<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[CMO2CRO: CMO Career]]></title><description><![CDATA[How to get the CMO title, keep it, and thrive in it — real advice on navigating the C-suite, proving marketing's value to the business, and making the jump from VPM to CMO in B2B SaaS.]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/s/cmo-career</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fYwD!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0fb3fea4-e3e8-4bd1-9cff-98f5ba6db4ae_1024x1024.png</url><title>CMO2CRO: CMO Career</title><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/s/cmo-career</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:03:10 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[cmo2cro@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[cmo2cro@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[cmo2cro@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[cmo2cro@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[Introducing Crabby CMO: Everything you want to say on LinkedIn, but can't]]></title><description><![CDATA[The unfiltered truth about CMO and VP Marketing life that nobody posts on LinkedIn &#8212; career advice, agency takes, and hard-won opinions in a 46-page book.]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/introducing-crabby-cmo-everything</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/introducing-crabby-cmo-everything</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 14:34:54 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="pullquote"><p><strong>This is a special edition of CMO2CRO</strong></p></div><p>I&#8217;ve built pipeline. I&#8217;ve launched brands. I&#8217;ve owned revenue. I&#8217;ve sat through 11,000 hours of syncs that could have been emails.</p><p>And I&#8217;ve learned that the best marketing career advice doesn&#8217;t come from or belong on LinkedIn since LinkedIn is where we perform optimism for an audience of recruiters and competitors.</p><p>So I sat down and wrote out all of the things I would like to say on LinkedIn and put it in a 46-page book. You know the kinds of things where you write something but then backspace and rewrite to make it sound more polite? Or the things you only whisper to your friends but wouldn&#8217;t be caught dead putting them in writing or saying them out loud to a coworker?</p><p>If you&#8217;re a CMO or VPM, then you know we can&#8217;t say what we really think in public because that would be career suicide. Yet, it&#8217;s all true. How do I know it&#8217;s true? By consensus of everyone saying it on dark social and in social circles. </p><p>And then there are my own observations about agencies, Gartner, and AI, of course.</p><p>And of course when you hear SaaStr talk about creating an AI VPM workshop, it makes you want to give the big ol&#8217; middle finger, does it not? As if this is what you worked your entire career just to have it cosplay out as a bot at some conference.</p><p>The <em><strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3G6B2CG/ref=sr_1_1">Crabby CMO: Everything you want to say on LinkedIn, but can&#8217;t</a></strong></em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3G6B2CG/ref=sr_1_1"> </a>is the first CMO book you might actually get something out of, if not a laugh and a nod.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png" width="239" height="239.81016949152541" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1184,&quot;width&quot;:1180,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:239,&quot;bytes&quot;:2449232,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/i/199927167?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!hRre!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27c01649-f5d5-47b4-8397-454ac9661cfc_1180x1184.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Also, check out the </mark><strong><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Crabby CMO</mark></strong><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </mark><a href="https://crabby-cmo-shop.fourthwall.com/"><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">store for merch</mark></a><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">! </mark>Have suggestions for what you might like to see? Drop a comment below.</p><h4><strong>Substackers ave 10% with <a href="https://crabby-cmo-shop.fourthwall.com/promo/SUBSTACKCRAB">this </a>link.</strong></h4><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/introducing-crabby-cmo-everything/comments&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Leave a comment&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/introducing-crabby-cmo-everything/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p><p>Then <mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">order a book on </mark><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3G6B2CG/ref=sr_1_1"><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Amazon</mark></a><mark data-color="#ffff00" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</mark></p><p>It&#8217;s 46 pages of marketing humor, of which you are bound to relate to if you run marketing for any organization. (CMO/VPM/Head of Marketing).</p><h3>Here are a couple of my favorites:</h3><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Yj_G!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa254f07-ba91-42da-9d8f-915f9ddcd5cc_1150x1082.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Yj_G!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa254f07-ba91-42da-9d8f-915f9ddcd5cc_1150x1082.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Yj_G!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa254f07-ba91-42da-9d8f-915f9ddcd5cc_1150x1082.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Yj_G!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa254f07-ba91-42da-9d8f-915f9ddcd5cc_1150x1082.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Yj_G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa254f07-ba91-42da-9d8f-915f9ddcd5cc_1150x1082.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Yj_G!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffa254f07-ba91-42da-9d8f-915f9ddcd5cc_1150x1082.png" width="508" height="477.9617391304348" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RNy3!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7238c2ea-0aae-438c-b61e-f9cf201fc6a2_1092x998.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RNy3!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7238c2ea-0aae-438c-b61e-f9cf201fc6a2_1092x998.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RNy3!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7238c2ea-0aae-438c-b61e-f9cf201fc6a2_1092x998.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RNy3!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7238c2ea-0aae-438c-b61e-f9cf201fc6a2_1092x998.