We Need to Talk About CMOs
These days, even the merest hint of the phrase “chief marketing officer” is enough to make any recruitment team mutter angrily into their coffee. And who can blame them? The average CMO’s stint now lasts just four years. In fact, many don’t even see out the first without either quitting or getting the proverbial boot.
Obviously, this is bad. New CMOs bring new ideas and direction, and constantly replacing them results in wasted time and resources, not to mention confusion for both employees and customers as to what exactly your business is trying to accomplish.
But why the high turnover? What is it about the CMO recruitment and the role that’s causing companies across the business spectrum to burn through them? Let’s break it down.
One man’s CMO is another man’s CGO
As in many walks of life, nobody knows what they want when it comes to CMOs. It’s a poorly defined role, which causes great confusion amongst employers and employees alike. For example, are you looking for someone to coordinate marketing strategies, handle advertising and manage social media? Or maybe you need an executive who can innovate growth strategies, oversee distribution and influence product design, more akin to a chief growth officer than the traditional CMO?
The scope and responsibilities of the CMO differ from company to company. The first thing a CEO needs to consider is what the role means in their particular firm. Your candidate could be a seasoned expert in running ad campaigns and marketing strategies, but if you have them working P&L or customer insight analytics it is more likely they will be out of their depth.
Equally, if your new CMO is a maverick with all sorts of innovative ideas on pricing, service overhaul and product development, they’re going to get very bored very fast if you assign them solely to social media. If you want to appoint a successful long-term CMO, you need to figure out what your business requires from the position and make those requirements crystal clear to prospective agencies and candidates.
Relationships, relationships, relationships
A CMO deals with every department in the company, making it one of the most important c-suite positions. They’ll need to forge strong relationships from the top down, starting with the chief executive officer. A huge factor in the high CMO turnover rate is frequent clashes with CEOs. As previously stated, these often occur due to conflicting expectations of the job on both sides.
It’s not just the CEO, of course. For instance, if the company also employs a chief growth officer for the new CMO to work with, it’s vital to ensure that they can operate together without stepping on each other’s toes. Similarly, with so much of today’s marketing occurring online, the CMO must be able to form an effective partnership with the firm’s chief information officer.
Give your new CEO the chance to succeed
It’s a tricky situation. The sad truth is that thanks to the possibility of inadequate job design and undefined expectations, the CMO will always be the one who ends up leaving if inter-executive issues aren’t resolved. At tml Partners, we avoid such problems with cutting-edge recruitment tailored to your company’s exact specifications. Just tell us what you need from your new CMO, and we’ll find your solution. Contact us now to find out more.
