Powerful Interview Questions For Hiring a Game-Changing CMO
Across the corporate landscape, CEOs and CFOs are finding themselves frustrated by their choice of Marketing Leader. A recent Gartner study of over 400 C-suite executives found that "55% of leaders feel Marketing has an inflated view of its importance in cross-functional initiatives." Clearly, there is a disconnect between the impact Marketing leaders think they are having on the business and the impact they are actually having on the business.
But it's not just CEOs and CFOs who are frustrated. CMOs themselves have concerns. CMO tenures remain at their lowest levels on record, and according to a MarketingWeek survey, "53% of marketers report that their role is misunderstood by their companies."
The great Peter Drucker said, "Business has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation." So, addressing the central problem of Marketing leadership has been the subject of my articles and newsletters for the past several months. To date, we've discussed the important role Marketing leaders play in organizational leadership, strategy, evangelism, and revenue. Today, I offer some suggestions for making the right hire and avoiding the inevitable downstream consequences of bringing in a Marketing leader unfit for today's business challenges.
Getting it Right the First Time
In 2007, when I got the chance to lead Marketing and Sales for the first time, I was coming from the position of having already founded and sold my own startup (more on that, here). As a Marketing leader, this experience offered me a few advantages, including having a better sense of what my CEO and CFO were trying to accomplish. Since then, I've led Marketing at a number of high-growth companies, several of which were eventually acquired. The partnerships I forged and the friendships I built with my CEOs, CFOs, and sales leaders along the way were not marked by frustration, but a mutual understanding and unity of purpose underwritten by core competencies I brought to the role.
Over the last twenty years, I have witnessed those in my profession lean away from their primary function as business strategist and toward roles as lead generators, technologists, and (proudly certified) channel specialists. After leaving the corporate world and becoming a Marketing consultant, I began to intersect with clients whose Marketing leaders knew very little about strategic marketing. Nearly three years ago, I was brought in to revive a 20-year-old technology company that, despite its tenure, was relatively unknown in the market and whose pipeline had dried up. As I interviewed department leaders and came to speak with the head of Marketing, I found that he was delegating his core responsibilities to outside agencies. Finally, the CEO and CFO hired me because they were were fed up with a cycle of burning cash on the latest new idea that produced little to no results.
In the tech world, it's not uncommon to find companies that have had one or two bad CMOs end up firing their Marketing leader and shifting Marketing under the Sales or Product leader.
7 Tests for Prospective CMOs
So, how can your company avoid a cycle of frustration; wasted time, money, and resources, and instead have the confidence of knowing that it's hiring a strategic Marketing leader who will have a multiplying effect on the business? Here are seven tests including specific interview questions you can use to uncover the true potential of any head of Marketing candidate.
#1: The Test of Leadership
How do you influence your team?
How do you establish clear communication with your Sales, Products and Customer Success counterparts?
How do you establish trust and credibility with your CEO and CFO?
Describe your process for change management.
Why these questions are important:
By nature, Marketing must have the ability to effectively influence the organization and the customer. The job of a Marketing leader is to help people see a better future and then to lead them through change so that better future can be realized.
What to look for in their answers:
Team-oriented, trust-based, human-centered approaches that demonstrate an ability to tap into intrinsic motivation in order to inspire and facilitate movement towards a goal.
#2: The Test of Strategy
How have you used Marketing to drive revenue outside of direct sales, upsells and renewals?
How would you grow the business if you had no Marketing budget?
How can we use Category to differentiate in the marketplace?
How can we use Brand as a competitive advantage?
Why these questions are important:
When done well, Marketing can bring a unique set of strategic capabilities and options to the business. In fact, Marketing is the only department that can position your company in the market, launch a new category, evangelize your vision, mission, and values, enhance the value and perception of your brand, increase brand equity, design the customer experience, identify new markets and revenue streams, and facilitate strategic alliances.
What to look for in their answers:
Responses that indicate the candidate understands and is able to fully leverage all of the Marketing levers at their disposal.
#3: The Test of Business Acumen
What are the reasons companies like ours fail?
How can the business create efficient growth?
How do you define the growth stages of a business? Which stage do you have the most experience with?
Why these questions are important:
If Marketing is to play a central role in the success of the business, the Marketing leader must understand the factors that drive the business and the pitfalls that could lead to its demise.
What to look for in their answers:
Responses that indicate a wholistic understanding of the business, not just a narrow view of their specific function.
#4: The Test of Metrics
How do you know if your Marketing investments are performing?
Which metrics do the CEO and board track to understand if the business is growing?
How do you measure the impact of Marketing on Sales?
Why these questions are important:
Knowing where to look for answers and how to interpret the data you receive is essential. Business leaders must understand the causes behind performance - what's working and what’s not working - if they hope to better control outcomes.
What to look for in their answers:
Thoughtful questions about your business followed by a clear and concise response that aligns with the view of your leadership team.
#5: The Test of Evangelism
What should the focus of a company's evangelism be?
How have you built a following for your personal brand?
Which communities or groups are you actively involved in?
When was the last time you were asked to speak? How did it go?
Why these questions are important:
Just as a Sales leader must be prepared to communicate and sell the company's solutions effectively, a Marketing leader must be equipped to evangelize the business in the marketplace.
What to look for in their answers:
Evidence that the Marketing leader is comfortable as a spokesperson, understands the importance of a personal brand, and is proficient in building an audience.
#6: The Test of Sales
Sell me this pen.
How do we build trust with prospects?
How can Marketing reduce the sales cycle and increase average deal size?
Why these questions are important:
In many ways, Marketing is visual sales - only with words and pictures. This means marketers, like salespeople, must understand the dynamics of presentation, trust, and persuasion in driving conversions.
What to look for in their answers:
An ability to connect, build trust and communicate persuasively and an understanding of the impact of branding and messaging on revenue.
#7: The Test of Culture
What specific practices do you implement to maintain trust and respect in your team relationships?
Describe the ideal relationship between Marketing and Sales? Marketing and Products? Marketing and Client Success?
How would you overcome a challenging relationship between Marketing and Sales?
Why these questions are important:
Most seasoned CMOs have the resume and can say all the right things, but in the end, character is something you cannot impart. Like their role as an evangelist, the Marketing leader is expected to model and relay the company culture. Posing questions that reveal character can help determine if there is a cultural fit, which is equally as important as having the required experience.
What to look for in their answers:
A pragmatic approach to team building that is marked by mutual respect and a sense of greater purpose.
While CMO tenures continue to decline and C-suite confidence wanes, it's not too late to rebuild trust and unleash Marketing's true potential. By asking the right questions during your CMO search, you can ditch the frustration and land a game-changing leader who will drive growth. The seven tests I've outlined above are your compass, helping you navigate from resume highlights to a leader who inspires teams, aligns with your vision, and delivers bottom-line results.
Bonus: Don't forget to check out "5 Essential Marketing Approaches to Elevate Your 2024 Results" for even more strategic insights to skyrocket your marketing game this year.
