Previous research by the CMO Council -- entitled “The CMO Shift to Gaining Business Lift” -- revealed a quarter of survey respondents believe the CMO is primarily responsible for growth strategies and revenue generation. This is in contrast to nearly 20 percent who view growth as the CEO’s remit. Pressure to deliver topline performance is mounting with nearly 70 percent of marketers saying their organizations expect marketing to be the primary revenue driver and business growth architect.

While they have high aspirations in this area, many CMOs surveyed appear to be struggling to embrace integrated data-driven analytics in order to embark on a relentless pursuit of revenue, better returns, and more profitable and enduring customer relationships. Respondents also note that they are less involved in the development of new products, markets, customer experiences and business conversions.

When asked where they spend their time or what methods they are using to drive revenue and improve margin, few senior marketers surveyed appear to be focusing on areas that a business might associate with driving growth.

• Only 6 percent say they are defining routes to revenue across all facets of their business globally.
• Just 8 percent say they are finding new ways to recover, reactivate and re-engage lost, languishing or dormant accounts.
• Only 10 percent are embracing customer-direct eCommerce channels and new monetization programs that upsell and cross-sell based on intimacy and context.
• Just 8 percent admit to auditing, assessing and continually improving the customer experience.
• Only 7 percent say they are looking for strategic partnerships, alliances and acquisitions that drive growth.

Many chief marketers believe they play a key role in strategic planning and business development. About half of respondents say their key role is to develop corporate vision and direction, as well as lead change management and digital business transformation. However, their desire to be involved in long-term, large-scale initiatives is in sharp contrast to their level of participation in more short-term, revenue-generating tasks, such as mapping cross-border geo-expansion, furthering distribution and channel development, and leading derivative product innovation. 

“Executive sprawl” and the proliferation of C-level titles across multiplying turfs and sub-divisions of responsibility, including “chiefs” of revenue, digital, data, customer experience, relationships, insights and innovation, is challenging CMOs (and chief growth officers) to consolidate authority and assert ownership of these critical roles in their organizations. They are collaborating at unprecedented levels with CEOs, boards, LOBs, CFOs, CIOs, CPOS and COOs, as well as establishing themselves as revenue drivers, growth architects, market experts, customer experience custodians, and well-informed strategists.

The CMO Council has established itself as a recognized authority and best practice leader in marketing-inspired, data-driven revenue growth. See content in our online Growth Guidance Center. A new thought leadership campaign is in the pipeline this year:

THE NEW RELIANCE ON REVENUE SCIENCE: The Modern CMO Mandate to Lead Marketing-Inspired Growth

Advocacy around “The New Reliance on Revenue Science” will build on the successful outcome of “The CMO Shift to Gaining Business Lift” campaign as well as other CMO Council studies currently in the field. Areas of auditing and assessment will include:

• Management and board expectations for marketing as a growth driver and value creator
• Where and how chief marketers are defining, developing and multiplying revenue sources, and building robust, sustaining sales pipelines
• Success of CMO-led strategies for increasing account, customer, product, channel, partner and/or market yield and profitability
• Level of CMO involvement in identifying and specifying new routes to revenue, and impacting pricing, profitability, and customer monetization
• Degree to which CMOs are mining data and using analytics to formulate new customer offerings, cross-sell and upsell, accelerate purchasing, increase deal value, reduce selling cycles and minimize eCommerce friction
• Ways marketing-owned and inspired social, mobile and web channels are contributing to brand value, sales effectiveness, deal flow, customer purchase, and transactional volumes/margins
• Incidence and success of programs to recover, re-activate or re-engage lost, languishing or dissatisfied customers
• Methods, measures and metrics (Financial Impact Analytics) for quantifying the business value of marketing

Targets for ROAR participation will be in business-challenged, data-rich industry sectors where competition is fierce and there is real pressure to improve performance. Examples include retail, hospitality, travel, financial services, telecommunications services, home services, technology, transportation/logistics, energy, consumer goods, media and entertainment.

Expectations are rising for CMOs to impact business performance. This means using new techniques, talents, and technologies to rev up revenue, realize better returns, and build more profitable customer relationships, valued products, and productive partnerships.

Become an active CMO Council partner and/or underwriter and help marketers ROAR in what is a jungle out there! Contact Bryan DeRose (bderose@cmocouncil.org) to discuss ways you can become actively involved.

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About the Author

Donovan Neale-May is the Founder and Executive Director of the CMO Council, the Growth Officer Council (www.growthguidancecenter.com), and the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network (www.bpinetwork.org), a global community of executive change agents driving business reinvention, IT transformation, and process improvement across the enterprise.

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If you'd like to contribute to the Growth Monitor, please contact our Editorial Director, Tom Kaneshige at tkaneshige@cmocouncil.org