Trust.

Quick one this week off the back of another great post by @jonmiller. Apologies in advance. This is a bit of a rant.

The AI summary of Jon's post is that there is a CEO-CMO disconnect that stems from the fact that 1) CMOs have unachievable expectations trust upon them and 2) CEOs can't decipher the what is actually happening in marketing as it is shrouded in metrics techo-babble and what appear to be excuses.

Jon's point is they are both correct. Very true. No disagreement whatsoever here.

However - I feel like we have been having this conversation for 10 years or more. I also feel like it's really not that hard.

When a CEO upgrades their Apple Watch from Series 8 to Ultra 3, they don’t do it because they clicked on an ad, responded to an email or attended a webinar.

They do it because the Apple's collective marketing efforts across many channels and an extended period of time have combined to influence them. It’s a subtle Jedi mind-trick that cannot be easily & reliably unbundled into constituent parts.

Modern B2B buying is no different. That's it. Full stop.

It's very easy to understand. We all live this experience everyday.

Now, that doesn't mean Apple doesn't measure the effectiveness of marketing. Of course it does. And here is where the leap of faith comes in.

From a CEOs perspective, B2B marketing effectiveness is now about how many $s of pipe & closed won bookings we get for every dollar of marketing program spend. If that is trending in the right direction, C-level should 'trust' that marketing is doing a good job. If it's not trending in the right direction, then they are not be doing a good job (all other things - headcount, product market fit, sales execution, competitors, macroeconomics etc.- being equal)

CEOs (and CFOs) shouldn't concern themselves with which channel or ad-set or message had the biggest impact.

Same goes for CAC . If it's trending in the right direction, the GTM machine as a whole is doing a good job. Same goes for COGS. Basically, stick to higher order metrics and let you teams work out the detail

The key word is 'Trust'.

From a CEO perspective this may seem naïve… They have to know the detail. A lot rests of their shoulders.  I get that.

But the as-is CEO/CFO-CMO dynamic isn't working. CMO tenure is falling. B2B marketing is trapped in groundhog day. So repeating the same behavior and excepting a different outcome…

Doesn’t seem logical to me.

If any of this strikes a chord, visit www.theohildyard.com or email me at info@theohildyard.com to get in touch.