MarketPro Inc.

How to Avoid Common Pitfalls When Choosing an Executive Search Partner

Bob Van Rossum — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 08:37:54 +0000

Recently, Market Pro was in the running for a chief marketing officer (CMO) search with an AI firm in Northern California. Despite our extensive experience in marketing executive searches, we didn’t get the assignment, and the reason came down to a single question from the CEO. This raises an important point: just because a search firm can answer one question doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the right partner for your executive search.

The One-Question Trap

The CEO asked whether we had recently placed a CMO for another AI firm. While we have conducted numerous CMO searches and marketing executive searches over the years, arguably more than most other firms, the fact that we didn’t have a recent AI-specific example cost us the search. The firm that was ultimately selected did have that example, even though that prior search didn’t result in a successful hire.

This highlights a key insight: basing your decision solely on whether a search firm has done a similar search in your space can be misleading. Just because they can point to a recent placement doesn’t mean the hire will be successful or that the firm has the marketing expertise necessary to understand your unique needs.

Understanding True Value

At Market Pro, every team member is a trained marketer. This means we don’t just fill roles—we help define the role, identify the competencies required, and align candidates with your company’s goals and KPIs.

For example, do you need a CMO with a strong digital performance marketing background, ABM expertise, or brand and communications leadership? A specialized marketing search firm can guide you through these decisions.

Unfortunately, many CEOs focus on superficial metrics when evaluating executive search partners:

Have you done a similar search recently? As mentioned, this can be irrelevant if the prior search wasn’t successful or if the firm lacks domain-specific expertise.
Tell me about your network. Larger firms tout expansive networks, but networks alone don’t guarantee quality candidates. At Market Pro, we prioritize research over network-first approaches. We identify top candidates through a thorough process before ever consulting our database. This ensures the shortlist is based on merit, not familiarity.

What Questions Actually Matter

When evaluating an executive search firm, focus on these aspects:

Domain expertise: Does the firm understand your industry and function?
Process quality: How do they identify and assess candidates?
Strategic insight: Can they help define the role based on your organizational goals?
Track record of success: Not just similar searches, but successful placements that delivered long-term value.

Quick Checklist for CEOs

Ask for examples of successful hires, not just similar briefs.
Probe the firm’s process (research, assessment, shortlisting).
Check how the firm aligns candidates to your KPIs and culture.

The Bottom Line

Selecting an executive search partner is about more than checking boxes on a recent search or network size. It’s about finding a firm with the right expertise, process, and strategic insight to deliver the best talent for your organization. Superficial metrics may win a pitch, but deep experience and thoughtful methodology win results.

At Market Pro, that’s the approach we take every time.

Chief Growth Officer – The Most Misunderstood Role in Corporate America

Bob Van Rossum — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:13:56 +0000

In a previous blog post, we wrote about The Rise and Fall of the Chief Growth Officer. Asking the question, is the role misunderstood, or becoming obsolete? We’re getting a lot of questions around that, which is why this post is a follow-up.

What Is a Chief Growth Officer and Why Is the Role So Misunderstood?

As the premier boutique marketing executive search firm, we do a lot of work for Chief Marketing Officers and other senior roles in brand, digital, e-commerce, product, and communications etc. The role we get approached to provide executive search services for the second most frequently after CMO is the Chief Growth Officer. About half the time, our potential client is using the title incorrectly, so we get to coach them on the right and wrong applications for the role.

The Chief Growth Officer is the most misunderstood role in the C-suite. Which leads to potential problems for both a client wanting to recruit for the role, but also for someone who takes the role and ends up calling themselves a Chief Growth Officer, but is not actually working the correct function(s).

In the right application, it is an incredibly powerful role. In the wrong application, it is most likely to mask other problems inside the organization. So let’s start by understanding: what is the Chief Growth Officer?

A Chief Growth Officer will be someone who ends up overseeing marketing, sales, product, and customer success. Sometimes we’ve had clients call us and say, “I need a Chief Growth Officer,” and they’re only going to own marketing and product. Well, that’s not a Chief Growth Officer. Let’s just call that new person the Chief Marketing and Product Officer, that would be the right title for that role. That will allow us to recruit the right type of talent because once we start using the incorrect title, we’re not going to end up with the right talent in the role.

We’ve had other instances where someone will call us and they really just want the person to own marketing and overall sales enablement, or a component of sales that’s more tactical, whereas the Chief Sales Officer can own strategy. That’s also not a Chief Growth Officer.

When Do Companies Actually Need a Chief Growth Officer?

So what’s really important is understanding when and where the application of the role is positive, and when we may just be masking other issues.

Let’s say you’re in most companies, you’re 90% of organizations out there, and you’re growing 8 to 15% a year. You have a good culture that allows for collaboration across the organization, so silos aren’t forming. You have strong leadership in marketing, sales, product, and customer success. Then there should be no need for a Chief Growth Officer.

Now, if one of those areas isn’t working and growth is stagnating as a result because, say, sales isn’t taking the leads that marketing is driving and converting them, then you don’t need a Chief Growth Officer. You need a new Chief Sales Officer.

If marketing is not driving the return on advertising spend, and your customer acquisition costs are too high compared to your industry or peers, then again, you don’t need a Chief Growth Officer. You need a new Chief Marketing Officer.

What we commonly find is that a company has a Chief Marketing Officer, a Chief Sales Officer, and a Chief Product Officer who have been with the organization for a long time. Things have worked historically, and now growth is stalling. So the thought becomes: maybe we need a Chief Growth Officer. Most likely, what you need is a new person in one of those areas because someone is no longer keeping up with the pace of change in corporate America.

Proper Use Cases for a Chief Growth Officer

When is a Chief Growth Officer the right role and not just a misplaced title or a temporary fix for deeper organizational issues?

1. High-Growth Companies

If you’re growing more than 25% annually and expect that to be the case for the next 4–10 years, the velocity of growth is perfect for a Chief Growth Officer. You already have high-performing leaders in marketing, product, sales, and customer success. You just need someone to coordinate cross-functionally and ensure alignment in data usage and growth enablement.

Especially when you’re competing with other fast-growing organizations, a Chief Growth Officer can help you stay a step ahead and create a competitive advantage.

2. Driving Innovation and New Business Models

Maybe you’re growing 8–12% annually, but you need someone to focus on innovation and net-new products, like launching a subscription model or expanding into e-commerce. Maybe you need someone to drive mergers and acquisitions. That’s a great application for a Chief Growth Officer.

You’re not looking to fix marketing, sales, product, or customer success—you already have strong leadership there. Instead, you need someone focused on new business models, new channels, and corporate development.

Misuses of the Chief Growth Officer Role That Can Backfire

The mistake many organizations make is thinking they can use the Chief Growth Officer role to replace one or more roles, like Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Sales Officer, Chief Product Officer, or Head of Customer Success.

But replacing these key functional leaders and adding their responsibilities to one person, the Chief Growth Officer, doesn’t solve your growth problem. You’re just adding more direct reports to someone and expecting different results.

We’ve seen this tried, we’ve always coached clients against it, and it’s not a path that leads to long-term success.