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>Order your <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3G6B2CG/ref=sr_1_1">copy</a> today!</strong> </p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[CMO Tenure by the Numbers]]></title><description><![CDATA[We talk about CMO tenure as it is a talent problem.]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/cmo-tenure-by-the-numbers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/cmo-tenure-by-the-numbers</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:51:51 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/80b0fda6-25fc-4f0a-a8bc-a2b7b09c3486_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We talk about CMO tenure as if it is a talent problem. When in actuality, it&#8217;s more of an expectations problem.</p><p>The average CMO tenure at Fortune 500 companies sits around <strong>4.1&#8211;4.3 years</strong> as of 2024&#8211;2025 which is shorter than most C-suite peers, but more stable than the dramatic headlines suggest of eighteen months. [1] [2]</p><h2>By the Numbers</h2><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png" width="1132" height="680" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:680,&quot;width&quot;:1132,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:84025,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/i/194811869?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1gYC!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe96178cd-7079-40e5-a476-5b8371951136_1132x680.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>For comparison: CEOs average 7.6 years, CFOs 4.7 years, COOs 3.3 years. [3] [4]</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Consider a subscription to Tracy&#8217;s Tidbits, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><h2>What&#8217;s Actually Happening</h2><p><strong>The role keeps shape-shifting.</strong> About 31% of S&amp;P 500 companies don&#8217;t even have a CMO right now. Some companies eliminate the title, then bring it back (Lowe&#8217;s and Starbucks among them). Forrester found only 58% of Fortune 500 companies have a C-suite marketing leader, down from 63%. [1] [3]</p><p><strong>Tech is the sharpest example.</strong> Massive layoffs have gutted marketing teams across SaaS and tech, however, CMO hiring actually surged 61% year-over-year in 2025, with 83% of those hires coming from outside the company. [7] Companies aren&#8217;t eliminating marketing leadership. They&#8217;re eliminating <em>their version</em> of it, then hiring someone new to fit the latest redesign. It&#8217;s not a shrinking market for CMOs, it&#8217;s a revolving door built into the org chart.</p><p><strong>Exits aren&#8217;t necessarily failures.</strong> 65% of departing Fortune 500 CMOs move to similar or bigger roles. 10% become CEOs. Notably, 37% of Fortune 500 CEOs have marketing backgrounds. [1]</p><p><strong>The diversity picture is mixed.</strong> Women now hold about 50% of CMO roles &#8212; better than most C-suite positions. But only 9% of CMOs come from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups, and women still face shorter average tenures than men. [2]</p><p><strong>Tenure has quietly stabilized.</strong> The figure has hovered around 4 years since 2022. The old &#8220;shortest tenure in the C-suite&#8221; narrative still circulates, but the gap has narrowed. So if the numbers are stable and the talent is strong, what&#8217;s actually driving turnover?</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png" width="1456" height="1941" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1941,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2470082,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/i/194811869?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Nszw!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d94f0d9-fc74-4094-bdd8-adfbb9c35968_1728x2304.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h2>The Real Problem Isn&#8217;t Talent &#8212; It&#8217;s Expectations</h2><p>It&#8217;s tempting to read the tenure numbers as a talent problem. They&#8217;re not. When 65% of departing CMOs land equal or bigger roles and 10% go on to become CEOs, the talent is clearly there.</p><p>The real issue is that &#8220;the CMO job&#8221; is a moving target nobody fully agrees on. The role gets loaded with brand, growth, digital transformation, revenue accountability, customer experience, and whatever the board is anxious about this quarter. Scope shifts with every new CEO priority. Success metrics change mid-tenure. A CMO hired to build brand gets measured on pipeline. A CMO hired for growth gets second-guessed on creative.</p><p>31% of S&amp;P 500 companies have eliminated the CMO title entirely because organizations can&#8217;t agree on what the role should own. Companies don&#8217;t just replace CMOs. They redesign the job, then go find someone who fits the new version.</p><p>That&#8217;s not a talent gap. It&#8217;s an expectations gap. And until companies get honest about what they actually need from marketing leadership and hold that definition steady long enough for someone to deliver, the tenure numbers will keep looking like a revolving door.</p><h2>AI Is Making the Expectations Problem Worse</h2><p>If the CMO role was already a moving target, AI just put it on a treadmill. 65% of CMOs expect AI to dramatically change their role by 2027, but only 21% feel equipped for the shift. [5] [6]</p><p><strong>The operational work is getting automated.</strong> Content generation, campaign optimization, reporting &#8212; AI can handle 60&#8211;70% of the traditional tactical workload. In theory, that frees CMOs for strategy. In practice, the scope just expands to fill the gap. [5]</p><p><strong>The role is bleeding into tech leadership.</strong> 81% of CMOs now oversee digital customer experience. 84% manage corporate communications. AI governance, brand safety, ethical use, compliance around AI-generated content &#8212; all of this is landing on the CMO&#8217;s desk too. The CMO job description is quietly absorbing chunks of what used to belong to the CTO and CXO. [6] And LinkedIn data shows that 85% of U.S. professionals could see at least a quarter of their skills reshaped by AI.</p><p><strong>In theory, AI could stabilize things</strong> with faster results, clearer measurement, less ambiguity about what's working. But that assumes companies will use AI to sharpen the CMO's mandate. History says they won't. They'll use it to expand the job description, add new KPIs, and expect the CMO to own yet another domain they weren't hired for.</p><p>The pattern is familiar: new capability arrives, company adds it to the CMO&#8217;s plate, CMO gets evaluated on something they weren&#8217;t hired for. AI doesn&#8217;t change the expectations problem. It accelerates it.