maybe to a basic or intermediate level, what is happening with marketing and the latest trends. and that way they can kind of be aligned. They can call BS when they have, when they feel like they're getting the runaround.

4:52That way there's a level of accountability, right? Because what comes down to at the end of the day when it comes to leadership is you have to set kind of clear standards. You have to hold people accountable. And as long as you're doing that, it's going to be good. But what ends up happening with the CMO role, unfortunately, sometimes there's a lot of smoke and mirrors and you have no idea what's going on. So that's one way to A, understand marketing better, but also be very clear with your expectations. No, totally. And whether you're hiring a CMO or you're working with the CMO, you're trying to be a CMO, just keep in mind the responsible isn't just marketing.

5:23It's when you spend money, they need to make sure it's producing a positive ROI. And if that involves them doing more than just marketing, then so be it. Dude, check this last part out and then we can wrap it up. So it says, in fairness, most CMOs are cognizant of this fact. So it says, okay, let's move up here. So CMOs have to change too. It is not merely enough to have a vision. CMOs must also be technologists. Okay. So in fairness, most CMOs are cognizant of this fact. According to a recent LinkedIn survey of CMOs, the most important skill in the coming two years will be a mastery of marketing technology and data analytics.

5:53Hey, you heard it from us for the last couple of years, by the way, today, it's the second most important skill trailing behind creative strategy and execution, boom, creative and analytics. Yes. And analytics is going to become tougher and tougher with cookies going away. But still, that's a great thing to focus on if you want to do well in marketing, especially with all the channels and devices people are using these days. All right, so that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, five stars, please. It helps us a lot. And we will see you tomorrow.