Thanks so much Adam,

Can you provide a link to the study? Also, would be happy to post an article covering it if you want to write one up?

I’ve written a ton about how retention increases are by far the best way for marketing to improve sales. We spend so much time thinking about acquisition. And forget about the “Lost art” of keeping customers:

http://wordpress-153115-439849.cloudwaysapps.com/strategy/customer-retention-lost-art-science-marketing/

Thanks Aaron, see my comment to Chad who also makes this point. I think I addressed your suggestion there. I also think there are some exceptions. For example, while SAP mostly sells enterprise software that requires sales people to nurture and close, they also sell cloud-based solutions delivered directly over the cloud. One-click to buy. “Low-touch / No-touch,” as they call it. In this case, it is 100% marketing’s job to deliver revenue.

Also, the point of this article is about the research defining the expectation from CEOs and the gap between what they want and the percentage of CMOs who are discussing those expectations with their boss. This has to change, whether that conversation leads to an actual objective for marketing to deliver revenue is another story. But 100% of CMOs should be talking to the CEO about the role of marketing today!

I agree Chad, As a Marketing Leader in each company I worked for, my first job was to befriend the head of sales and ask them what they needed. My second job was to befriend the head of customer service and ask them what they needed. And the third job was to befriend the CFO to ask them what they needed. Then together we presented plans to executives on how to drive revenue and how marketing activities would support that business expectation.

I didn’t say this was easy. I’m only saying that CMOs who just take the easy route and buy ads are wasting their company’s money. CMOs who don’t have business conversations about business outcomes with the CEO (only 16% are) are going to be stuck in the uncomfortable position of explaining why marketing isn;t delivering business value to the majority of CEOs who are demanding revenue generation.

This survey is about the gap between what CEOs expect (revenue) and what CMOs are doing (ads). It’s not impossible to fix but it takes courageous leadership, a focus on modern marketing skills, some simple business acumen, and an ability to work across the organization (as you alluded to).

Hi Ed, I don’t believe the survey that inspired this article is suggesting CEOs think CMOs should be responsible for revenue growth organization-wide.

But that MARKETING ACTIVITIES need to tie to revenue growth. I agree that revenue growth is the CEOs job. Marketing needs to have a conversation with these CEOs about business objectives (like revenue) and then turn those conversations into revenue-generating marketing plans. As the research suggested, only 16% of CMOs are having that conversation!

Instead, what most are doing is taking an order from the CEO to buy ads (because there is a nice fat budget behind that request). It’s no wonder why we are in this situation. But like I said, it’s a catch-22. CEOs are expecting revenue generation from marketing but asking for things from marketing that don’t produce revenue.

It’s a leadership gap we need to fill. It’s a business discussion CMOs need to have that sounds something like “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” I always used to flip that conversation and tell sales people and executives who wanted revenue-producing marketing that “you can certainly ask for a cake, but then you can’t tell me how to bake it!”

The CMO can’t simply assume or be assigned responsibility – they won’t have authority.

The shift needs to be one explicitly promulgated and supported by the CEO and board. It is a major cultural shift as well as one which will be traumatic to the org chart, career aspirations, budgets, etc. Revenue growth is the CEO’s job as I wrote on the M&A forum. https://www.axial.net/forum/revenue-growth-ceo/

Yet it is critical important to companies’ viability.

This is certainly ideal and in a perfect world is great. The problem w/ CMOs being beholdened to revenue in the B2B space is that they generally don’t control inside or outside sales. A CMOs marketing program could be crushing it, but if conversion rates in inside or outside sales are less than 10% than the marketing program is being wasted.

CMOs in this position shouldn’t be beholdened to revenue. Sales should be. Most marketers I talk to have “helium head.” They think the solution to increasing revenue is up-funnel marketing activity. If the bottom of the funnel is a leaky bottleneck, no amount of up-funnel activity will fix the sales problem. Trying to do so is a waste of resources.