Mindset of a CMO – leadership book (e-book)

The CMO has one of the shortest average tenures in the C-suite, and one of the hardest jobs: building a brand for the long term while delivering growth this quarter, proving the value of marketing to a skeptical CFO, and keeping up with channels, data and AI that change every year. This book explains how great CMOs think: the mindset shifts from marketing manager to growth leader, how they spend the week, the decisions that matter most, balancing brand and performance, working with sales, product and finance, the metrics that matter, building a modern marketing team, AI and privacy, the traps that derail new CMOs, and a 90-day plan.

• The mindset shifts from marketing manager to growth leader
• Balancing long-term brand building with short-term demand
• Working with sales, product and the CFO, and proving marketing's value
• A 90-day plan and a self-assessment for new and aspiring CMOs
• Approx. 26 pages
• EPUB for e-readers and PDF for phone, tablet or print

The Voice of the Customer

Ask ten companies what their CMO does, and you'll get ten answers. In some, the CMO runs advertising and communications. In others, the CMO owns growth: pricing, product marketing, customer experience and even sales. In some, marketing is seen as the department that makes things look nice.

The best CMOs, whatever their formal mandate, share one thing: they're the person in the leadership team who knows the customer best. They understand who buys, why they buy, what they value and how that's changing. And they use that understanding to drive growth.

What the CMO owns

Most CMOs are responsible for some combination of:

• Customer insight: understanding customers, markets and competitors.
• Brand: what the company stands for in the minds of customers, and how that's expressed.
• Demand: generating interest, leads and sales, through every channel.
• Product marketing: positioning, messaging and launching products.
• Customer experience and retention: in many companies, keeping and growing existing customers.
• Communications: reputation, PR and often internal communications.

Why CMOs struggle

The CMO role has a reputation for short tenures. The reasons are usually the same: unclear expectations, pressure for quick results, difficulty proving marketing's value, and poor alignment with the CEO, sales and finance. Much of this book is about avoiding those traps.

Agree on the job

Before anything else, agree with the CEO on what success looks like. Is your main job to build the brand, generate pipeline, enter new markets, reposition the company or improve retention? You can't do everything at once. Write down the two or three outcomes you'll be judged on.

… The excerpt continues in the book.

1. The Voice of the Customer
2. The Seven Mindset Shifts
3. How a CMO Spends the Week
4. The Decisions That Matter Most
5. Brand and Performance
6. Working With Sales
7. Working With Product and Finance
8. Mapping the Customer Journey
9. Content and Storytelling
10. Growing Existing Customers
11. Launching a Product
12. The Marketing Plan and Budget Year
13. Working With Agencies
14. Marketing Inside the Company
15. The Metrics That Matter
16. Building a Modern Marketing Team
17. AI, Privacy and Trust
18. Leading Through a Reputation Crisis
19. The Traps
20. Your First 90 Days
21. Self-Assessment

Format: E-book as EPUB (Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, Kindle via “Send to Kindle”) and PDF.. Made with the help of AI and tested by our quality control. Not tax, accounting or legal advice. Terms and right of withdrawal