In addition to being an exceptional marketer who is technically proficient, there are three attributes we see among successful long-term CMOs.

1.   Customer-centric.   These tenured CMOs connect regularly with customers. They do more than conduct voice of customer research, review customer data, or meet with a customer advisory board. They are actively and regularly engaged in customer conversations.

Do you describe your CMOs, for example, as engineers with X years of experience in Y industries, Y accreditations, who attend B events, read Y publications, and use Z social media? If this example seems familiar, you may be missing the mark. These long-tenured CMOs have a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs, wants, emotional state and motivations, what it takes to engage them, and the type of experience that needs to be delivered. These CMOs serve as the window into the customer for their companies. They are relentless in their pursuit to know and understand the customer. 

2.  Outcome-oriented.    It is clear to the leadership team that these CMOs have marketing well-aligned to the business with metrics and performance targets focused on producing business outcomes rather than marketing outputs. These CMOs understand that outputs such as visitors, fans, and followers create more contacts, connections and engagements that are important.

They also understand that their job is to translate these outputs into something relevant and meaningful to the leadership team, such as how the contribution of marketing is reducing the sales cycle/accelerating customer acquisition as well as the cost of acquisition or retention, and improving product adoption and win rates. These CMOs have an excellent handle on what touchpoints and channels are most effective and effective, depending on the needle that needs to be moved.

3.  Alliance-savvy.   There has been a great deal of coverage on how important it is for the CMO to have solid relationships with their sales, IT, and finance colleagues. Our performance management study suggests that best-in-class CMOs do more than that. These CMOs have forged formal explicit partnerships with these counterparts. They invest in these alliances because they believe that the partnership will enable the organization to be more customer-centric and more competitive. As a result, these companies are able to enter new markets and bring new products and services to market more rapidly.

What is different about the alliances formed by these CMOs? They work with their colleagues to plan, form, design, and manage a formal working agreement that focuses on developing the right working relationship, considering that each function most likely operates differently. They create and execute an agreement that highlights how the organization’s committed resources will achieve a common set of objectives, how to leverage the differences to the company’s advantage, and how these differences are designed to facilitate collaborative rather than competitive behaviors among all the members of each team. Performance metrics are established to support the alliance with a focus on both the outcome of the alliance as well as the process. 

Whether it be the stream of green lights we hit on the way to work or the person who holds the door for us as we juggle groceries, at the end of the day, we are most appreciative of the people and things that make our lives easier and better. Although technological innovation and automation have given us the ability to resolve many of our woes and support our marketing efforts, we cannot forget that the human element -- the customer -- is at the center of all things marketing. By exemplifying these traits of a successful CMO, the business of marketing will become more strategic, impactful, collaborative, and customer-oriented.