Final Thoughts

As an organization, you still need a Head of Marketing, a Head of Sales, a Head of Product, and a Head of Customer Success. That may vary by industry, but it’s generally true.

The Chief Growth Officer is not someone who replaces these roles. In the right applications, they add value to the organization in other ways.

Why Do CMO Executive Searches Fail & What Can You Do To Hire A Great CMO?

Bob Van Rossum — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 04:35:32 +0000

It’s really interesting to see why senior-level executive roles fail sometimes from an executive search perspective. In our world, which is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) executive search, being about half of what we do, with other senior-level marketing positions making up the other half, it’s sometimes easy to look out and say, “Hey, that didn’t make any sense from the beginning.”

I recently spoke to a good friend of mine—I’ve known him since 1999. He’s really grown his career as our search firm has evolved into becoming the premier marketing-specific executive search firm in the country. He’s now on his third CMO gig—not a search we were working on, but something where he reached out to us and said, “Hey, you know, I’ve got some questions. How do I manage through this process? What do you recommend as someone who’s an expert in executive search?”

A Flawed Process from the Start

Unfortunately, the search was really set up to fail from the beginning by the organization recruiting for a new Chief Marketing Officer. What does that mean? Why was it set up to fail? Well, it’s about a $10 billion company recruiting for a CMO, and the expectation is that the person will relocate to their corporate headquarters’ city, which we’re seeing more and more as organizations reassess remote or hybrid work. More corporations are going back to the office, and relocation is again becoming a bigger part of what we do as a marketing executive search firm.

So, a $10 billion company is going to market with a CMO search, and the recruiter they chose was not an executive search firm—it was a staffing firm. A very good, large, national staffing firm that typically places people on a contract basis, does staff augmentation (mainly for IT, but really any part of the organization that needs staffing services—usually coordinator, manager, or senior manager-level talent on an interim basis). That’s what this company does, and they’re very good at it.

But then, if you go to their website, they also say they do “executive recruiting.” The fact that they call it “executive recruiting” is the first red flag that it’s not really an executive search firm. They generally ask the same number and level of questions for staffing as they do for executive search.

So, what does all that mean? They found this individual—my friend—who is absolutely an A-player and would have been a huge win for them. I asked him, “So, first, what kind of interview questions did they ask you relative to marketing strategy, digital, ROAS (return on advertising spend)?” And he said, “Well, they really didn’t—because that’s not their expertise, and they didn’t know how to screen a senior-level marketer.”

I said, “Okay, what kind of questions did they ask about leadership and culture fit?” And he said, “You know, not really any. Basically, they asked about three interview questions total for a Chief Marketing Officer search at a $10 billion enterprise.”

Not really an interview, just more asking questions about whether this is a role you might be interested in? This is a typical approach to contract staffing/staff augmentation.

The Importance of Working with the Right Search Partner

Right there, there’s no way to know if the talent they’re presenting is a good fit. In this case, with my friend, they got lucky because he’s absolutely a rockstar CMO who would have been a huge value-add. But that wasn’t because their process was proper—it was because they happened to find the right person who was open to interviewing. They got lucky. Kind of.

When they got to the end of the process, as a staffing firm, they really had no understanding of executive compensation structures and did not know what questions to ask in this area either. So they allowed a candidate to interview who was never going to accept anything close to where the offer came in at.

Which was a huge waste of time for him, the HR team, the executive team, the board members, and everybody who interviewed him. This is another area where, if they had hired an actual executive search firm that understood how to work with individuals at this level, it never would have gotten that far. All that time wouldn’t have been wasted because we would have known upfront that we had a big disconnect on compensation and either not presented this candidate or made our client aware of the compensation gap prior to the first interview.

As I was asking him how the process went, he said, “The recruiter, from the staffing firm, was obviously in way over their head when I spoke with them and didn’t understand how to work positions at this level.”

So, What Were The Key Misses?

1. The Interview Process & Vetting

Only three interview questions total (compared to our executive search process, which includes an hour-long deep dive on marketing, custom questions, and a second hour-long interview on culture fit and leadership).
We rule out 90% of candidates before sending the top 10% to clients. Their process? Three quick questions, and if they think you’re good, they move forward.

2. Compensation & Offer Structure

The base salary was ~20% light.
Bonus was fine (30-40% short-term incentive), but no long-term incentive (LTI)—despite him coming from a role with significant LTI.
No provision to offset unvested equity from his current employer (a gap of 300K–500K).
No discussion of a signing bonus to compensate for lost LTI.

3. Relocation Package

Very low fixed amount for moving—no support from a relocation company.
No help with selling his current home (commission costs).
Expected him to manage his own move while hitting the ground running.
Essentially, the message to the candidate was, How would you like to pay money out of your pocket to come work for us? Not a great way to intice top talent to join your company.

4. Lack of Employment Agreement

At-will offer (no severance terms), while his last three roles had structured agreements. Not saying this policy is right or wrong, but how did a candidate who would never take a new role without an employment agreement get to an offer stage with a company that does not offer one?

Why Did This Happen?

They trusted a staffing firm (great at placing junior/mid-level contractors) to do an executive search—something outside their expertise. Maybe they thought they were saving money, but in reality:

The role remains unfilled.
The opportunity cost of not having a CMO is massive.
The staffing firm looks bad, HR looks bad, and the CEO is frustrated—all because the process was flawed from the start.

The lesson? If you’re hiring a CMO (or any C-suite role), use an actual executive search firm. Otherwise, you risk wasting time, money, and credibility—and still ending up with no hire.

What Is a Confidential CMO Executive Search?

Bob Van Rossum — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 09:07:02 +0000

As the leading marketing executive search firm, with about half of our work being Chief Marketing Officers, over the past 20+ years, approximately thirty percent of our searches have been confidential.

What Is a Confidential CMO Search and Why Do Companies Use It?

A confidential search is when the CEO decides to replace their Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), but they want the new person hired before they notify the previous CMO, so the business does not experience a time between marketing executives. At MarketPro, we utilize best practices from our industry to keep the search confidential while engaging top talent on behalf of our client. This occurs when the current CMO is not performing up to expectations to create organizational growth, and they are being let go.

What is interesting about our confidential searches is that sometimes they are much lower, and at times like we are in right now, they are much higher. Rarely do we ever see them around thirty percent, even though that is the average. What causes this?

How Economic Cycles Impact the Demand for Confidential Searches

If we look at recent history, from 2021 to 2024, we were living in a time of extreme government spending with large deficits. Lots of this spending ends up being wasted, but as the government buys stuff, money finds its way into our economy, and we have propped up economic growth or a time that is relatively easy for corporations to win. While this made life temporarily easier for many businesses, the policy is not sustainable without extremely negative consequences for our country due to the debt being incurred and the long-term effects of money printing.

During this time of extreme government spending, the number of confidential searches we conducted was around fifteen percent or half of our average over the past 25 years as the leading CMO executive search firm. Basically, it was a time of less pressure on C-Suite executives, due to easy money.

Now, as we are in early 2025, and under a new administration, the easy government money spicket is being turned way down. We are entering a time where corporations have to compete on merit, and marketing is being looked at more closely for its ability to drive competitive advantage and profitable growth.

