The Nine Traits of
Highly Effective CMOs
Blame
it on the pace of change: A new
study cited by the Wall Street Journal shows the average tenure of a chief marketing
officer of a major brand is only 42 months — shorter than the typical
life span of a goldfish. In fact, the field is
changing so rapidly that many simply find it tough to keep up.
Why is
the turnover rate for chief marketing officers so many times higher than that
of most other C-suite jobs, including
the CEO? Customer expectations are evolving at a
rapid clip and entire industry segments are cropping up — or dying off —
overnight. Marketing, sales, data, digital, and technology now move quickly on
paths that are intertwined and often erratic. A CMO must stay in the vanguard
of this evolution and steer her or his company in whatever direction the
industry is headed next.
Given these new challenges, what qualities
enable CMOs to perform well over time and maintain their hard-won spot in the
C-suite? Having spent my career working with marketing leaders, I’ve come up
with the following nine traits.
1. An
understanding of the power of perspective. The
field of marketing can feel like a Baskin-Robbins these days — there are so
many flavors of skill sets. The best CMOs are connectors who know they are
dependent on — and share responsibility with — the whole of an organization. A
successful digital marketing strategy requires input from colleagues as diverse
as the chief information officer, the chief financial officer, and the chief
security officer. CMOs must be multilingual — able to speak the language of
multiple disciplines. And they must understand how to bring together experts
from various backgrounds to orchestrate harmonic collaborations.
2. A
passion for the work.
CMOs
must be passionate about the industry in which the business operates and know
how to evangelize a marketing strategy that differentiates their company from
key competitors. Passion isn’t simply about motivating a group of colleagues at
an annual meeting. Rather, a leader’s energy fuels the team’s energy. The CMO
must continually demonstrate a zeal for the work in order to inspire the same
level of commitment from the team. Passion has a tremendous influence on the
quality and creativity of the marketing.
3. A
willingness to get in the trenches.
Respect
has to be earned in every discipline with the business world, including
marketing. A CMO can’t just offer perspective. He or she needs to get in the
trenches to work in strategy construction, testing new technologies and working
to design user experiences that will increase marketing reach. This is the only
way a CMO can develop a cross-channel strategy and sell a vision aimed at
meeting business goals. By demonstrating confidence in their own skills and
showing a willingness to do the hard work, CMOs will attract teams willing to
do the same.
4. A
discerning eye.
Data
increasingly rules our world. But instinct still matters. Marketing is part
skill, part intuition, and has to be informed by good taste. A successful CMO
must instinctively understand what is impactful, what is trending, and what the
customer wants. In our recent global Digital
IQ survey, we found that attention to the human
experience was a strong indicator of superior business performance. The head of
marketing should therefore consider experience as a primary responsibility.
5. The
capacity to evolve.
Embracing
the concept or the tactics of innovation is not enough. CMOs must constantly
embrace risk and cultivate new ideas. It wasn’t too long ago that good
marketing meant putting an ad in the phone book. The field of marketing changes
every day, and CMOs must be able not just to keep up, but to set the course for
their business. We’ve reached an age where the combination of data analytics,
artificial intelligence, and ubiquitous connectivity mean relevant, contextual
marketing is more possible than ever before. Embrace this innovation, or face
extinction.
6. A
love for analytics.
Marketers
today have access to unprecedented amounts of data and now devote a sizable
portion of their budgets to analytics tools. Successful CMOs don’t need to be
data scientists, but they do need to know how to foster a data-driven culture
that relies on analysis to develop, execute, and evaluate strategy. Marketing
can be a balance between art and science, and CMOs must understand how to
utilize data to provide insightful direction and attribute marketing
investments to business success.
7. The
ability to build a team.
CMOs
are not lone rangers. As the leader of a team that in most cases is quite
large, they must have — or develop — the ability to bring out the best in
people and nurture their success. CMOs must also know how to spot talent, and
how to recruit and retain new stars who are similarly multilingual and
multidisciplinary. Equally important is the ability to build a culture of
collaboration, not hierarchy, where all people feel they are heard and
empowered to be change agents.
8. The
ability to create an environment for exploration.
I
recently wrote about the ways that
sandboxes can spur creativity. The
sandbox approach involves giving people the time and space to come together in
a physical location where issues can be examined within the proper framework
and new ideas can be encouraged. Good CMOs know how to apply the principles of
this technique to their daily work in order to achieve new and different
marketing activities. By doing so, they make it possible to look at a problem
through new angles and land on solutions that may not otherwise be apparent.
9. A
willingness to act as a customer advocate-in-chief.
A
marketer’s job is not to sell products or services. Instead, the CMO puts
the company’s
biggest asset — the experience — to work. Just as the
CFO watches the bottom line and the CSO protects the company’s assets, the
CMO’s role is to protect and improve the experience of the customer. This
requires a future-forward viewpoint, an understanding of the fundamentals of
design thinking, and a willingness to be fearless in representing the voice of
the customer in the C-suite.
Given
the lightning-quick pace of change in the marketing world, the traits needed to
succeed are continually evolving. Some long-cherished capabilities may wane in
importance, while others may rise quickly from obscurity. I’d be curious to
learn what readers think are the next traits an effective CMO
must demonstrate.
David Clarke
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/The-Nine-Traits-of-Highly-Effective-CMOs?gko=c45b2&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20170606&utm_campaign=resp
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