CMO’s disappoint CEO’s – as marketing changes the pressure is on

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frustrated CEO

After reading the news of three CMO’s being released last week I began to dig around for some research to give more context to the challenges faced by today’s CMO.  This topic caught my attention when I read some global research by Accenture last year – and became the subject of a popular video blog we published on what CMO’s said was their greatest challenge: “the transformation to digital”.

 

The research I found was from the Fournaise Marketing Group.  FMG regularly surveys more than 1,200 CEO’s, CMO’s and marketing decision makers across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.  They also measure and improve the effectiveness of ads and marketing tactics across B2C and B2B markets.

 

The research findings are disturbing, for it highlights the rampant disappointment that CEO’s have for their CMO’s and the marketing functions they lead.

* 80% of CEO’s believe their marketing groups lose sight of the short/medium/long term financial realities of the business.

* 71% of CEO’s believe their marketing groups are too distracted by technology, its jargon and soft parameters like tweets, likes, and followers — versus harder metrics that translate to revenue.

*75% of CEO’s think their marketers misunderstand and mis-use Return on Investment (ROI).  They can’t understand why CMO’s still report on metrics too far removed from the P&L and stay in a “marketing la-la-land”.

 

Clearly, simply throwing more money at technology isn’t the answer.  There needs to be a solid marketing approach – backed up by hard data & translated to behavior that are tested to deliver revenue.  Interestingly, the recently published book “Rise of the Revenue Marketer” outlines a step by step approach for this for B2B companies.  Our client, Xylem Inc., is featured and quoted throughout the book.  It speaks to the dramatic changes afoot for CMO’s today.

Considering revenue, enabling your channel partners through your marketing approach in a systematic way can help you connect the dots to revenue, as they are often the last step in the delivery and revenue chain.  CEO’s want revenue metrics.  Enabling your channel can deliver them.

 

 

 

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