This has led organizations to take a much harder look at the current state of their marketing. Do they believe they are positioned properly relative to the competition? Are they getting the best possible ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend)? Do they have the right data, analytics, and marketing technology in place to allow them to glean insights and improve decisions? Do we properly understand our customer,s and are we exceeding their expectations?

Some of these questions were unlikely to be asked in the era of easy money. Now they are mission-critical to success.

Why More CEOs Are Replacing CMOs in 2025

Currently, eighty percent of our CMO executive searches are confidential, including the last four in a row we have taken in. Messaging from the CEO’s we are working with is relatively similar. Our marketing has been good, but now we need it to be great. Or I would give our marketing a B grade and now that is no longer acceptable, we need to be performing at an A level. Or our marketing team is still doing the same things we were doing five years ago, our marketing has not grown or evolved and now it is really showing in our results.

Having been through multiple cycles like this one before, what we have learned is that organizations that have an A-player for a CMO and a top-notch marketing team will outperform and outgrow their competition. A-players are only the top fifteen percent of all CMOs. Most organizations do not have an A-player CMO and possibly never have.

If you are a CEO, who are you going to battle with?

In today’s competitive landscape, the right CMO can drive growth or hold a company back. As CEOs demand stronger marketing performance, confidential searches are becoming essential. MarketPro specializes in securing top-tier marketing leaders—if your organization needs an upgrade, now is the time to act.

CMO Executive Search: Is it Different Than Other C-Suite Roles?

Bob Van Rossum — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 12:13:07 +0000

Why It Takes a Marketer to Properly Vet a Marketer

As a referral from a CEO, we have worked with before, I was asked to spend some time with a talented individual in transition. Taking these types of networking meetings in generally very common in our industry, but this conversation stood out.

It turned out to be a great conversation. She is a very successful Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who, due to leadership changes above her, is in transition. Having managed her career extremely well, having only been at only four companies in her career, having long successful tenures at each one, with a track record of success, she has the luxury of being able to focus on finding the right opportunity.

After getting an understanding of her background and what her goals were for her next opportunity, she asked me to share more about MarketPro and what has led me to being here for over 25 years.

The Unique Pathways to Becoming a CMO

Basically, I told her about half of our business is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Executive Search. The other half is Chief Product Officer, Chief Digital Officer and the senior roles that report up to these individuals in marketing, brand, digital, communications, e-commerce, etc.

As the leading marketing executive search firm, our belief is CMO Executive Search is different than other C-Suite level roles, because there are multiple paths to the CMO chair and which path you took really matters to your ability to be successful depending on the needs of the organization. As an up-and-coming marketer focused on becoming a CMO, you could be more brand or digital or product focused but you are unlikely to have an equal amount of all areas of marketing in your background.

What organizations need in a CMO varies based on growth goals, industry, who else in on the team currently and too many companies fail to recognize these differences which is why CMO tenure is the shortest in the C-Suite and has been for the last 30+ years.

This is different than a CFO role or a CHRO role which generally have one very similar path to those positions.

The Role of Marketing Expertise in CMO Interviews

Add to that interviewing potential CMO candidates has parts art and science to it and you really need some marketing expertise with you early in the process to make sure the search is set up properly and to help you understand what is possible. Marketers are really good storytellers, who do you have interviewing those candidates who has the ability to separate A players from everyone else? If all you have is a board member at the end of your process, this is too late.

She immediately understood and agreed but importantly said how important she believed expertise in marketing to be in executive search / recruiting for the leaders that report to the CMO as well. She had just had a problem recruiting a Head of Brand for her company, and did not use MarketPro. They went with a big national executive search firm that had no specific specialty.

Challenges with Generalist Executive Search Firms

Brand leaders are not one-size fits all either. Do you want someone with a very traditional brand management background? You might need someone to focus on brand development, you might need a little more advertising or someone who understands creative development or a mix of all the above.

She needed someone who had an equal mix of all these and who understood how to leverage the power of internal and external resources working together. The problem was she kept getting candidates from her executive search partner that were not very well vetted for her needs. It wasn’t that they did not care, did not want to do a great job or a lack of effort. Simply they lacked understanding of the role they were recruiting for.

The Consequences of Misunderstanding the Role in Executive Search

She really doubted they figured out the right interview questions to ask but even if they did, they lacked the understanding of brand to properly grade the answers.

Rather than interviewing a small shortlist of highly qualified candidates and being able to fill the role in a timely manner, she ended up interviewing twice as many candidates as we typically present for a search before she got her first qualified candidate.

Big waste of time for her and the search took twice as long as it needed to. In the end she hired the first candidate who fit her requirements rather than having multiple qualified A players to choose from. She hired the first qualified candidate because after the search taking an extended period of time the organization had to move on.

The Growing Importance of Specialized Marketing Search Firms

What holds true for CMO executive search is equally as relevant for brand executive search. This reality holds true for all areas of marketing both based on each area having multiple pathways to get to the top job and equally as importantly the pace at which marketing is changing.

Whether it is a CMO Executive Search, or you are looking for a brand leader, a digital leader, a product leader, an e-commerce leader or a communications executive having a search partner that specializes in these areas with deep domain expertise and real-world experience working in similar roles is critical to a successful hire. Which is ultimately critical for your organizational growth.

Trying to hire a CMO with the same search firm you used for other C-Suite roles is one of the reasons CMO tenure remains the shortest in the C-Suite.

CMO Executive Search: Two Most Common Mistakes Companies Make That Lead to Failure

Bob Van Rossum — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 06:58:21 +0000

We recently started a new CMO Executive Search, unfortunately prior to us getting involved, our client has made both of the mistakes we see companies make when going to market with a search. A little over 30% of the marketing executive searches we work on come to us after the first effort has failed.

MarketPro, having recently completed our 300th CMO executive search, is fortunate to have this opportunity, and we are well on the way to getting this client’s marketing moving in the right direction. Unfortunately for them, based on their own estimates, the failure of marketing due to their failed executive searches has cost them over $1 billion in revenue.

What went wrong and how can your company avoid the same mistakes when hiring your next Chief Marketing Officer?

Mistake #1–Using an Industry Specific Executive Search Firm

Our client went to market for the first time a little over two years ago and used an executive search firm focused on their industry. I cannot speak for other areas of the C-Suite, but for CMO Executive Search, this leads to failure around fifty percent of the time.

Challenge #1

The first challenge you have with an industry-specific executive search firm is you are significantly limiting your pool of talent. Standard practice for all executive search firms is we do not recruit from our clients, they are hands-off.

The goal in hiring a firm like this is they know your industry, they know who to recruit from and they have access to the top talent.

The reality is knowing your industry is of little value. Any good executive search firm understands how to do research and quickly assesses who are the top candidates in your industry. This is the easiest part of what we do.

But the better they are at being an executive search firm in your industry, the greater the chance you have severely limited your pool of potential candidates. When speaking with an industry-specific executive search firm and they are sharing their wins (placements) to build credibility with you, realize all the company names they mention are not places you are going to see talent from.

