Future of the CMO’s Role in B2B and Manufacturing

You’ll want to read this article if you’re a Chief Marketing Officer in b2b and face any of the following challenges:

• Insufficient marketing resources with budget or team
• You feel constant pressure from management to present proven results
• Difficulty in effectively executing your marketing plan 
• Difficulty in prioritizing and organizing the marketing tasks and responsibilities

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Today’s Challenges of the CMO in b2b

In recent years I’ve met and spoken to hundreds of marketing executives at B2B companies. When I ask them to describe their challenges as marketers, the common denominator is a very strong and genuine desire to succeed in the role met by frustration with management who’s not on board with their initiatives for implementing new processes.

The explanations I get are usually along the lines of management’s lack of understanding of the CMO’s role or the lack of cooperation and desire to invest in the resources needed for the CMO to succeed.

What’s in a Title?

These challenges of the marketer have been covered in-depth many many times before. But this only proves that the role of the marketing manager is the most challenging role at the management levels and the most difficult to maintain over time. Research shows that the marketing manager’s position lasts for approx. 42 months, which is in comparison, half the time other managing roles.

Furthermore, there are companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Uber and Hyatt Hotels that have decided to completely eliminate the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and convert it to more general role definitions such as company Growth Manager or Customer Success Manager.

Is the Role of CMO Facing Extinction Or Rebirth?

Let’s first try to understand the reason for friction between the marketing manager and upper management mentioned above.

It begins with the digital revolution that has transformed the marketing world. If once companies had few means of reaching the customer and only companies with enormous budgets could advertise and stand out, today every company can reach its entire potential clientele, sometimes, at the cost of cents. 

This new reality created possibilities for the rapid growth of unprecedented proportions which we’ve seen from the mega brands of today from the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Airbnb, Uber and more who’ve gone from small startups into giant corporations at meteoric speed. This new reality changed the business world completely, and marketing as well.

A Source of Friction with Upper Management 

On the one hand, it’s easier to reach your audience accurately and cheaply. But on the other, it’s much more difficult to stand out and get your audiences’ attention. This sets the ground for friction when companies struggle to grow today despite all the many media and advertising opportunities.

What then, differentiates between companies with amazing growth and those who stay stagnant? And how does this relate to the marketing strategy? 

The answer, in my opinion, lies in a very common tendency of senior management, as well as marketing managers, to seek quick solutions. When it comes to using social media or advertising with Google whatever it might be – a “results now” mindset creates a difficulty when building a solid strategic plan.

The CMO of the Future

The CMO of the future will understand that no matter how easy and fast digital marketing can help the company grow, it will ultimately fail if the tactics used don’t have a long term strategy behind it.

The CMO of the future will also know that in order to further accelerate growth, a system needs to be in place for the strategy to be executed efficiently.

At StepUp our mission is to help you, the CMO of today become the CMO of the future by building the right strategy and implementing systems for accelerating your company’s growth.

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