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The CMO role is the broadest in the C-suite.
Change our minds.
That’s at least Andy Varshneya’s POV.
While a CRO is ultimately optimizing one thing (revenue), the CMO owns messaging, brand, positioning, product alignment, pipeline generation, performance management, budgeting... the list goes on.
Andy would know. In his role as VP Marketing Operations & Chief of Staff, he’s the right hand to the CMO.
He sees the role as two distinct buckets:
↳ Who are we? How do we show up, what do we say, how are we received in market
↳ How do we perform? ROI, pipeline, planning, budget i.e. the behind-the-scenes engine
The best CMOs either master both or have the self-awareness to find a partner who covers their blind spot.
Andy shares more insights about career growth in operations, how to be a strategic ops partner, and more in this episode.
Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eQDzdiJs
CMO's and the marketing orgs cover a lot broader area than most other teams do. Not to oversimplify anyone elses jobs or areas of responsibility, but you know to for example like the CRO, your job is to generate revenue and typically that means you are thinking about different accounts, regions, segments, but ultimately they're all more or less trying to achieve the same thing. Same way right? The CMO. Is covering your messaging, your brand, the positioning, product alignment, operational rhythm, pipe generation, performance report, performance management, all of that. So it inherently just kind of shifts into these two different buckets, which is like that strategy around who are we, how do we show up, what do we say, how are we received? And then the day-to-day behind the scenes of how do we achieve these targets, how are we performing? From an ROI perspective, how are we doing from pipeline, how are we doing from any kind of a strategy and planning, from budgeting all of that. So it's not that one gets the attention over the other, but it's really more about for a really strong CMO either needs to somehow be able to do all of those or have kind of the self-awareness that like either I can't do all of it or I just don't have time to do all of it and finding a partner on the other side.
The two-bucket framing is spot on. Most CMO job descriptions read like they want a brand poet who also happens to be a spreadsheet ninja. The ones who win long-term pick a lane and build a team that covers the other — trying to be both at once is how you burn out in 18 months.
The two-bucket framing is spot on. Most CMO job descriptions read like they want a brand poet who also happens to be a spreadsheet ninja. The ones who win long-term pick a lane and build a team that covers the other — trying to be both at once is how you burn out in 18 months.