In some cases, you are only looking for someone from your industry in other searches blending talent into the shortlist from an adjacent industry can add real value. Based on our expertise in CMO executive search we know where this makes sense and when it does not, not something you will get from an industry-specific search firm. You might end up with a new perspective that is ahead of your competitors while still having a candidate who can hit the ground running.

Challenge #2

The second challenge with search firms that are industry-specific is they lack the knowledge necessary for marketing to be able to separate A-players from everyone else. Marketers who have gotten to a senior level by definition are good storytellers, you need a partner capable of separating fact from fiction. No matter how good they are at interviewing without a foundational understanding of marketing, they do not have a grading scale you can trust. You end up with a short list of candidates and you have no way of knowing if they are the best possible candidates or not.

Add to that in our client’s case, the executive team on their end did not have a marketing expert in the interviewing process and you can see why this process made a bad hire. Even if they did have a marketing expert in the mix interviewing candidates, they are still choosing from a slate that has not been properly vetted and unlikely to be the best possible shortlist.
Our client ended up with a candidate who did not have enough strategic marketing expertise to be successful and they also did not fit leadership style-wise or culturally.

Mistake #2–Going to Market Without a Search Partner

After the first search failed and they exited the CMO, they decided to try the search on their own. Ultimately this can be done well, but it is extremely difficult even for the most talented of HR teams.

Our clients’ HR team is great, they have done some very impressive recruiting for their sales team, and they have a real understanding of culture and how to utilize it for employee satisfaction. But not one person on the team had ever led a successful CMO executive search before and based on the pressure from senior executives to get it right, the process lacked structure and controls. Obviously, as excellent HR professionals, none of them were marketers.

They spent nine months scouring the local market, interviewing many candidates, and did not make a hire. Huge opportunity cost of going that long without marketing leadership.

Our client is about a $10 billion company based in Europe and looking for a CMO for the USA. Hiring practices in Europe are very different than the US and due to the pressure to get it right, candidates were asked to be a part of far too many interviews, which led to frustration from the people they spoke to. So even if they extended an offer, it was unlikely to be accepted. HR team knew the process was broken but was not able to speak about it based on the first search failing. Ultimately after all that time, effort, and expense they did not extend any offers. Now as we work the search the local market has a negative impression of the company, which is unfair they really do have an excellent culture on top of a great brand and product.

For us, these are all problems we have seen before and solved numerous times. Based on the location, company, industry, and other factors if we had received the search earlier at least half of our candidates could have come from the local market minimizing the possibility of having the expense and complexity of relocation. Now that the local market has been poisoned to a degree it has increased the likelihood we end up with a relocation.

Now our client has paid for one executive search which did not work out, used a large amount of time from internal resources recruiting for a CMO and that did not work so they have real hard costs that have been lost. The opportunity cost in the case is staggering which shows you how valuable marketing executive search when done right is to an organization.

Third Time Is the Charm

Now they have retained MarketPro to complete this CMO executive search and we are excited about getting them back on track. What is changing this time is they have hired a team of former marketers, who have completed over 300 CMO executive searches to do the research, vetting, and presentation of this opportunity to top talent. Most importantly we have the background and expertise to properly separate A players from everyone else which leads to a higher quality shortlist of candidates for our clients.

Since we are marketing-specific and not industry-specific, we have access to a much larger pool of talent than their initial search firm. Based on our expertise, and sometimes it just helps to be an outsider, we have the credibility to shape their hiring process for success.

Add to that we spend more time on culture and leadership fit than any other search firm we are aware of, and you can see how our expertise and process lead to success.

About MarketPro

MarketPro is the premier executive search firm for CMOs, marketing, brand, communications, and digital executives. As former marketing leaders, we have deep expertise in finding you A-players. What sets MarketPro apart is its team of seasoned former marketing executives who understand the ever-changing demands of marketing. Our strategic insider perspective allows us to connect organizations with innovative leaders who drive results and growth to help them stay ahead in a competitive environment.

With over 25 years of proven success, MarketPro has built a reputation for excellence in matching companies with the talent they need to achieve their goals. Whether your company is looking for a forward-thinking Chief Marketing Officer or a dynamic digital marketing executive, MarketPro is committed to delivering candidates who can make an immediate and lasting impact. With our extensive depth of marketing knowledge and with over 300 successful CMO executive searches completed, we will not just find you top talent but will also help you understand possibilities you had not considered.

How to Select an Executive Search Partner: A Strategic Guide for Hiring Success

Bob Van Rossum — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 02:41:50 +0000

We recently had a client we were conducting a Chief Marketing Officer Executive Search for ask us if we knew of any firm like us specializing in finding Chief Financial Officers. The CEO really liked our model of being a boutique marketing executive search firm that only worked on executive level marketing roles with a team of former marketers doing the vetting of talent. Along with the depth of our experience as a CMO Executive Search Firm.

After thinking about it and reaching out to a few other executive search firm owners, I was not able to come up with a recommendation. I did offer to send them information on how to select an Executive Search Firm, which led us here.

What Are The Questions You Need To Ask Before You Choose Your Next Executive Search Partner?

The search firm you select will have a big influence on the candidate you end up hiring. Selecting the right executive search partner is a critical decision that can make or break a company’s ability to exceed growth goals.

While choosing a reputable, credible firm is vital, what truly makes a difference is the team that will be working on your search and their ability to execute the search process effectively. The team’s experience, key performance metrics (KPIs), and average time-to-fill are crucial factors in ensuring your hire is successful.

1. Firm and Team Overview: Experience and Specialization

When evaluating an executive search firm, the experience of the specific team members working on your search is far more important than the firm’s brand. Larger firms may offer a certain level of cache. Whether they are the right fit for you depends on a lot of factors.

The Big 5 (SHREK) firms all have very talented people on their teams. The top individuals at these firms get put with the largest customers. If you are Proctor & Gamble or Amazon or Coca-Cola, this can work out very well. If you are a company with less than $10 billion in revenue, you are unlikely to get the A-team. Do you want to pay for premium service when you are working with the B or C team? Smaller firms where you have an owner leading your search can be a far more powerful solution.

Most firms typically assign three individuals to a search: a senior partner who serves as the day-to-day point of contact, a senior associate who conducts candidate interviews, and a researcher who handles initial candidate screenings. However, at MarketPro, who recently completed their 300th CMO Executive Search, a leaner approach is used, splitting the research function between the Partner and Senior Associate, as we see the research process as critical to the overall success of your search. Both ways can be effective.