</p><h3>Everyone is focused on the wrong question</h3><p>The CMO tenure conversation keeps focusing on the wrong question. It's not "how do we get CMOs to last longer?" It's "are we setting them up to succeed in the first place?" That means defining the role before you fill it, holding that definition steady through at least one planning cycle, and measuring the person against what they were actually hired to do &#8212; not what the role mutated into six months later. Companies who put this in practice will retain CMOs longer and actually get what they hired them for.</p><h2>Sources</h2><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/cmo-tenure-study-2025-the-evolution-of-marketing-leadership">Spencer Stuart CMO Tenure Study (2024, 2025)</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/the-representation-and-tenure-of-fortune-500-cmos-in-2024/RES181129">Forrester: Fortune 500 CMO Representation and Tenure (2024)</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/693846/cmo-tenure-usa/#:~:text=Average%20tenure%20of%20CMOs%20at,in%20the%20U.S.%202004%2D2023&amp;text=In%202023%2C%20the%20average%20tenure,it%20stood%20at%2034.7%20months.">Statista: CMO Tenure Among Top 100 U.S. Advertisers</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/cmo-plus-roles-more-prominent-as-marketing-needs-diversify-report/810396/#:~:text=By%20the%20numbers-,4.1%20years,that%20metric%20varies%20by%20category.">ADWEEK, Marketing Dive reporting</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.cmswire.com/leadership/the-evolving-role-of-cmos-what-to-expect-in-2025/">CMSWire, IDC, BCG: AI and the Evolving CMO Role (2024&#8211;2025)</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/2025-cmo">IBM Institute for Business Value: 2025 CMO Study</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2025-cmo-moves-report-cmo-hiring-surges-on-but-role-expectations-and-hiring-dont-match-302670243.html">2025 CMO Moves Report (PR Newswire): CMO Hiring Trends</a></p></li></ul><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Tracy&#8217;s Tidbits is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The #1 Skill Every B2B CMO Needs]]></title><description><![CDATA[I have spent 25 years doing data analysis, a skill by which long ago I eliminated from my resume, not wanting to become a victim of my talent, yet it definitely comes in handy.]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-1-skill-every-b2b-cmo-needs</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-1-skill-every-b2b-cmo-needs</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2025 13:15:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I have spent 25 years doing data analysis, a skill by which long ago I eliminated from my resume, not wanting to become a victim of my talent, yet it definitely comes in handy. </p><blockquote><p><em>You cannot make data driven decisions if you don&#8217;t have good data and data you can trust. However, sometimes data can be misleading or worse, wrong.</em></p></blockquote><p>The most important thing you can do <strong>as a CMO is make sure that you have a handle on your data</strong> when you start at an organization. No matter what, it&#8217;s <strong>the single most important thing</strong> you can do because it will help you understand the state of the business, what needs your focus and attention first, and assess your talent.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp" width="600" height="552.8571428571429" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1290,&quot;width&quot;:1400,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:600,&quot;bytes&quot;:98834,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/webp&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/i/163721599?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b5pM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd9e4d29b-a2c9-422c-b226-0d71f9872233_1400x1290.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h1><strong>Good data comes from enforced data hygiene</strong></h1><p>Determine the data you want to track and then enforce that within the systems. Most CRMs will allow your System Administrator to make fields mandatory to be filled out by Sales or block fields from being updated by anyone or have fields auto-updated from third party sources. You may still have some fields that need to be manually updated, but you can also outsource that or hire a very cheap intern to do it.</p><p>For example, BuiltWith allows you to see a company&#8217;s tech stack based on tags it sees/scrapes from their site. You can actually pipe that into your CRM so that Marketing or Sales can use it to better tailor their messaging or to create competitive lists to target.</p><p>Or another example is when a sales rep closes an opportunity, as a CMO you want to know who were you competing against, why did they buy/not buy your product/service (win/loss reason), and more. These are all fields that can be made mandatory so that the rep cannot close out the opp without filling these fields out. Of course it&#8217;s like filling out a survey, you will need options like &#8220;did nothing&#8221;, or &#8220;no competitor&#8221; or whatever is most appropriate for your business.</p><h1><strong>MQL Data</strong></h1><p>The biggest problem I see CMOs and marketers struggle with is the <a href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/mqls-are-a-lagging-indicator">MQL</a> data. How do you know where it came from? Who gets credit for it? When did it MQL exactly? When did it move to <a href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-sal-is-a-useless-inefficient">SAL</a> or SQL? All of these questions can be answered by inputting custom fields into your CRM.</p><p>For example, I&#8217;ve always used Campaigns in Salesforce to track MQLs so I can see what channel and campaign is bringing in MQLs. I also always create a &#8220;Date became MQL&#8221; custom date field that auto timestamps when something becomes an MQL.</p><p>And while <a href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/how-to-enhance-marketing-reporting">campaigns</a> are great, some companies don&#8217;t use campaigns, so then what? You can still create MQL Source to populate from your UTMs or MQL detail to populate based on referrer URL. So there are ways to get to the granularity of this without needing an <a href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/marketing-attribution">attribution</a> tool.</p><h1><strong>What if the data is non-existent or sh*t?</strong></h1><p>When there is no data (good or bad), or there is bad data, your best bet is to take the opportunity to create new definitions of what you want to track and what&#8217;s important to the business and write it down to socialize with the entire company. (MQL = x, SQL = x, Pipeline = x, etc).