Mark Evans – Advisor, Coach, NED, Trustee, and former MD for Marketing & Digital at Direct Line Group – explores the current challenges facing CMOs and how they can break free of vicious cycles.
The last few years in CMOs-ville have been peppered with opinions about whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times to be a CMO. There are many contradictory data points, so what’s really going on?
Take as evidence the contradictory findings of these 2 surveys, The first datapoint from the Harvard Business Review in 2017 (“Why CMOs never last”) shows that CEO belief in CMOs is right at the bottom of the pile. And yet the second data point from Spencer Stuart shows that CMO tenure is stable and broadly in line with the C-suite average.
The problem is that whilst marketing has this conversation about itself the rest of the world and, most importantly, the rest of the C-suite think we are all navel-gazing… and they are right. My personal perspective is that there is no better job in the world. This perception is driven in part by the fact that I held what I believe to be one of the very best CMO roles for a decade, but also because I am a pathological optimist. On the other hand, I have coached many CMOs who are genuinely struggling to make sense of their lot for various reasons.
Hence I observe a bifurcation of the CMO role. Think of vicious and virtuous circles. On one side you have CMOs who never really get to a cruising attitude, perhaps because they are not fully empowered, or because they are sucked into a short term performance vortex, or they don’t crack the stakeholder nut.
As a result they do not have the impact and influence that they should have and are left deeply frustrated, which ultimately leads to short tenure. Indeed, annoyingly, many do not make it out of the survivalist zone in the first year or two. This can be a pretty miserable space with a huge discrepancy between the hope and expectation at the point of entry, versus the inability to influence enough of the levers to make a genuine impact upon the future success of the business.
On the other side you have the virtuous cycle. This is the CMO that builds a strong network of support with their C-suite peers and the Board, that builds the belief across the organisation that Marketing is an investment and not a cost. They have expanding scope and responsibilities with ever greater influence over short, medium and long term direction, are ever present in ExCo, Board and key strategy development cycles, and can create a space – aka parting the proverbial Red Seas – for their team to thrive.
So my simple answer to the question about the potency and vitality of the CMO role is simple – it depends!. Obviously!…
But to turn a deeply unhelpful and flippant answer into something useful I have collated a few top tips of what I think really matters to create a virtuous circle for CMOs. On the basis that there is no such thing as a completely new idea in the world, many of these will likely be familiar, perhaps with a slightly different twist. And in reality several are not necessarily CMO specific. I give no promises or guarantees of success, but maybe at the margin these will help someone somewhere to realise the CMO promised land.
1. Look after yourself
All too often when the pressure is on people forget to look after number one. It’s a cliche to put on your own oxygen mask first, but the thing about cliches is that they are usually accurate. How can you look after everything and everyone else from a position of being frazzled, particularly in the first year when the pressure is really on to prove yourself. It’s a big challenge and I have seen more and more CMOs invest in a coach to support them as they battle through. I massively benefited from several coaches during my career to help through the choppiest of times and to unearth the biggest “aha”s.
2. Be best friends with the CFO
Having the CFO at Direct Line be a public advocate for marketing as an investment rather than a cost was one of my proudest moments. It comes on the back of consistently showing compelling evidence towards this, building trust a little at a time. Many CMOs are at the front of the cuts queue but it is more than possible to navigate to the back of the queue by investing in the relationship with the CFO and really paying attention to what needs to be true for them to shift to a more supportive position. I love Rachel Botsman’s definition of trust as “a comfortable relationship with the unknown” which means that the CFO needs to know how you are thinking and doing when they can’t see what you are thinking and doing. This is more than possible over time by showing consistently that you approach everything in a reliable and commercial way.
3. Get hands on with new technology
Curiosity is the bedrock for any half decent marketer and there has never been a greater need for open-mindedness and a growth mindset. In that context data and personalisation is a key battleground and this is something that CMOs should heavily lean into to explore, test and learn. Similarly GenAI has broad implications for the Marketing function. In my mind this continual discovery is not something to be overly delegated, not least in order to have a coherent conversation with the CIO around investment decisions. There are many vendors out there gagging to keep you abreast of the latest and greatest so make the most of that to avoid being an old-school marketer.
4. Use your distance as a superpower
It’s not always easy to know what distance to give your team. Get too close and you disempower them and get stuck in the weeds. Conversely over-delegating means that you lose connection and aren’t as useful to them when it’s really needed. There’s a nice way to re-frame this in terms of using your distance as a superpower. Namely to be explicit that you want to be involved at the beginning, middle and end of key activities but it’s up to others to bring you in when they need some support rather than at a fixed cadence. And your offer is to bring fresh eyes since you have had some time and distance whereby you can bring perspective, parallels, new insights and refreshed ambition.
5. Develop side hustles
Sometimes having side hustles outside of your core responsibilities is seen as indulgent. I vehemently believe that they are a necessity. At the very least they give you a positive distraction from the daily grind, but at best they make you better in your main job through greater perspective and more diverse reference points, as well as making you feel even more on-purpose in general. In 2016 I created the Sprintathon charity event which has now raised nearly £1m for Stand Up To Cancer and I genuinely believe that it helped me to become a better leader in many ways. They say that a change is as good as a rest and in that context side hustles can have a dramatic refreshing and re-energising impact.
6. Say ‘thank you’… a lot!
As a leader you are always on stage. It’s inevitable and inexorable that everything you do will be amplified and exaggerated in the way that it ripples through the organisation. If you believe that at the heart of any good culture everyone is treated with respect and dignity then the best way to propel and propagate that is to always say ‘thank you’ for anything that anyone does for you – no matter how small. Being generous in appreciation is a great thing to have a reputation for and will engender people going that extra mile for you.
7. Invest in Capability
Last but definitely not least, they say that the potential for impact of any leader is determined by the capability of their team. But this takes time to manifest and so it should be an early priority to set out the standards and expectations across the key skills that matter to drive the customer and marketing agenda.
People need real clarity about what skills to focus on and what basic, good and expert looks like so that they know what to aspire to. In the early days of my career Mars had a very clear skills development matrix which provided a sat nav to what being a great marketer looked like. I’ve tried to replicate this everywhere I’ve been since.
I’m also a massive advocate for personal development plans. You really shouldn’t expect anyone to give a monkeys about your development. You might be lucky to have a boss who is brilliant in terms of developing others but don’t abdicate responsibility since only you can own your own future development. Amazing things are possible in career journeys but typically they are written down in a clear and compelling development plan that maximises the chances for planned serendipity.