Key Questions to Ask

How many similar executive searches has your team conducted in the last 12 months? What were the client profiles (size, growth trajectory, etc.)?: Look for: You will want at least a handful of similar searches specifically completed by the team you will be working with, how many the firm has done is irrelevant if your team is new to your needs (e.g., similar executive roles and organizational sizes).; This demonstrates the firm’s ongoing expertise in specific areas. Industry is not important, a smart executive search team can adapt to different industries and since all quality search firms do not recruit from their customers, too many companies in your industry can lead to hands-off challenges. This can typically occur with larger firms. The largest executive search firm in the USA works with 40% of the Fortune 500, which eliminates 40% of the talent they can work with.
How many searches have the specific team working on my search completed in their careers?: Look for: Extensive experience by the team assigned to your search, ideally with a proven track record in similar leadership searches. A handful of similar searches in the last year is positive, but if this is all they have done, they are still a rookie. You really want a team that has completed at least fifty CMO executive searches or other CXO searches, depending on the role you are recruiting for.
Who will lead the search and be involved at each stage?: Look for: A clear designation of roles with a partner directly overseeing the search process and remaining involved throughout. How involved partners remain in the search can vary from firm to firm. You want the senior person to be setting a search strategy, conducting second-round candidate interviews, managing all salary negotiations, and doing reference checks personally.; Also, be careful that at the larger firms, the team selling you their services might not be the team working on your search once the contract is signed.

2. Interviewing Methodology: Ensuring a Rigorous and Tailored Process

A structured, thoughtful interview methodology is essential for identifying top candidates. Ask the search firm about their interview process and how they decide what questions to ask. At MarketPro, two separate rounds of interviews are conducted:

The Senior Associate focuses on marketing-specific skills, knowledge, and past successes. These are custom interview questions we create based on our expertise in marketing executive search and we layer in some “top-grading” questions.
The Senior Partner dives deeper into leadership ability and cultural fit, ensuring alignment with your company’s values and vision.

We create customized questions for each search based on our expertise in marketing and our experience of over twenty-five years as the leading boutique marketing executive recruiting firm and incorporate “top-grading” questions to identify A-players. This tailored approach is essential for identifying leaders who can drive results within your specific organizational context.

Key Questions to Ask

What is your interview process, and who conducts the interviews?: Look for: A clear, multi-stage process led by senior-level professionals with deep experience in your field. The process should include behavioral and performance-based interviews to accurately assess candidates.
How do you ensure that your interview methodology effectively identifies top talent?: Look for: Methodologies that involve custom, role-specific questions, along with overall executive interview best practices are important, and multiple rounds of interviews to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of candidates.
How many rounds of interviews do candidates go through before being presented to us?: Look for: Two rounds of interviews by your executive search firm, first by the Senior Associate and second by the Partner-level person. A Junior Associate might ask a candidate two or three questions to see if it is worthwhile to pass the candidate on in the process. This is not a full interview, and it is not being conducted by someone senior enough to make a decision. This ensures the firm is thoroughly vetting candidates before sending them to you.

3. Screening Process: Separating the Best from the Rest

The quality of candidates you receive depends heavily on the firm’s screening process. You want a partner who only presents the top 20% of candidates they interview. At MarketPro, only 13% of the candidates we interview make it to our clients. This strict vetting process ensures that you’re presented with A-players who meet your specific needs.

Key Questions to Ask

What percentage of candidates do you send to clients after screening?: Look for: A high standard of screening where only the top candidates (20% or fewer) make it to the client. Lower percentages, such as 10-15%, reflect a rigorous filtering process.

4. Team Capacity: Managing Multiple Searches Without Compromising Quality

The workload of the Senior Associate is a key factor in the speed and quality of your search. A senior associate typically conducts in-depth interviews with candidates, so it’s crucial they have sufficient bandwidth to dedicate to your search. Some firms overload their associates with four or five searches, which can lead to delays and a less thorough vetting process.

At MarketPro, we limit each senior associate to just two searches at a time, ensuring high-quality, focused attention on your hire. This also speeds up the process, preventing delays common with firms that overload their team members.

The average time to fill an executive search in the US is six months. At MarketPro, we average ten to twelve weeks by limiting the number of searches our team is allowed to work on at any given point in time.

Key Questions to Ask

How many searches does each person on your team handle simultaneously?: Look for: A firm that limits the number of searches handled by senior associates (e.g., no more than 2 to 3). This ensures they can dedicate sufficient time and resources to each search. Senior Associate has an incredibly time-consuming role and you want to make sure the number of searches they are working on simultaneously with your search will be limited.
How many candidates will your senior associate interview before presenting a shortlist?: Look for: To get you a shortlist of A-players, the Senior Associate needs to conduct a large number of first round interviews. At MarketPro, our average is 75 per search. We then conduct 20-25 second round interviews to get our clients the top (7-10) candidates. Some firms interview as few as 25 in total which means a lot of top talent has not been spoken to.

5. Time to Present a Shortlist: Speed Without Sacrificing Quality

The speed at which a search firm presents a shortlist of candidates is largely a function of how many searches they allow each team member to work simultaneously and the depth of their interviewing process.

The goal is to get candidates to the client as quickly as possible without shortening the quality of the process or talent. At MarketPro, we commit to beginning the presentation of candidates by week four of the search, for every CMO executive search we have done for the past three years, we have successfully begun presenting candidates by week three.

Key Questions to Ask

How long does it typically take to present a full shortlist of candidates?: Look for: An efficient turnaround time with an in-depth amount of interviews. The best practice is to be presenting candidates no later than week four.
Do you send candidates as they are identified or wait until the entire list is complete?: Look for: Either of these can be successful. We send candidates as we have them, that way is a rare occurrence that we need to course correct, and we can respond more quickly.

6. Time to Fill: Understanding the Timeline and How the Fee Agreement You Sign Plays a Big Role

The average time to fill an executive search in the USA is six months. This is painfully slow and completely unnecessary. At MarketPro, we are averaging ten to twelve weeks, and we just completed our 300th CMO Executive Search in forty-seven days.

Two things lead to search firms being OK with the process taking so long. First is how they process work internally, as previously discussed, how many searches each team member manages. Second, fee agreement is typically disconnected from performance. Which typically leads to a slow and potentially negative outcome.

Key Questions to Ask

What’s your average time-to-fill from the start of the search to the signed offer letter?: Look for: Nobody wants to wait six months for a key strategic leader to join. Unfortunately, this has been accepted as the norm. You can definitely find a firm that can get you top talent in half that time.
Performance-Based Fee Structure: Look for: Most executive-level retained search firms charge 1/3 or 33% of the first year’s salary and bonus compensation. At MarketPro, we charge slightly less, but that is NOT the important part. Most fee agreements resemble paying us 1/3 upfront, 1/3 after 45 days, and 1/3 after 90 days with a true-up at the end whether or not we have provided any results to you. This agreement removes all motivation the firm has to do a great job.; At MarketPro we want our agreement to be performance-based and to align us as partners in the ultimate outcome which is providing you with top talent. We do charge 1/3 upfront to make sure you are committed to the partnership so we can invest the time necessary. Our second 1/3 is not due until you start interviewing talent. This is important as you agree we are sending you great candidates and you want to meet them. Our final third is not due until you actually hire someone. This aligns us as partners and makes much more sense for our clients. Make sure you avoid a time-based fee structure.

7. Guarantee: Risk Mitigation and Success Metrics

Guarantees are common in the executive search industry, but the length of the guarantee is less important than how often a firm must conduct a replacement search. Most clients focus on the length and terms of the guarantee but fail to ask about how often a firm has to utilize the guarantee provision.

There are different data points out there on this number, but a good average would be 9% of executive searches fail and by fail we mean the candidate does not last six months in the role. A top firm will be under 3% or have a 97% stick ratio.

