I’ve read that the average life expectancy (that is, job tenure) of a CMO is two years. Why is this so?
Some say it’s the inability of marketing to deliver. Some say it’s its inability to measure. Others attribute the gloomy statistics to a dramatically changing marketing landscape in which many find it difficult to keep up.
I suspect a mix of all of the above — plus something else: colleagues in other departments who bind our hands with unreasonable expectations, unfair limitations and irrational impositions.
Yes, the cowman and farmer should be friends. But damn, why is it so hard for IT, HR, finance and sales to get along with marketing?
I don’t have the answer. But I do suggest that when our colleagues suck the life out of our marketing efforts, we learn to bite back. Here’s what I mean:
CMO’s don’t last for two reasons, in my view:
1. We lack a “no-brainer metric.” Sales, regardless of competency, can point to revenue. “Hey, I’m making my numbers, don’t look at us.” Marketing? Who cares about boneless things like ‘awareness’ or even teh much vaunted ‘loyalty’ unless it turns into money. Directly. Visibly. And now.
2. Most CEO’s, to whom CMO’s report, are financial guys due to the wonderful and increasingly ineffective world of SOX. They don’t understand what marketing is or does and are constantly bullied by the easier to comprehend silos of engineering, finance and sales.
Marketing is stuck. The best way to deal with this is to grab something they can own (I argued for “Sell-Through” as the ultimate barometer of health for marketing back at Note to CMO some many months ago) and quickly become content creators and not just manipulators.
If we can’t do these two things, don’t unpack too much.