Three Tips to Improve CMO Job Security

I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal that said the average CMO tenure among consumer brands fell to 42 months, down six months in two years. The article went on to say that CMO job security pales in comparison to others in the C-Suite. CEO tenure was 7.2 years among the S&P 500 in 2016 while CFO tenure was 5.7 years among the Fortune 500. A Harvard Business Review article says four-fifths of CEOs are dissatisfied with their firms’ chief marketing officers. That's mind blowing.

"Four-fifths of CEOs are dissatisfied with their firms’ chief marketing officers." -WSJ

I hadn’t thought much about CMO longevity, given the fact that many of the CMOs I know are responsible for substantial P&Ls and drive consistent results. Are there ups and downs? Of course. But they're not worried about losing their gig, and if they did, there'd be another opportunity waiting as they walked out the door.

The Evolutionary Revolution of Marketing

The CMO role – and marketing as a discipline – has come a long way since the early days. For some, it’s been an evolutionary journey, but for others, it’s been a strap-yourself-in, full-on revolution. Think about it; the 1950s brought us the concept of marketing segmentation, which, according to marketing educator, corporate executive, and research consultant Wendell R. Smith, is defined as “…viewing a heterogeneous market as a number of smaller homogeneous markets in response to differing preferences, attributable to the desires of consumers for more precise satisfaction of their varying wants.” That’s as valid today as it was 60 years ago.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that marketers began to develop and apply analytics to generate actionable insights about customer preferences, which helped produce more useful customer segmentation. The term "psychographics," a combination of "psychology" and "demographics," was a first introduced by market researcher Emanuel Demby in 1974.

The 1980s saw analytics become a valuable tool for marketers to track performance and about the same time, some marketers started assuming P&L responsibilities and roles that stretched across the enterprise. In the 1990s, the matrixed marketing organization took hold, and the Chief Marketing Officer title was front and center.

I don’t have to tell you about the digital explosion of the 2000s because chances are, you played a part in the transformation. Today, it’s all about big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Analytics and data-driven marketing are the norms. In fact, over 85% of marketing professionals surveyed said they were using predictive analytics and big data to improve marketing programs and drive higher marketing conversion rates.

Programmatic advertising is the new black – it’s risen to dominate the digital display market in just a few years, from accounting for only 13% of display ad spend in 2012. eMarketer estimates nearly four of every five US digital display dollars will transact programmatically in 2017, totaling $32.56 billion. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating – that’s a lot of cheddar. 

CMOs Have a Seat at the Adult Table

We’ve moved from marketers being small cogs in the machine to have a role in building the machine. CMOs now have a seat at the executive team table and typically report to the CEO. However, perhaps one of the reasons CMOs occupy one of the riskiest seats in the C-suite is a failure to get the right person with the right skills in the right role. 

“Some focus on strategy, some on commercialization, and some on both. CEOs need to understand which kind of executive their firm needs and make hires accordingly.” - HBR

The Harvard Business Review article Why CMOs Never Last rightly points out that CMO jobs are not all alike. “Some focus on strategy, some on commercialization, and some on both. CEOs need to understand which kind of executive their firm needs and make hires accordingly.” Further, in many cases, once hired, CMOs do not have the authority to do what's expected of them. Add to the mix the complexity around the people, processes, and technology required to stand up and operate a marketing ecosystem and meeting the demands of a digitally savvy consumer who moves faster than the brand, and you've got a task worthy of Hercules.

OK. I’m stressed out just thinking about it.

Three Tips to Improve CMO Job Security

It’s clear today that the CMO role is critical to the success of any relevant brand with a desire to compete and survive, let alone thrive. How can CMOs increase their chances of success while reducing the risk of being canned? Here are three tips.

THINK

My 84-year-old father-in-law regularly reminds my college-aged kids to remember an essential five letter word when they're out in the world doing their thing – THINK. We all giggle a bit whenever he says it, but it’s probably the most important thing you can do before saying “Yes” to a new CMO gig. 

Do your research on the company, its leadership (especially your prospective boss), the market, the people you’re working with, the competition, and whatever else you can think of to ensure you have as much solid, practical information as possible. One or two surprises along the way are inevitable, but major catastrophes can be avoided with a little due diligence.