At MarketPro, from 2008 to 2024, we have had only 1.1% of our placements do not make it through our guarantee period or we have a 98.9% stick ratio. Due to our expertise in marketing, all being former marketers and a strong focus on culture fit plus over 25 years of experience in marketing executive recruitment, this is possible.

Key Questions to Ask

What is your guarantee policy and how often do you need to honor it?: Look for: The goal here is to see a track record of success, not a firm that has too many searches that need to be done for a second time. A failed search is bad for everyone, the client, the candidate, and the executive search firm. That offers a guarantee based on placement success, not just a timeline. A reputable firm should have a proven track record of placements that stick without needing to rely on extended guarantees.
What is your firm’s success rate for successful hires?: Look for: A high success rate of at least 97% or higher over an extended period of time. At least for the last 10 years.

8. Top Question New Potential Clients Ask That Is Not Relevant And Might Do Your Search Harm

Industry Expertise: A typical question is, how many searches have you completed in our industry? The reality is you know your industry and can interview candidates based on this, and it is easy for a smart executive search professional to work across industries. All professional executive search firms have a policy of not recruiting from their clients. Therefore, if I have too many customers in your industry, you are limiting the pool of talent your search partner can provide you.

At MarketPro, our marketing executive search practice is across all industries. The industry we work in the most is SaaS / Technology, and that is still only 11% of our work.

Why Is The CMO Tenure Still The Shortest In The C-Suite And What Can Be Done About It?

Bob Van Rossum — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:31:25 +0000

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role is the most important position in the C-suite, after the CEO. It is also the most difficult to hire for correctly, which leads to CMO’s having the shortest tenure of any C-suite role. Studies show that CMOs often have the briefest tenure compared to other executives. An article in Forbes reported that in 2020 the average tenure of a CMO was a short 25 months; overall for the past 20 years, CMO tenure has averaged 2.5 years, well shy of other C-suite positions. This raises the question: why is this role so difficult to get right?

Today, we will talk about why CMOs often do not last long in their roles and what contributes to their short tenure. We will also talk about how your organization can avoid this scenario and ensure that the CMO you hire has what it takes to stand the test of time.

Why Is The Role Of CMO So Different From Other C-Suite Executives?

The path to becoming a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is much different than for other C-suite roles. The role of Chief Financial Officer, for instance, usually follows a clear path through accounting or financial management, and the responsibilities of the role are similar regardless of the industry. This is not true for the CMO role, because the field of marketing is so diverse.

An individual can work their way into the CMO role through many different paths depending on where they started in their career. Some start in creative fields like advertising or brand management, and others may come from an analytics, digital, or communications background. There are even CMOs who begin their careers in product-related roles. Even though they may have years of experience, because the field of marketing is so broad and diverse, being a successful CMO at one company does not guarantee they will fit the needs of another. This is a serious dilemma because the CMO is the most important direct report any CEO will have. If you are not doing a good job marketing, does anything else even matter?

CMO Tenure Is Short Due To A Flawed Hiring Process

In my role as President of MarketPro, the premier CMO executive marketing recruitment firm, I have observed the CMO role having the shortest tenure in the C-Suite for about 25 years. There are a few reasons for these statistics, but it basically comes down to the fact that the process that is used to choose the individual who will fill this ultra-critical role is typically flawed.

Reason #1 – The Knowledge Gap

In the vast majority of CMO searches, the individuals conducting the interviews and vetting the candidates do not have the knowledge required to determine if an individual would be a good fit for the role. Marketing candidates are great storytellers, but this does not make them qualified for a CMO position, and most non-marketers are unable to discern the difference.

Unfortunately, most organizations use the same process to hire their CMO as they do for other executive roles, and it looks something like this.

The CEO is spearheading the hiring process who is not a marketer.
The HR executive who is great at their role but will not have any experience in marketing.
A group of peers, such as the CFO or COO, are tasked with helping to vet potential candidates, but these individuals are also non-marketers.
The partner and senior associate at the executive search firm hired also have no marketing experience. So forget about are we screening appropriately, they do not even understand which candidates they should be interviewing..

The candidates are taken through several rounds of interviews, and not once are they interviewed by someone who knows and understands marketing, let alone the particular expertise needed for the current position.

Reason #2 -They Lack The Knowledge To Identify The Type Of CMO They Need

The pace of change currently going on in marketing is mind-boggling. This makes hiring for a CMO complex, and most companies’ executive teams would not be expected to understand all these changes and how this will impact the necessary background, experience, and track record of the best possible candidates.

Because of the pace of change currently going on in marketing, most senior executives are behind the curve when it comes to data, analytics, performance marketing, attribution and ultimately maximizing ROI. Then you also need a candidate who understands digital, customer experience, brand, etc. All of this factors into the type of candidate you need but who do you have in the interview process who can appropriately assess these qualifications? ,

The type of CMO needed is dependent upon the industry, company size, audience, and company-specific growth goals. If no one in the hiring and vetting process is a marketing expert, how will they know what questions to ask?

The Top Two Issues That Result From This Broken Process

The lack of marketing expertise present during the CMO executive recruitment process typically leads to a catastrophic failure. Without this knowledge in the process, you are simply hoping to get lucky. The big issues include:

Hiring a candidate that is not suited for the role needed by your organization. Which is actually two failures. The candidate was not able to move the company forward and then you have to go about replacing them in 18-24 months time.
You also get into a process where the best candidates will see the disconnects in the search and walk away from the opportunity out of concern for being set up to fail.

How Can Organizations Succeed In Hiring The Right CMO The First Time?

The challenges organizations face when hiring the ideal CMO to lead their marketing strategy could be easily overcome by working with an executive search firm with a deep understanding of marketing. At MarketPro, we are the industry leaders in CMO executive recruitment and have been placing top marketing talent in executive marketing positions for over 25 years.

MarketPro has recently celebrated placing our 300th Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). As a team of former marketing professionals and a 25-year track record of success, we have the ability to help you understand how to find the right CMO in ways you never thought possible.

A Marketing Executive Should Be Interviewed By Expert Marketers

The MarketPro process starts with meticulous vetting of candidates, which would involve each candidate going through at least two separate interviews, both facilitated by former marketing executives who have years of experience and an extensive understanding of the industry. We speak the language, we understand the requirements of the different marketing niches, and we know when a candidate has what it takes. Our intense vetting process rules out 85% or more of the initial candidates before they were ever sent to meet the client.

MarketPro Will Guide You Through The CMO Executive Search Process

Understanding the type of CMO an organization requires is not something that most executive teams have expertise in. Most CMO searches hire someone without ever having a marketing expert interview the future marketing executive, which is a recipe for disaster and the main contributor to the high turnover rate of this role.

Marketing has so many caveats that it is impossible for a novice to understand that in addition to considering the industry and the size of your organization, it is also critical that those tasked with hiring the ideal candidate know the type of CMO the company needs. MarketPro has years of experience helping organizations evaluate and determine their needs and then finding the ideal candidate to fill the role.