</p><p>You&#8217;ll need to get agreement and buy-in from Sales, CEO, and Finance on what SQL is and what pipeline is because it most likely will impact SDR/BDR comp plans. Plus it sets the stage for when the inevitable conversation of &#8220;these leads suck&#8221; comes up. In companies I have worked at in B2B SaaS, I&#8217;ve always defined Pipeline as opportunities that had $ associated to them and I always worked with SalesOps to make it a mandatory requirement in the CRM for Sales reps to have to put in $ amount when moving a deal to Stage 2. After all, a $0 opportunity is a pipe dream, not pipeline.</p><blockquote><p><em>The method I&#8217;ve always followed for opportunities has been:</em></p><p><em>Stage 0 = meeting booked<br>Stage 1 = meeting held (usually Discovery)<br>Stage 2 = pipeline created</em></p></blockquote><p>This helps you compensate <a href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/3-reasons-why-bdrsdrs-are-a-dying">BDR/SDRs</a> for meetings booked or for qualified meetings held (because if it doesn&#8217;t move to Stage 2 after the first meeting then it&#8217;s not a qualified meeting and therefore shouldn&#8217;t be compensated).</p><p>While this seems rudimentary and simple, you&#8217;d be surprised at how many MOPS people over complicate this process. It shouldn&#8217;t be complicated. Complicated doesn&#8217;t equal sophistication or smart &amp; savvy, it equals stupidity.</p><blockquote><p>Most importantly, <strong>do not create your data architecture around corner case scenarios</strong>. Use the 80/20 rule here. Otherwise, you will wind up with a mess.</p></blockquote><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h1><strong>What if the data is solid, but doesn&#8217;t paint a good picture?</strong></h1><p>Data analysis is about storytelling. You&#8217;re a marketer, you should be great at this already. So ask yourself, why isn&#8217;t the data painting a good picture? What story do you want to tell? Just because dashboards exist at a company when you walk in doesn&#8217;t mean they are right or supportive of the strategy you are going to drive. I&#8217;ve walked into plenty of organizations where the data <em>looked</em> accurate or looked <em>good, </em>only to dive into it and realize, <em>it tells a nice story, but it&#8217;s not accurate.</em></p><p>As an example, suppose you walk into an organization and the Marketing team is crushing it on their MQL/MQA goals, but the Sales team is not crushing it on their quota attainment. That usually means one of two things, either: 1) the ASP/ACV is too low so the reps need to close more deals to hit attainment, or 2) the quality of the leads are not good or not as good as they could be.</p><p>To put it better into context, suppose you are going up market and targeting Enterprise, but the MQLs you are bringing in are mostly SMB or lower end MidMarket, so therefore the ACV/ASP is getting driven down. Now you might say, well, then they are not qualified and we shouldn&#8217;t have passed them to Sales in the first place. Sure, that might be true pre-Covid when you could be more picky about who you sold to, but that&#8217;s not reality in 2024.</p><p>You are the story teller and you need to tie it back to the overall company objectives. Design simply, you can always back and tweak your data. Which brings me to my last point.</p><h1><strong>How far back should you go to fix data?</strong></h1><p>I love this question because its where you can make yourself miserable if not thought out properly. You do not need to go back to the beginning of time to update data. You need to go back a minimum of 2 quarters and at most 4 quarters to correct data if it&#8217;s worth correcting so that you have QoQ or YoY comparisons. But, it really depends on what you are fixing. <em>Sometimes, you don&#8217;t have to go back and fix it at all.</em></p><p>What do I mean by that? Say for example you change the way you score MQLs. Maybe you only counted hand-raisers as MQLs previously and now you&#8217;re introducing scoring and counting folks who have downloaded content. Should you go back and score people prior to the change? The real questions to ask are: will this impact my current quarter KPIs? If yes, then score them. If not, then don&#8217;t bother.</p><p><strong>When it comes to deciding whether to fix data or not, I ask these questions:</strong></p><ol><li><p>Will the board/CEO/Finance care about this data?</p></li><li><p>Does it impact my current quarter KPIs? or impact anyone&#8217;s current quarter compensation?</p></li><li><p>Will it impact QoQ or YoY metrics down the road? (and will anyone really care?)</p></li><li><p>What will fixing this data get me? If it provides further information to make a larger more informed decision, then it should be weighed against the amount of effort it would require.</p></li><li><p>If I determine I need to fix it, how far back should I go? 1&#8211;4 quarters should be the max.</p></li></ol><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share Tracy&#8217;s Tidbits&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=share&amp;action=share"><span>Share Tracy&#8217;s Tidbits</span></a></p><h1><strong>Key Takeaways</strong></h1><p>Data is your friend and the sooner you get a handle on it, the easier your job becomes. Don&#8217;t over complicate it, start out simple with the most basic things you, your CEO, and the board care about and build from there. Remember, you are the storyteller, use the data to tell your story.</p><p><strong>If you liked this article, then you may like:</strong></p><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;79603ec0-d4b7-4e58-a064-fb790c9d3787&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Have you ever wanted to just rip out your Salesforce, HubSpot, or Marketo instance and re-install it because the data was such a mess?&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:&quot;Read full story&quot;,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;12 Interview Questions to Ask When Hiring Marketing Ops&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:88539144,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Tracy S&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;I'm a creative GTM leader with an analytical mindset. FWIW, I'm also 3x CMO, 1x CRO, 1x VP of Growth, 5x Operations leader with 2 exits. Spent most of my time in B2B SaaS and about a decade in B2C, from seed to public companies.&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/41ae8ef9-80af-4efa-a3dc-d4c41712e0c7_1024x1024.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2025-02-05T13:37:49.842Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3626c3db-3c6f-4a34-8e18-bcf9bff690d2_500x500.jpeg&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/11-interview-questions-to-ask-when&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:154656027,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;newsletter&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:0,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:null,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;Tracy&#8217;s Tidbits&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0fb3fea4-e3e8-4bd1-9cff-98f5ba6db4ae_1024x1024.