How To Own Your Success As A CMO
This is my latest newsletter for my Marketing & Growth newsletter Marketing Unfiltered - it has how to be successful as a CMO whether it is the actions to take as a brand new CMO or how to reset your current situation and follow my template provided at the bottom. (If you like to listen to an audio version click the embedded SoundCloud link)
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This is Chris
Chris has just accepted the CMO role at a well-known online brand.
Chris has been the most senior Marketer for a long time, however, Chris never had a C-Suite title and had limited experience in the complicated battleground of leadership teams.
Chris is excited about the role and wants to dive in
BUT
Chris doesn’t know the leadership backstory
Chris doesn’t understand the leadership dynamics, how or who makes the decisions, or what the last person in the seat did or didn’t do.
Chris didn’t speak to the last person in the role, there won’t be any cross over and they didn’t receive any interaction with them…
Chris has a 3-month notice period but it has been suggested they might be able to negotiate their leaving date.
What Should Chris Do For The Next 30-90 Days Before Starting?
There doesn’t seem to be a dedicated onboarding plan for Chris
HR has been quite hands-off and very transactional - leaving to the leadership team and headhunter to handle the process and dealing with Chris when they start
There has been a lot of change in the business and although Chris pushed a little more, the real story it was sort of dismissed.
Chris asks their long-term mentor what they should do next…
Let’s face it - Chris isn’t alone in the situation they find themselves in, however, Chris is the only one who should control and tackle this head-on.
So What Could Chris Do?
Get Everything Out Of Your Head
List out all of their concerns
List out questions
Prioritise concerns and questions and who should address them
Decide when you would like to address these questions, does it need to be before your official start date, before the official start date but on ramping up to the role, during onboarding or throughout the first month
Draft out a personal onboarding plan - think of the who, the when, the what, the how, and the why (decisions, information flow, performance, opportunities, known weaknesses, where there are holes, what is in plan and out of plan etc)
Research More
Research the tenure of your fellow C-Suiters and their journeys outside and then inside the company. Many senior leaders could be there for a short period of time or all could be there for a long time - which means the dynamics and trust will be very different especially if as a leadership team they have operated together for a long time
Research their department’s org design and work through how they built their team (could it be a traditional org, a company full of specialists or just how the company landed)
Understand and dedicate time to the big problem to solve
Understand what good and great looks like for this company - you will want a high bar and allow your team to produce good and great work (this can be through research of campaign work, reviewing ads or requesting an overview of the last few months of work)
Get To Know The People
Set meetings with their Marketing Management Team (or the Director or Head of a smaller department)
Get to know their new Department and core individuals (ask for internal influencers, high performers, high potentials, and people who haven’t yet met their potential)
Book in a dedicated onboarding meeting (or series of meetings) with HR - go deep (or as deeply) as you can with historical issues, performance problems and the level of involvement they have in leadership
Book in a series of meetings with leadership team members (especially with your new boss likely the CEO and CFO - build these relationships and the connection between the typical decision makers of the business)
Future proof the relationship with the CPO and/or Sales/Revenue Leader and their directs depending on how the business is run - find out and adapt to whether is it a Product led business or a Sales led business
Get To Know The Business
Request your department plan and their goals (KRs/OKRs)
Request the annual plan and annual goals
Request board meeting minutes / if earlier stage request investor meetings
Request team(s) reports
Request to attend a Marketing meeting
Request recent QBRs
Request seasonality breakdown
Understand how the company owners or investors are hands-on or hands-off and what feet they operate at, is it 0ft (aka on the ground) or is it 10000ft and only becomes an issue if performance drops through the floor
Request to be taken through the last quarter's performance and how the company changed pace
Request access to the Product and tech roadmap(s)
Get To Understand The Other Side
Here is a controversial item - Chris can and should decide if reaching out to the former CMO is a good idea for them - there will be their story, the company line and the inner workings of the C-Suite. They might decline but often you will understand how the environment, culture and leadership approach is from an insider - remember their experiences will be theirs and yours will differ but understanding Marketing or Growth roles will be critical
Request meetings with any consultants, freelancers and agencies to understand what they see their role as
Impact! It’s Always Down To Impact
Chris has a huge opportunity to learn about the business, connect with their future team and learn how decisions are made before they join a business.
Most feedback I hear from coaching founders, CEOs and leadership teams is that CMOs don’t understand and get under the hood of the business quickly enough to have a positive impact in and outside of the boardroom. Often it takes too long to get up to speed to have an impact in their first six months.
Chris is responsible for their own future otherwise it will be quickly out of their hands and then they won’t be able to make their mark on the business.
Unfortunately, often CMOs learn the hard way from bad onboarding and poor preparation and are often relieved of duties before their C-Suite colleagues would be…
Apply To Your Situation
It is important to remember most of this will apply and can re-apply if you have been promoted to the leadership team or if you are struggling with your colleagues, you can use these as a checklist to run through and reassess.
About To Start A New CMO Role? Here’s a 365 Template You Can Tweak
Here’s my 365 CMO onboarding outline that could help you in a new role, if you have been promoted to the C-Suite as a CMO or CGO or a way to align with your leadership team if you are struggling to connect and apply your leadership style - you can use this an audit template to kickstart your Marketing Leadership. If you prefer this as a Google Doc happily download it here.
Day -30
Team Onboarding (meet and greet)
Exec Onboarding (drinks/food)
HR Onboarding
Day 0 - 2
Short Listening Tour
Organise 1-2-1s
HR check-in
Organise team lead check-ins
Find out how decisions are really made
Week 1
Budget review and forecasting
Company strategy review & review associated goals
“The big problem to solve” workstream
Internal Relationship Building
C-Suite relationship building
Understand Company culture & sub cultures
Arrange CEO 1-2-1's (Or who you report to & organise skip with CEO)
Organise 1-2-1s and skip levels
Kickstart CFO relationship
Learn internal systems
Reporting and dashboard review
Review existing results & comparison (1-3 years)
Week 2-4
Kick-off Full Audit (Concentrating on)
Channel Deep-dive
Budget and spending
Analytics Review
HVE (High-Value Employee) identification
Goals / OKRs review & development
Find out what the company / department / teams are hiding
Find out what has worked, what has not worked, and what could work via the recent ideation sessions
Product Deep-dive & CPO relationship-building
Identify internal influencers (cross-functional team members)
Connect with board/investors
Userbase/Audience analysis
Infrastructure & martech review
CS ticket analysis and review
Reforecast (if required)
Build out the Growth plan
Sales (Or Partnerships) relationship building
Week(s) 4-12
Start with new org design
Hiring & Firing Plan
Content expansion plan
Product Roadmap Review
External Relationship Building (PR)
Channel Optimisation (think short-term quick wins and mid-term reshapes)
Existing Markets Review & Development
Pricing Analysis
Markets review
Local
National
International
First 90-100 day review - show the results made and expected upcoming results
Audit findings and action plan
Show how you are getting closer to resolving the big problem you are solving
Week(s) 13-26
Kickstart new Department plan of action (aka Marketing Strategy)
Agency(s) review
Leadership team meeting optimisation (leadership meetings can always be improved and should be driven to be changed)
Week(s) 26-52
Annual Planning - department and company
Department reshaping (hiring and firing)
New agency pitch cycle &/ bring in-house
I am confident this can act as a template for your next role or it can be applied in your current role if you need a reset and take back some control.
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