Utilizing MarketPro’s expertise during your CMO executive search is an investment in your organization’s growth and an exercise in risk mitigation. It maximizes the upside potential of landing a qualified top-tier CMO while minimizing the downside of making a bad hire.

Our Expertise Shows

The other big challenge we see is search failure. We hope companies find us the first time. However, about twenty percent of our CMO searches come our way after a previous search failed to end with a successful hire. This ends up being very costly as our client ends up paying two search fees.

We recently worked with a company on an executive search, and they are overjoyed with their new CMO and thrilled with their partnership experience with us. In fact, the CEO made a special point to congratulate the head of HR, telling them what a great job they did in finding and partnering with MarketPro. We sent them seven ultra-qualified candidates that they had a difficult time choosing between. By the time they got down to the final three, they would have been ecstatic to have any one of them.

Another Fortune 500 company we worked with had a unique situation because the president of the company was the former CMO and knew exactly what the company needed. They hired MarketPro after the previous executive search firm sent them nine candidates that he refused to even take the time to interview because not one of their profiles reflected the qualifications he knew the job required. MarketPro sent them eight qualified candidates to interview, and they had a tough time making a choice between the two finalists.

MarketPro leads the executive search industry when it comes to finding and placing top-notch marketing talent. The difference is that our entire team is made up of former marketing executives, so we not only have an intimate knowledge of the nuances of the industry, but we also know where to find the brightest and most qualified talent.

Our recruitment team has the expertise to identify the type of CMO your company needs and will partner with you to guide you through the process to ensure a successful outcome. Trust your CMO executive search to MarketPro.

Does Your Organization Need A Chief AI Officer?

Bob Van Rossum — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 15:42:37 +0000

Is Your Organization Strategically Utilizing The Potential of AI?

If you are an organization today in the latter part of 2024 and do not have a senior-level executive guiding your company through navigating how AI can boost productivity, enhance customer communication, or drive future innovation, you are likely already falling behind. Additionally, if you are utilizing AI and no one is actively assessing and managing the risks that come with using artificial intelligence, such as ethical or regulatory concerns, you are opening yourself up to risks your organization may not be able to measure.

As President of MarketPro, a premier executive recruitment firm with over 25 years of successfully placing top-tier marketing talent, I have been working with organizations to fill a new but critical type of executive role. The title and reporting structure range anywhere from VP of AI to Chief AI Officer, depending on the size of the organization and the industry.

The MarketPro team has been extensively researching the background and expertise needed for this position and has been assisting leading organizations as they seek out top talent to fill this new executive level role.

What Does An AI Officer Do, And Why Is This Position Important?

Using AI the right way can give your company competitive advantages in how to better serve customers, improve efficiency, enhance communication, foster innovation, reduce duplicate efforts, and lower costs. Some of the things this position would bring to your organization to help them achieve their strategic goals include:

Help Optimize Performance

This role would help identify areas where artificial intelligence could automate tasks that are repetitive or mundane, streamline processes, and free up valuable employees to work on more important projects. Some examples include companies utilizing AI-powered chatbots for first-line customer service and for things like keeping their equipment operational and preventing unplanned downtime through AI predictive maintenance.

Improve Customer Satisfaction

AI can help enhance customer service, personalize your customers’ experience, and improve response times. It can analyze customer data to help better predict their future needs, allowing the company to proactively align their strategy to improve customer loyalty.

Help With Product Or Process Innovation

AI can use real-time data and predictive analytics to help companies create new innovative products or enhance existing products that solve customers’ challenges faster and more effectively.

Improve Communications

Both internal and external communication can be enhanced using AI technology, such as natural language processing tools, to streamline or automate certain tasks. The VP or Chief AI Executive would ensure these tools were implemented and used properly to help teams collaborate within the organization and in interacting with the company’s target audience.

Reduce Operating Costs

Many companies are using AI to automate tasks that historically took an excessive number of man hours. This has shown a reduction of errors and significant cost savings. In fact, one large Fortune 500 publicly traded company recently revealed that AI is now doing the work of 2,000 people, which is equivalent to about 1% of their workforce. We expect these percentages to grow larger as companies embrace the capabilities that AI has to offer.

With The Great Benefits Of AI, Comes Much Responsibility

One of the biggest reasons your organization needs a dedicated executive leading your organization’s AI initiatives is for risk mitigation. Whether you know it or not, your employees are using AI to make their jobs easier. This opens the organization up for tremendous risk if they are using it improperly. Having a Chief AI Officer can pay their compensation back multiple times over in saved litigation costs, not to mention the potential damage that can be done to your brand. Understanding how AI works is critical, and a recent Forbes article pointed out that when using AI tools such as ChatGPT, it gathers data and stores it for future use, so keeping up to date on data privacy laws is a must. Most important, how is your company protecting data you deem proprietary and confidential from AI?

It is important to understand what risks are associated with your organization’s utilization of AI and what guidelines need to be put in place to ensure your company is maximizing the benefits of AI while minimizing potential risks.

For example, if someone in your HR department is using chatGPT to help them create a document that contains personal information about an employee, it is highly probable that the employee’s name and personal information are now somewhere in the technology’s memory. What is to ensure that it is not utilized inappropriately in the future? Or another example could be if someone was using AI to help them write an inter-organizational document that contained proprietary information, which is now within the control of the tool, the company could be at future risk of losing their competitive edge.

In addition to creating and implementing guidelines to ensure data privacy and other regulations are followed in relation to its use, your AI executive would help ensure that everyone within your organization understands the guidelines surrounding the use of AI in their particular role.

AI Is Not Just A Trend

AI has about as much chance of going away as does the Internet or Bitcoin. Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, and as it evolves, more companies will begin to utilize its power to further their organizational growth, seek out a competitive advantage, increase their ROI, and reduce their operational costs. Your organization needs to have a Chief AI Officer or another executive leader who will spearhead the utilization and risk management of its use. This individual will have to work in tandem with marketing, sales, operations, finance, HR, technology, and every other department to ensure these entities are using AI in the most productive way while being in compliance with how it is being used. Is your organization ready?

Let MarketPro Fill The Critical Chief AI Officer Role

If your company is ready to utilize AI to its full potential and get a competitive advantage in your industry, you are going to need a talented executive that possesses a combination of the right skills, background, vision, and expertise to implement it efficiently and without risk.

MarketPro can take the challenge of finding the perfect fit out of the equation for you and deliver top-notch, fully-vetted, qualified candidates to meet with you so your executive team can concentrate on what they do best. Contact us today to get your search started.

Does Your Company Need A CMO, A CDO, Or Both?

Bob Van Rossum — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 19:35:12 +0000

Today, the market is more competitive than ever, and organizations face challenges not only in developing marketing strategies that outpace their competition but also in effectively reaching their customers through rapidly changing and advancing technologies.

At MarketPro, we help companies find the most experienced talent and innovative solutions to take their marketing to new heights. Our expert team of former marketing executives has intimate knowledge of the marketing challenges faced by today’s Chief Marketing Officers and the organizations they support.