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div><div class="digest-post-embed" data-attrs="{&quot;nodeId&quot;:&quot;c8e979bb-29b7-47f2-b993-c8d29881b235&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;In marketing when you&#8217;re given a tops down number from finance, it can seem daunting. You receive this giant number based on historical conversion rates where nothing else changes except your number seems to keep going up.&quot;,&quot;cta&quot;:&quot;Read full story&quot;,&quot;showBylines&quot;:true,&quot;showDescription&quot;:true,&quot;showImage&quot;:true,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;sm&quot;,&quot;isEditorNode&quot;:true,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;How to Calculate a Bottoms Up Reverse Funnel in Marketing&quot;,&quot;publishedBylines&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:88539144,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Tracy S&quot;,&quot;bio&quot;:&quot;I'm a creative GTM leader with an analytical mindset. FWIW, I'm also 3x CMO, 1x CRO, 1x VP of Growth, 5x Operations leader with 2 exits. Spent most of my time in B2B SaaS and about a decade in B2C, from seed to public companies.&quot;,&quot;photo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/41ae8ef9-80af-4efa-a3dc-d4c41712e0c7_1024x1024.jpeg&quot;,&quot;is_guest&quot;:false,&quot;bestseller_tier&quot;:null}],&quot;post_date&quot;:&quot;2025-03-05T13:35:52.705Z&quot;,&quot;cover_image&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ec75bc4-e25f-4b12-ab58-5a7fb7455613_690x682.png&quot;,&quot;cover_image_alt&quot;:null,&quot;canonical_url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/how-to-calculate-a-bottoms-up-reverse&quot;,&quot;section_name&quot;:null,&quot;video_upload_id&quot;:null,&quot;id&quot;:158299751,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;newsletter&quot;,&quot;reaction_count&quot;:1,&quot;comment_count&quot;:0,&quot;publication_id&quot;:null,&quot;publication_name&quot;:&quot;Tracy&#8217;s Tidbits&quot;,&quot;publication_logo_url&quot;:&quot;https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0fb3fea4-e3e8-4bd1-9cff-98f5ba6db4ae_1024x1024.png&quot;,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;youtube_url&quot;:null,&quot;show_links&quot;:null,&quot;feed_url&quot;:null}"></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Future Forward CMO: What It Takes in B2B SaaS]]></title><description><![CDATA[The CMO has the shortest tenure in the C-suite, but the role isn't dead &#8212; it's evolving. What it takes to thrive as a B2B SaaS CMO in the AI era.]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-future-forward-cmo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-future-forward-cmo</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 09 Jul 2024 11:04:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/86388304-4748-42a7-988d-6374c5b274fb_1024x1024.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The CMO has the shortest tenure in the C-Suite, and yet it plays a critical function to any business. Per Korn Ferry and Spencer Stuart, the average is around 4.2 years for the Fortune 500. For B2B SaaS startups it&#8217;s more like 18-24 months, and that&#8217;s largely due to the &#8220;growth at any cost&#8221; notion where CMOs seem easily expendable.</p><p>But the CMO role is not dead and it&#8217;s not going away. Starbucks, Walgreens, Etsy, UPS, Uber, Johnson &amp; Johnson have all ditched the CMO title. But so did McDonald&#8217;s and Coca-Cola a while ago only to bring it back. Liat Ben-Zur talks in a recent <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lbenzur_is-the-cmo-role-dead-starbucks-decision-activity-7185653164145049600-QIu7?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop">LinkedIn post</a> about how the role is simply getting a makeover. </p><blockquote><p>&#8220;The Chief Marketing Officer role isn't disappearing; it's evolving to meet the demands of a data-driven era.&#8221; - Liat Ben-Zur</p></blockquote><p>It&#8217;s all about being able to tie the consumer journey and experience back to measurable business outcomes. </p><h4>Broad perspective</h4><p>Today CMOs are tasked with a lot. We analyze the market, develop a plan, and tie it back to the P&amp;L. Moving forward, the CMO needs to have a broader perspective of what&#8217;s driving financial outcomes for the business and we need to be able to communicate this efficiently and effectively to our C-Suite colleagues so they get excited about what we&#8217;re doing. </p><p>But what often gets conflated here is while you do need to have a broader perspective, you don&#8217;t need to know everything there is about everything. This is why you hire people smarter than you or outsource the work to help you execute your strategy. </p><p>You need to understand what the business outcomes are and have a clear definition of what success looks like and set those expectations early on with the C-Suite and the board. </p><p>You need to prioritize, allocate resources, and define internal optics. No one is going to ever fully understand all that you do as a CMO, how much of the business you touch, or what your impact is, so do yourself a favor and stop trying to solve every perception and every problem. That&#8217;s not your role. <strong>Focus, prioritization, outcomes</strong> &#8212; those are where the best use of your energy can be spent.</p><h4>Impact of AI on the Future CMO</h4><p>I&#8217;d be remiss to not talk about AI (especially after working at an AI company for 2.5 years). </p><p>AI is overwhelming and it&#8217;s also young. Meaning, we do not know it&#8217;s full future impact. We know it can synthesize data quickly, it can create efficiencies that were not possible in marketing before. It&#8217;s similar to social media when it came on the scene. No one knew it&#8217;s potential. Some people could see it. Some folks hopped on the bandwagon and made careers out of it. You need to be aware, experiment with it, and use it strategically where it makes sense. Does the Future CMO need to know about AI in this capacity? Yes, embrace it, but don&#8217;t die on a hill for it.</p><h4>Fundamentals will always reign supreme</h4><p><strong>Product market fit</strong> will make or break any company. Figuring out or designing your category, positioning it in the right places so that when people are looking for the product you sell, it&#8217;s there.</p><p>However, <strong>the one thing AI can&#8217;t do is</strong> <strong>evoke a feeling</strong> from people when they experience your product. No one cares about your product. They only care about the problem it can solve for them at that given moment. That gives them a feeling of a tribe, this brand understands their problem and it is filled with a <strong>community</strong> of others just like them with whom they can bond. This power of connection, the emotional experience you get from a brand is what makes great brands stand out. You can&#8217;t manufacture emotions with AI and it&#8217;s a key fundamental of brands that are successful. (e.g. Slack, Notion, Clay, Webflow, Adobe).