Don't rush. Research is the most important part of the process. You need a solid strategy to ensure a win/win scenario for you and your prospective employer. Doing the work up front will dramatically increase your tenure. Can you hire your team? Will you have a budget for martech? What issues did the last CMO have that the CEO found undesirable or unacceptable? How does the CEO define success – what will be different for the business in 12 months if you are successful? What about the Board – how does the board define success in this role? How are decisions made – will you have the latitude to make your own choices or will it be a decision by committee, etc.?

Make sure you’ve done your homework and come to the table with some semblance of a strategic roadmap to success (and a few tactics can’t hurt, either). It doesn’t have to be fully baked, but there has to be some substance. And make sure you keep thinking once you take on the CMO role.

AUTHORITY

Like any other gig, as CMO you’ll be expected to deliver on certain MBOs. Management by objectives (MBO) is a management model developed in the 1950s by Peter Drucker with the aim of improving the performance of an organization. Old school, but it works. In MBO, the employee participates in setting goals and is then evaluated on the fulfillment of those goals. Managers focus on what employees are achieving rather than exactly how they're achieving it.

It’s easy to get excited about a juicy new gig, but don’t just say “Yes” to anything put in front of you. Participate in the development of the MBOs (your research will come in handy here) and make sure you’ll have the authority to execute. According to the Harvard Business Review article mentioned above, most CMOs aren't given enough authority to do what's expected of them. That's like having the responsibility as a quarterback to drive the ball into the end zone, but before you take the field, the coach has your hands and feet bound.

Like any other exercise in goal setting, developing MBOs should follow a proven methodology. I like the SMART approach because it can be applied across all disciplines. Developed in the 1980s (another oldie, but goodie), SMART goal setting will help you set, manage, and measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) - the MBOs - on which you'll be judged. 

PARTNER

Like John Donne, the English poet, wrote in the 17th century, “No Man is an Island.” His message was about isolationism, comparing people to countries, and arguing for the interconnectedness of all people with God. I’m taking the liberty to appropriate this beautiful poem's title for the CMO to “No CMO is an Island.”

It's essential for your (long-term) success to establish and nurture relationships with executive leadership, Board members, customers, peers, partners, consultants, martech vendors, and anyone else who can enter into a mutual value exchange. In my opinion, the most important – and valuable - relationship the CMO can build is with the CIO.

Many CMOs are waking up to the fact that IT can’t be treated like a back-office function anymore; rather, the CIO is becoming a strategic partner who is crucial to developing and executing marketing strategy. - McKinsey & Company

CIOs and CMOs aren’t famous for being on the same page. But in today’s world of data-driven marketing, the two roles have to find a way to meet in the middle and even collaborate effectively - because together, they create success.

As in all great relationships, the two individuals (departments in this case - IT and marketing) have to agree to work towards a common goal. IT and marketing should find ways to make their differences work for one another, and ultimately, for the business.

Marketing needs to come up with the big questions - and they need to be able to communicate clearly with IT about those big questions. In that way, IT can figure out how to navigate through the data to find the answers marketing seeks - and with these answers, presumably, make the company even better as a whole. Says Todd Merry, CMO of Delaware North, “Marketing is the driver of the big data car, but it doesn't go anywhere without IT.” Take it from Todd. His Linkedin profile says he’s been the CMO of the global food service and hospitality company for over five years.

It sounds simple; CMOs must ensure that their teams are communicating with IT to find data-driven marketing insights by asking specific questions. CIOs head up the boat that finds the answers for them. But according to an Accenture survey, 40% of CMOs don’t think CIOs get the sense of urgency marketing feels, and 43% of CIOs think marketing’s requests are overwhelming.

Getting the two departments to collaborate, especially on martech selection and implementation and data-driven marketing initiatives, will mean great things for your career and your business. Ultimately, you and your CIO colleague have to find a way to speak each other’s language.

Long Live the CMO

There’s no reason for any CMO to have their tenure cut short (unreasonable bosses notwithstanding). Think before you take the gig and while you’re deep in it, make sure you have the authority to execute, partner and build relationships like crazy (especially with the CIO), and you’ll be getting a 10-year pin before you know it.

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