With the increasing need for both a strong marketing program and digital capabilities, many organizations are faced with the dilemma of evaluating if they need to expand their marketing team and add a Chief Digital Officer to work alongside their Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Each role has its own focus, but there are areas where their responsibilities can overlap, which can make the decision tricky. How do you decide the best fit for your company?

What To Consider When Choosing The Key Players In Your Marketing Team

Any company, regardless of size, that desires to sell its products and services and experience growth needs to have a strong head of marketing and a strategic marketing program. The title for this individual may be different depending on the size of your organization, but having the right talent in this role is key to your marketing success and the overall growth and health of your organization.

MarketPro has successfully conducted more than 350 Chief Marketing Officer executive searches, and our team has the expertise needed to assist your organization in determining the best structure for your marketing department and the ideal talent to fit your needs.

Whether your company needs both a CMO and a CDO comes down to how large the organization is, the type of business, and the company’s goals for the future. If you are a company whose growth potential relies on or is technology driven, then you may benefit from both an innovative CDO as well as a strong CMO.

Fortune 500 / Global 2000 companies are most likely to benefit from having both a full-time CMO and a CDO at the same time, while fast-growing and medium sized companies might be better served with an interim CDO to develop and implement digital initiatives, and then when the project is up and running, it can be turned over to the CMO and the in-house marketing team to monitor going forward.

Does Your Company Need A CMO And A CDO?

To decide if your company is at a point where a CDO would be beneficial, there are a few things to consider:

The Size And Complexity Of Your Organization

Larger companies with multiple departments and operations typically have more complex digital needs, so a dedicated CDO may be a good fit. Smaller companies need to find a CMO with strong digital expertise, a lifelong learner who really understands performance marketing.

The Organization’s Long-Term Objectives

If your company plans to overhaul current processes and implement digital solutions internally or to enhance the customer experience, a CDO would be critical in leading this initiative. If the overall strategy is to boost brand recognition, attract new customers, and grow revenue through more traditional marketing campaigns, having a strong CMO would be most important. However, if the company’s objective is to utilize channels such as social media and mobile phone apps to reach and engage customers with targeted marketing campaigns, it would require a close collaboration between a CMO and a CDO.

How Much Does Your Business Currently Rely On Technology

Think about how much your business relies on digital capabilities and if your industry is constantly changing. For companies that are driven by technology like e-commerce, digital media, rideshare services, etc., a CDO is essential to help them remain competitive. It is critical that industries such as these continue to drive digital innovation and improve their processes to remain relevant. In more traditionally based businesses, where technology is not as critical, a strong CMO may be all you need to steer your marketing efforts.

What Level Of Digital Capability Does Your Company Already Possess

It is also important to consider how advanced your company is regarding digital processes. If your company is still very reliant on traditional marketing channels, a CDO can work together with your CMO to help transition your marketing efforts to digital methods. A CDO can develop integrated strategies that use digital channels, data analytics, and automation tools to improve customer engagement and ultimately promote growth and revenue generation. If your organization is already heavily utilizing digital capabilities, a CDO can help take it to the next level.

If your company is still in the early stages of digital adoption, a CMO with digital skills might be enough, or you may want to consider using fractional CMO or CDO options depending on your company’s resources and budget.

Can Your Company Promote Harmony Between The Roles?

Someone in the CMO role can feel a bit apprehensive when their CEO begins talking about bringing on a CDO. After all, the CMO has worked very hard to reach their position and gain control over the company’s marketing team and initiatives. In a large organization, if the budget allows for it, having both a CMO and a CDO can be a great advantage, but it is critical that the responsibilities of each role are clearly defined. In some cases, the roles will overlap and will require collaboration to navigate successfully.

What Is The Difference Between The Roles Of CMO vs CDO?

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is one of the hardest and most stressful of the C-Suite positions, which is why it typically has the shortest tenure. They carry an enormous amount of responsibility and are the driving force behind brand awareness and revenue generation. They must understand what the consumers want, which consumers can turn into customers for the organization, and how to effectively grab the attention of these customers, communicating messages that they respond to that lead to sales.

Additionally, they must be able to respond proactively to today’s rapidly changing market conditions, which requires intricate knowledge of current market trends, the changing habits of consumers, which channels these consumers are frequenting, what new technology has emerged that can improve the company’s marketing efforts, a good understanding of what the competition is doing, and more.

The CMO must continuously collaborate with other departments to ensure that the marketing strategy is aligned with the company’s goals and receives the support of the entire organization. They basically have to be strategic-thinking, creative wizards of all things.

Chief Digital Officer (CDO)

Digital platforms, like social media, search engines, and mobile apps, have totally changed the ways companies need to reach and engage with their target audiences. Staying relevant and ahead of the competition now requires a deep understanding of digital trends and how to best use data to create the right campaign and get it out to the right consumers.

A savvy CMO knows to stay relevant that they need to take advantage of digital tools and technology to enhance their marketing strategies, but this often requires a level of knowledge that is outside of their wheelhouse. This is where a Chief Digital Officer can step in and collaborate with the CMO to enhance, strengthen, and grow the organization’s marketing reach.

A Chief Digital Officer is responsible for guiding the digital growth of the organization and finding how to best use technology and data to improve the total operation of the company. This includes many initiatives, from communicating new ideas and digital plans within the company and ensuring it stays up-to-date with the latest technology to enhancing customer satisfaction and providing a seamless user experience from beginning to end.

The CDO would lead efforts to utilize data that will allow the company to make informed and strategic decisions that further their marketing initiatives. This individual would help investigate and find new technologies, provide company-wide training on digital tools, oversee the roll-out of new technology, and assist with hiring experts who are proficient in their use if needed.

MarketPro Can Help Solve Your CMO vs CDO Dilemma

At MarketPro we have helped organizations find the perfect solution to balance these positions. The CMO and CDO positions need to be in complete alignment, even more closely than the critical collaboration between the CMO and the CSO (Chief Sales Officer) because otherwise neither will be successful in their roles and the growth of the organization will suffer.

We have provided innovative solutions for many companies with various needs. We worked with a large organization with a strong CMO who was performing at a very high level and the company was experiencing growth but felt they needed to ramp up their digital technology. Their CMO didn’t have the knowledge or the time to devote to a large-scale digital initiative so we provided them with an interim CDO.

An interim CDO can be contracted for a specific period of time and after a year or eighteen months will have had time to implement significant digital transformation and then before their contract ends the program is rolled back under the CMO. We have seen much success with CMO’s embracing this type of interim help because the company’s goals are met and the CMO has the assurance they are not losing control of their department long term.

We have also seen success with placing both a CMO and a CDO but the organization must communicate the roles of each very clearly and the two individuals must both be in total alignment to achieve success.

Our Process

MarketPro can look at your organization’s growth goals, current markets, the strategies you are currently using, your level of data analytics, your current ROI, and more. Once we understand these dynamics about your organization we can take our 25 years of executive marketing experience and share our professional insights regarding the type of talent your company will need to reach or exceed their goals. Then we can find the perfect candidates that can make a significant contribution to your marketing strategy and your organization’s long term goals.

Contact MarketPro today to learn more about how we can help connect you with top-tier talent to elevate your marketing strategy and ensure your organization’s continued success in today’s competitive market.