</p><p><strong>Brand</strong> is another key fundamental. You can&#8217;t have demand without brand, and yet no one gives a shit about or understands the full impact of brand except for &#8212; marketers. This is because we position brand spend in a non-digestible way for the rest of the company and many marketers struggles with how to quantify it. <br><br>However, it&#8217;s all about how you position it internally. </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png" width="960" height="540" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:540,&quot;width&quot;:960,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:83541,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:null,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JsTW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa961cae6-c71c-436e-aae6-80143345e2ee_960x540.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><h4>Becoming a seller</h4><p>I&#8217;m seeing it more and more where the CMO is reporting into the CRO and this is a sad reality for CMOs because <em>most</em> (not all) CROs do not have a marketing background. In this dynamic, marketing doesn&#8217;t just work for sales, they become a slave to sales. When in fact, marketing is central to the entire go to market, touching all aspects of the business from pre to post sales and beyond. </p><blockquote><p>The future forward CMO will need to figure out how to work for a CRO with no marketing experience. It&#8217;s the future.</p></blockquote><p>In this new reality, there may be a lot less room for brand, but only if you can&#8217;t sell it. Your new role requires you not only to <em>market</em> Marketing, but to <em>sell</em> Marketing&#8217;s value to your CRO. One team, one dream as they say. </p><p>To sell marketing&#8217;s value your CRO you need to be able to tie back your metrics to not only overall business outcomes, but sales impact. You have to be super in sync and be real business partners who trust one another. </p><p>***<br>Like this CMO2CRO Substack? Subscribe for free to receive new posts or share it to support my work. Thanks!</p><div class="captioned-button-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-future-forward-cmo?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption"></p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-future-forward-cmo?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/the-future-forward-cmo?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Tracy&#8217;s cmo2cro Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Flip the script! Questions Every CMO Should Ask Their Next CEO]]></title><description><![CDATA[You're interviewing them just as they are interviewing you. It's time to flip the script!]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/flip-the-script-questions-every-cmo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/flip-the-script-questions-every-cmo</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 05 Jun 2024 12:33:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/93e1b11b-6697-4501-ae39-df177ca92462_7360x4912.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;re not alone. We&#8217;ve all worked for a bad CEO at one point or another. You interview with the CEO, they seem great, and yet once you get in there to do the work, suddenly, you feel as if the rug has been ripped out from under you. So then you rack your brain to figure out <em>how in the heck do you avoid this in the future</em>?</p><p>Like with any job, you&#8217;re interviewing them just as they are interviewing you for fit, skills, strategy, vision, etc. However, when a CEO is on the hunt for a CMO/VPM it&#8217;s usually because of one or more things:</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Tracy&#8217;s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><ul><li><p>If the role is for a VPM reporting to the CEO, they likely need a babysitter and may/may not really understand the value of marketing</p></li><li><p>If it&#8217;s for a <em>new</em> CMO role, they usually want to grow the company and figure it&#8217;s time to finally invest in marketing</p></li><li><p>If it is for a replacement CMO, they are looking for something specific &#8212; either fill the person&#8217;s shoes who left or bring something else to the table they didn&#8217;t have</p></li></ul><p>And of course, there are a lot of other factors to consider such as, if this is a PLG company, if this is a first-time CEO, if this is a first-time founder CEO, does the CEO have any marketing experience at all in their background. All of these things matter. But you should still come to the table with curiosity and questions. <br><br>Here&#8217;s a list of questions I&#8217;ve previously asked, and afterward I perform my due diligence on their answers by speaking to former and current employees. I&#8217;m a straight shooter so my questions are more direct, but feel free to massage them to best suit your personality.</p><ol><li><p><em><strong>What problem(s) are you hoping for someone like me to come in and solve? What do you think is broken within Marketing?</strong></em> (or more eloquently put, <em>If I were to come on as VPM/CMO, how could I best help you move this company forward?) </em>It&#8217;s important to understand what they think is broken because you&#8217;ll need to fix that immediately and it&#8217;ll also be part of the criteria for judging your success. Plus, 99% of the time it&#8217;s why they are hiring for this role. Something <em>is broken</em> and it&#8217;s either people, process, or systems (usually the first two) and they want someone to come in and fix it.</p></li><li><p><em><strong>What does good marketing look like to you? Can you give me examples of brands that you think do really good marketing? How will you measure success for this role? </strong></em>Let&#8217;s face it, good marketing is in the eye of the beholder, however, it&#8217;s important to understand how the CEO defines what &#8220;good marketing&#8221; is so you can meet and exceed those expectations. It also will give you some insight as to whether or not you need to educate them about the impact of certain activities, such as PR/AR or brand, as an example.</p></li><li><p><em><strong>We all have strengths and weaknesses, if I were to ask your board to tell me the one thing they think you could work on, what would they say?</strong> </em>This always gets a &#8220;great question&#8221; response because it makes them think about how others perceive them and that&#8217;s something they probably haven&#8217;t thought about in a long time. It also gives you insight into how self-aware they are as a leader.