A latest publish at LinkedIn described a state of affairs that happens way more that it ought to. The publish writer wrote that he had been contacted by a CEO who was planning to exchange his CMO as a result of “advertising and marketing is not working.” The CEO requested if the publish writer might suggest somebody for the job.
By asking a number of questions, the publish writer recognized a number of circumstances that have been contributing to the CMO’s perceived underperformance. Whereas all these circumstances have been essential, one was significantly vital. The publish writer wrote:
“She [the current CMO] had made good finances calls six months in the past, killed low-performing channels, and shifted spend. However pipeline from these choices will not land for 2 extra quarters. And he or she’s being judged on the lagging output of a method she already changed.”
After his dialog with the publish writer, the CEO determined to handle the problematic circumstances and persist with the present CMO, however this is not the everyday end result. Extra usually, CEOs determine to “repair” their “advertising and marketing” downside by changing their senior advertising and marketing chief, which normally leaves the actual issues unresolved.
A Revolving Door of Senior Advertising Leaders
The brief tenure of chief advertising and marketing officers has been nicely documented. In keeping with the most up-to-date analysis by Spencer Stuart, the common tenure of CMOs at S&P 500 firms in 2025 was 4.1 years, down from 4.3 years in 2024. CMO tenure is even shorter if we embrace a wider vary of firms.
Advertising lecturers have attributed the excessive degree of churn amongst senior advertising and marketing leaders to a wide range of components, however many of the “involuntary” churn in the end outcomes from mismatched expectations.
When the CEO and the senior advertising and marketing chief have mismatched expectations relating to the function or efficiency of selling, the chances of creating a protracted, mutually-satisfactory relationship usually are not good.
Dealing With Mismatched Expectations
The story recounted at first of this publish illustrates what can occur when a CEO and a senior advertising and marketing chief have totally different expectations relating to when advertising and marketing packages will produce desired outcomes.
Making these mismatched expectations seen earlier than accepting a advertising and marketing management place with a brand new firm will help a marketer keep away from starting a relationship that has little likelihood of long-term success.
So, if you happen to’re a candidate for a senior advertising and marketing management function, there are 4 questions it’s essential reply earlier than you settle for a job provide.
- What are an important outcomes your potential CEO expects to see from advertising and marketing inside the first 12 months that you simply’re within the job?
- When does your potential CEO anticipate to start seeing these outcomes?
- Are your potential CEO’s expectations for starting to see these outcomes lifelike given the financial and aggressive circumstances out there(s) the corporate serves and the assets (finances, folks, expertise, and many others.) you should have obtainable to conduct advertising and marketing packages?
- In the event you decide that these expectations aren’t lifelike, are you able to persuade your potential CEO to change his or her expectations to make them extra lifelike?
The solutions to a few of these questions may be obtained in the course of the interview course of, whereas others would require you to carry out some analysis. The quantity of analysis wanted will not all the time be trivial, however neither is it out-of-line with the significance of the profession determination you make.
In the event you’re a candidate for a senior advertising and marketing management function, you most likely have a number of years of selling expertise. Subsequently, you must have the ability to use your expertise, mixed with a average quantity of analysis, to give you an inexpensive approximation of how lengthy it should take sound advertising and marketing packages to ship numerous sorts of outcomes.
For instance, suppose that your potential CEO says that pipeline contribution is the advertising and marketing consequence he deems most essential and that he would anticipate will increase in pipeline contribution to start inside 3 or 4 months after you begin work.
In the event you’re assured that you may ship will increase in pipeline contribution inside 4 or 5 months, this may not be an enormous mismatch of expectations. Then again, if you happen to decide that it’ll take 6 to eight months in your advertising and marketing packages to start having a significant impression on the pipeline, this may be a major mismatch of expectations that ought to be addressed in the course of the interview course of.
There are a number of different points the place mismatched expectations can undermine the connection between a CEO and a senior advertising and marketing chief. I will cowl a few of these points in a future publish.
Prime picture courtesy of Heather Paul through Flickr (CC).
