The Next Generation CMO
The CMO role is going through a rapid transformation. Today’s CMOs are expected to perform multiple roles—as customer champion, growth driver, chief storyteller, innovation catalyst, and capability builder—all while building bridges across functions and mastering the latest digital marketing technology however, the bottom-line big question remains:
Can the Marketing Department exponentially grow the top line revenue?
Here is usually what a day for a new breed of CMO looks like. However, before you read more, remember, the CMO of the future will always be working on the following aspects.
A) They are accountable for revenue.
B) They have to report to the CEO and Board of Director on metrics, not just activities.
C) They are expected to be more close to clients more than the sales team.
D) They are perceived to be game changers and out of the box thinkers.
E) They are willing to approach the sales organizations with new ideas to help reduce the gap between planned and forecasted sales for the quarter.
Here is how a typcical day may look like in the very near future:
7:30 am Strategic Alignment Breakfast with CEO
This is a meeting takes place once a quarter to ensure the go-to-market strategy the CEO has set in motion and the corporate message stays fully aligned. The CMO reminds the CEO of the go-to-market Corporate Messaging Platform that was rolled out six months ago. His CEO reviews the platform and agrees that it is spot on right now but then shares plans for an acquisition that will likely occur in the second half of the year. The CMO takes note and begins thinking about the implications for corporate messaging and positioning, culture/brand integration, service/solution portfolio architecture, etc. The CMO leaves the meeting with knowledge of what is coming his way and will be well prepared.
Are you able to establish credibility with the CEO & Board of Directors as a CMO?
8:30 am Demand Generation Meeting with Marketing Team
The CMO conducts his weekly demand generation planning meeting with stakeholders across critical channels and touch points. Reviews messaging alignment, connectivity, and consistency across critical communication vehicles utilized throughout the customer experience. Notices disconnect between some of the online and offline messages. Corrects the problem by pointing stakeholders back to the Corporate Messaging Platform, identifying key messages that must be utilized to deliver a consistent and compelling buying process. The Key point is if the CMO does not have a single dashboard that can show the KPI of Demand Generation then this meeting will be all waste of time as it is not properly aligned to the sales organization.
Do you have a Dashboard that can capture at least 80% of your KPIs?
9:30 am Meeting with CRO to Review Sales Pipeline Performance
Sits down for coffee with Chief Revenue Officer to review high-level sales pipeline performance. Digs in to see if new Corporate Messaging is accelerating sales cycles, engaging higher-level decision makers and if the core value messages are converting more leads. Numbers are improving. CRO confirms that messaging is helping the sales force differentiate against new competitors that have entered the market. CRO also mentions how sales executives in the West Region need more messaging training, education and a unique set of sales enablement tools to attack the technology market. CMO captures details and plans to bring it up with his Sales Enablement Team later in the day.
What have you done to help your CRO lately, Do you have a plan?
10:30 am Conference Call with Cross-Functional Marketing Partners
CMO hosts a monthly video conference with his eco-system of marketing partners across the globe. Digital, public relations, content marketing, brand, social and email marketing partners are all present on the call today. They discuss the company’s overall positioning and how it is playing out in creative and content being produced across the globe. Partners collaborate and share ideas on how to create even stronger connectivity to the Messaging Platform in their creative executions. One partner raises messaging translation challenges they are facing in the Pacific Rim.
How are you measuring their performance now, Do you have a single tool that shows you the full ROI out of your Marketing activities?
11:00 am Listen In on Customer Service/Support Calls
To ensure he stays in tune with the voice of the customer, the CMO personally listens in on customer service and support calls for one hour each week. During these calls, he is monitoring the delivery of foundational messages during customer conversations. He notes where additional training and education efforts are required. Also captures reoccurring questions customers are asking about the company, products, services, and solutions. Today, he hears how well the customers are responding to key benefit and value messages during the call. Over the course of the year, this information is compiled to drive corporate/product messaging improvements that will be incorporated in future Messaging Platforms and ensure customer acquisition, retention and loyalty rates increase over time.