</p></li><li><p><em><strong>What&#8217;s your short and long term vision for the company?</strong></em> This lets you know if they&#8217;ve thought beyond the immediate future. Most CEOs have short and long term goals of where they envision the company going now and in the future. Also, a mission statement is not a vision statement. Make sure you are both clear on that.</p></li><li><p><em><strong>What % of the product is true SaaS?</strong></em> For SaaS companies in particular, there are just way too many of them that are services companies under the hood masked as true SaaS companies. </p></li><li><p><em><strong>What types of decisions do you expect to be a part of?</strong></em> There is always a level of trust coming into a role. Some CEOs want to give you carte blanche, after all that is why they are hiring for this role. Whereas others want to be included in certain types of decisions. Try to dig in here to find out what those are. For example you could ask, &#8220;<em>For example, if I were to change the brand or change pricing, are those items that you would want to be involved with? What about a quote from you for a press release?</em>&#8221;</p></li><li><p><em><strong>What&#8217;s the company&#8217;s revenue, burn rate and NRR?</strong></em> <em><strong>Are you profitable? Are you cash flow positive?</strong></em> <em><strong>What&#8217;s your cash in bank?</strong></em> <em><strong>What&#8217;s the total head count?</strong></em> The recruiter or HR person will tell you what the revenue is, but what you really want to know is whether the business is healthy or not. The monthly burn rate (how much they are spending to run the business) and how much cash they have ( a good measure is 24 months of burn), and whether or not customers stay or churn, is extremely important as to whether or not this business is healthy or not. If they don&#8217;t want to share, offer to sign an NDA. But any serious marketer would ask these questions in an interview and any legitimate CEO will give it to you. Don&#8217;t be afraid to ask the hard ball questions.</p></li><li><p><em><strong>What was your most recent 409A and is the current exercise price the same as the 409A?</strong></em>  What you&#8217;re looking for here what is the current valuation. Does it seem aggressive or a reasonable multiple based on what you know about the industry and the business? <em><strong>What&#8217;s the number of fully diluted shares?</strong></em> You want to know if you should negotiate for equity or not and how much. </p></li><li><p><em><strong>How do you view AI in Marketing? Should everything be optimized for AI? Is this something you expect the CMO to drive?<br></strong></em>This gives you insight into how they think AI should be used within Marketing and if they are expecting you to drive the initiative or to partner with other teams. It also gives you insight into how they view the marketing org and how AI will play into organizational development. </p></li></ol><p>There are lots of questions you can ask, being curious and doing your research will help aid the discussion. These are just some questions to get you started. </p><p></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Tracy&#8217;s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How I went from CMO to CRO]]></title><description><![CDATA[Do CMOs make good CROs and should you make that leap?]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/how-i-went-from-cmo-to-cro</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/how-i-went-from-cmo-to-cro</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2024 13:52:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/5f5b357a-c519-43aa-8743-f147962937b0_4288x2848.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I went from CMO to CRO just under a year ago and people seem to be curious as to how to make that leap, why make it, does/can it work, and what are the pros and cons. <br><br>There aren&#8217;t that many of us who have made that leap and there are a bunch of folks (SaaS influencers, CEOs, VCs) who think it can&#8217;t work, but I&#8217;m proof that it can. </p><p>The path for me was not one I got up in the morning and said &#8220;I want to be CRO someday.&#8221; It was never on my radar. But, I&#8217;m a helper and when the business needed my help, I felt the need to step up and wear the hat because I love a fun challenge. Now that I&#8217;ve done it, and was successful at it (58-72% increase quarter over quarter growth), plus we were acquired and I&#8217;d like to think that had something to do with it, I want to share my experience in case it is something you might be interested in.<br><br><strong>Here are my observations and advice if you are thinking about this career path. </strong></p><ol><li><p><strong>Challenges with not having a sales or demand gen or ops background.</strong> If you don&#8217;t have a sales background then you will experience challenges with the incumbent sales team. You&#8217;ll need to prove yourself to them that you know what it&#8217;s like to be in the trenches with them. It took me one quarter-end and one year-end close to prove I knew what I was doing and to be trusted and respected by the sales team. If you come from an OPS background or Demand Gen background, you have an easier path than if you are a brand marketer or product marketer, imho.</p></li><li><p><strong>The benefits.</strong> Of course having a holistic view and joint KPIs, having everyone work toward the same revenue goal are hugely beneficial.  However, if marketing is doing well and sales isn&#8217;t, then you fail together. If sales and marketing are doing great, then you win together. It&#8217;s all one big team.</p><ol><li><p><strong>Tip &#127913;:</strong> one thing I did out of the gate was combine the teams, rename us to the <strong>Revenue team</strong> so that we were all talking together about the problems we were trying to solve. Plus, it&#8217;s important the company view you as one team, one dream, and see the KPIs are aligned and under one team.</p></li></ol></li><li><p><strong>Data Analysis.</strong> You need to be able to forecast accurately. To do that you need to understand not only your customers, but how the deal cycles work for each segment at your organization. </p><ol><li><p><strong>Tip &#127913;:</strong> you can always take a course for this. This is a learnable skill. Fortunately, I had 15 years of OPs and data analysis experience, but if I didn&#8217;t, I would have maybe signed up for <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/winningbydesign/">Winning by Design</a>&#8217;s Revenue Architecture course or have read <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandistarr/">Brandi Starr</a> at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/tegrita/">Tegrita</a>&#8217;s book &#8220;CMO to CRO, the revenue takeover by the next generation executive&#8221; or maybe do both. </p></li></ol></li><li><p><strong>Know your allies.