Pipeline problem or positioning problem
| Signal | The problem | The hire |
|---|---|---|
| Sales says leads are thin or poor | Pipeline | A growth operator: paid, lifecycle, conversion, attribution |
| Buyers cannot say what the company does | Positioning | A brand and category leader |
| Both, at under £5 million revenue | Founder-led positioning first | A head of marketing or a fractional CMO, then a permanent hire |
| Entering a new market or segment | Positioning, then pipeline | A leader who has launched into that buyer before |
What the fully loaded number is
A UK CMO at £130,000 base costs roughly £150,000 a year with employer National Insurance and pension, before a bonus that typically runs fifteen to thirty per cent and before equity.
Add a retained search fee of roughly a third of first-year earnings and the first year is about £195,000 before the option grant.
How to verify results from the last company
- Ask for the plan the candidate wrote, the budget they held and the metric they were measured on. Growth has many parents; the plan shows what was theirs.
- Reference the chief executive and the sales leader from that period, not the team who reported to the candidate.
- Ask which channels they personally ran to a number. A leader who scaled paid social is not the hire for a company that wins on events and partners.
- Have the current head of sales meet the final two and ask both how they would settle a disagreement about lead quality. It will happen in the first quarter.
When a fractional CMO is the better answer
If the positioning has not been found, a full-time chief marketing officer will be hired to execute a strategy nobody has written. A fractional CMO two days a week helps the founder find it, and the permanent hire comes once there is a message to scale.
The two are not exclusive. A fractional CMO holding the seat through a permanent search and a three-month notice period is the normal way to keep the pipeline moving.
Common questions
How long does it take to hire a CMO?
Ten to fourteen weeks to an accepted offer with a retained search, then a notice period of three months for most UK marketing leaders, six at larger companies. A fractional CMO usually holds the seat in between.
Should a startup hire a CMO or a head of marketing?
Under about £5 million of revenue, usually a head of marketing executing a positioning the founder owns. The CMO title attracts people who expect to set strategy and run a team, and they leave when the job turns out to be smaller.
How should a CMO's bonus be set?
On a metric marketing can influence, defined with the candidate: qualified pipeline, conversion from a stage, or brand measures agreed in advance. A bonus on closed revenue the CMO does not control is a resignation on a timer.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.