Can your Field marketing team work closely with the product manager to be able to bring value faster to the marketplace?
12:00 pm Lunch Meeting with Sales Rep and Customer
Another monthly face-to-face customer meeting takes place. The CMO uses this time to see in real-time how customers react to corporate messaging/positioning. At lunch, he sees how well the message is resonating with this particular customer. The CMO also captures the phrases and words the customer uses to describe the pain points and challenges he faces. He also sees how the messaging aligns with the key trends that are impacting the customer’s business. He will use these insights to shape thinking relative to messaging/positioning enhancements that may be required in the next version of the Corporate Messaging Platform. Also, notes where sales representatives are struggling with or lack confidence in the current go-to-market corporate story.
Do you have an Inbound Sales department? Do this department report to Marketing or Sales?
1:30 pm Participate in New Employee On-Boarding Meeting
The starting point of the messaging infusion process is employee onboarding and training. This is a critical part of ensuring every employee can bring the corporate story to life in their daily work activities. The CMO participates in these onboarding sessions each month to ensure the Corporate Messaging Infusion Training is taking root. Formal training is delivered by the CMO and on-demand training modules, produced by his marketing team, are completed by every new employee using the company’s Learning Management System (LMS).
2:30 pm Performance Reporting Meeting with Analytics/Ops Team
To complement his qualitative research, the CMO sits down each quarter to review quantitative marketing performance metrics. These include brand perception and awareness statistics, campaign engagement and conversion rates across critical channels, as well as message testing engagement numbers. He uses this data to validate the degree by which a clear, compelling and consistent message is working in the market. He also reviews the data to see what modifications and changes may have required in the next version of the Corporate Messaging Platform, which will be rolled out to the entire company and his eco-system of marketing partners within six months.
3:30 pm Meeting with Sales Enablement Leadership Team
Each quarter the CMO sits down to review the sales enablement tools that are in play with the selling organization. He looks for strategic alignment with key messages within the Corporate Messaging Platform. Based on the meeting with the CSO earlier in the day, he also informs the Sales Enablement Team of challenges the sales team is having in the technology industry. More specifically, the messaging used in conversations with economic decision makers during the buying process. He tasks the team with digging into this issue, reviewing core value messages within the Corporate Messaging Platform and coming up with more compelling tools to engage in “ROI” related conversations with technology buyers. They are asked to bring their ideas to the next meeting.
4:30 pm Briefings with Business Unit Leaders
Every quarter, the CMO hosts a conference call with P&L owners across the company. The goal of this call is to ensure the Corporate Messaging is supporting strategic sales and marketing initiatives at the business unit level of the enterprise. Each Business Unit Leader highlights their top three initiatives and the CMO has the opportunity to point them to strategic messages within the Corporate Messaging Platform that can be used to support their story in the market. In specific situations where an initiative is not fully aligned with the Corporate Messaging Platform, the CMO schedules a call between the Business Unit Leader and his Messaging Development to formulate a messaging strategy that will support the business unit.
Are you accountable for Net profit? what would be your strategy as a CMO to increase shareholder value?
As a CMO, ask yourself the following question.
A) Do you have the correct metrics to measure your department alignment to the organization overall business goals?
B) Do you have the correct Tool/Tools “MarTech” that can help you run your reports at the executive level, without burning 20% of your team’s valuable time trying to figure 10 different reports from five different agencies?
C) Do you have the correct marketing department organization chart that will help you prepare for future expectation, especially when the CEO ask you to be accountable for 33% of new revenue added each year to the sales forecast, and when requested to deliver on a new strategy to reduce the overall sales cycle "especially for B2B marketing where the sales cycle usually takes from 3-9 month and even more for higher Tickets items" ?
If you have two "No's" to the above three question, then we must connect and chat.