</strong> If you weren&#8217;t already besties with Finance in your marketing role, you&#8217;ll soon become BFFs because you&#8217;ll be working closely on comp plans and reverse funnels. You now own and are holding the whole bag. </p></li><li><p><strong>Marketing needs strong leaders.</strong> You should only make this move if you have strong marketing leaders you can depend on while you dive into the Sales side of things. I was fortunate enough to have 2 (one on the brand &amp; content side, and one on the DG side). But if I hadn&#8217;t had this, I probably would not have been as successful having never run sales before. </p><ol><li><p><strong>Tip &#127913;: </strong>ask yourself why you want this role and are you set up for success if you take it? I took it on because we were in between sales leaders and it was offered to me and it seemed like a fun challenge I could do in a safe environment. I trusted my CEO to let me fail and he believed in me enough to win. If you don&#8217;t have the support, like any other role, it&#8217;ll be tough.</p></li></ol></li></ol><p>Not every CMO needs to become a CRO and not every CMO would make a good CRO. That said, CROs should only run marketing if they have a marketing background. When a CRO who only has a sales pedigree is put in charge of marketing, it never works. Why? Because Sales people don&#8217;t know how to manage Brand marketers, they think it&#8217;s just pretty pictures and swag. They also have a grave misunderstanding of what&#8217;s entailed in Demand Gen and Account Based Marketing. They do, however, rightfully understand product marketing, messaging, competition, and enablement. But a CMO understands all of this, has a pulse on the market and the industry (not just benchmarks), and talks to not just prospects, but other people in the industry to learn. Sales people only talk to prospects.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Tracy&#8217;s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[How to go from VPM to CMO]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why some VP of Marketing marketers never get the CMO title]]></description><link>https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/how-to-go-from-vpm-to-cmo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://cmo2cro.substack.com/p/how-to-go-from-vpm-to-cmo</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracy S]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2024 16:14:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/85648e3c-57b9-43a8-9b2c-0662741f56b3_5472x3648.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What&#8217;s in a title? I used to think the title didn&#8217;t matter as long as you were paid to do what you love. But then one day I got passed over for the CMO role and the perception that permeated throughout the 200 person company was palpable. I started getting questions of how could they not have given me that role when I am already doing it. </p><p>Ahhh&#8230;.let me tell you why some marketers are not given the coveted C-suite title and why you should not settle for VPM.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><strong>The excuses many companies give&#8230;</strong></p><ol><li><p>The company has no other C-Suite other than the CEO and maybe, if there are co-founders, other C-Suite titles. But the rest of GTM is VP or SVP. </p></li><li><p>The company <em>needs</em> a CMO but can&#8217;t afford to pay the salary range for it, so instead they stuff all of the requirements into a job description that sounds an awful lot like Chief Marketing Officer. </p></li><li><p>The CEO does not think you are Chief Marketing Officer material. In which case, you&#8217;ll probably never get there at that company. This is something you should weed out in the interview process or flat out ask, &#8220;what do you think makes a good CMO?&#8221;</p></li></ol><p><strong>How you get the title&#8230;</strong></p><ol><li><p>If you&#8217;re already at a company, ask for the leveling and key competency descriptions for the CMO role. If the company doesn&#8217;t have one yet, then offer to help create one for your team and work collaboratively with the CEO and HR on it. This way you get to control your destiny a bit.</p></li><li><p>If it&#8217;s a new role you are interviewing for, ask them why the job description reflects CMO role and responsibilities and if there is a specific reason why this role is not Chief Marketing Officer and only VP Marketing? This should give you a clear indication of where the company is, the CEO&#8217;s view on marketing and what a CMO means to them. Also, ask them for a level and key competency framework so that a) it shows you are interested in and striving for the title, b) you have it in writing on what you need to do to get there.</p></li></ol><p><strong>Something no one tells you&#8230;</strong></p><ol><li><p><strong>Your LinkedIn or resume can say whatever you want it to say.</strong> Perhaps you don&#8217;t feel comfortable doing it out of the gate, but if you&#8217;ve run the entire marketing function + reported to the CEO, sat on the executive team, prepared board decks, went to board meetings, etc. then you go and update your LinkedIn profile once you&#8217;ve left. <strong>Because here&#8217;s why:</strong> It&#8217;s not your fault that they couldn&#8217;t afford a CMO or they didn&#8217;t want to upset the apple cart by introducing a CMO when the rest of GTM was at the VP level. NOT YOUR PROBLEM. Also, no one is going to <em>not</em> give you a job in the future because you changed your title on LinkedIn. IRRELEVANT. </p></li><li><p>No one is going to rescind an offer letter to you because you squabbled about the title. They want you. They want you to be happy. You&#8217;re allowed to speak your peace and negotiate for yourself. The worse they can say is &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry but this role is only for VPM.&#8221;</p></li></ol><p><strong>When to ask for a CMO title at an existing company&#8230;</strong></p><p>IMHO, you really don&#8217;t want the title unless you are able to show significant revenue growth during your tenure there. <strong>Why?</strong> Because it&#8217;s the #1 question every future CEO, Board, investors, and company you interview with has and looking for when hiring. Companies that are greater than $10M revenue are looking for someone who can take them to the next level, from $10-$50M revenue or $50 to $100M because those are specific skillsets in scaling a company. It shows you have that specific experience and you know how to get there.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://cmo2cro.substack.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading Tracy&#8217;s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>