Times Like These

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, a CMO, trusted advisor, strategy consultant, and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. In this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of what’s caught my eye, topics from our podcast, and our street knowledge blog.

Hello there!

Jeff Clark, my regular podcast collaborator, marketing strategist, and former Forrester Research Director, hit me with a doozy of a topic on the podcast this week, as he’d been flicking through LinkedIn: 5 reasons why CMOs get fired.

If you listen to the podcast, you may have noticed that my guests suggest the topic, and sometimes, I drive. Jeff was in the driving seat this week, and as an experienced CMO, I almost wanted to do this one hiding behind the sofa, but Jeff was on a roll.

Jeff pulled some data from Gartner, shared in a LinkedIn post by one of their VPs and CMO analyst, Chris Ross, that listed seven scenarios from a survey of senior executives that would most likely result in removing your CMO from their role. Our editorial policy, which I drive, says that we cover five f’in’ things, so Jeff listed his top five.

So we discussed failing to deliver promised results, not adapting to significant changes in the business or marketplace, not earning the respect of the leadership team, not communicating a strategic function for marketing, or how marketing metrics relate to business priorities.

Each time we discussed these points, it seemed to boil down to one thing: communication - joint goals and objectives at the outset, the plan, the execution, and the business impact of the results, and not just to be the most senior person that does marketing in the room, but a strategic role in the business.

We also discussed how marketing is so often the canary in the coal mine. As you probably know, miners used canaries in the 19th century to test air quality, detecting the unseen danger of gasses that were often colorless and odorless.

It often seems that this is the lot of marketing, especially for the men and women who sit in the big chair; as soon as the business air gets toxic, they fall off the perch.

And by “fall off”, you know what I mean. Budgets get cut, marketing investment (yes, investment, not cost) is stifled, and bad things happen. And why now? Well…. Whether this is Q4 or Q3 for you, it’s budget planning time.

And on this one, we got a response on LinkedIn with FOURTEEN reasons why it ain’t the CMO's fault, from lying CEOs to product problems and general expectation misalignment.

There is an offer to do a podcast episode on this, but listing these could sound like whining; it’s bad enough that Jeff took us here, but maybe there is a positive spin, some lessons to be learned, and pitfalls to look out for.

It’s about getting off the hamster wheel and taking a deeper look at what is really happening in the company, its financial fundamentals, place in the market, and all that stuff, as it really shouldn’t come as a surprise if the air gets toxic, you feel a bit woozy and maybe the grip on that perch ain’t so steady.

This leads me to the tune and the subject line for this week’s missive, which I hope will stir your marketing mojo, even if you are one of the canaries that has fallen: Times Like These by The Foo Fighters:

Do I stay or run away and leave it all behind? // It's times like these you learn to live again…

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve had a good week, and please click on some of the links below, even if it is just to let me know you are real :-)

Cheers!

Ian

Ian Truscott | Chief Bottle Washer Rockstar CMO

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Yes! In times like these, did I mention that I once met the Foo Fighters in a pub in Washington DC? No… you might be the only one…..