CMO executive search

Chief marketing officers have the shortest tenure of any C-suite seat, and the reason is almost always a mismatch between what the board wanted, which was pipeline, and what it hired, which was a brand leader, or the reverse. A CMO search that starts by deciding whether the next two years are a demand problem or a positioning problem avoids most of the failures that make the statistic.

The UK market charges 25 to 33 per cent of first-year salary for retained search and 15 to 25 per cent for contingency. What sits inside that number is set out openly, which is unusual in this market and deliberate.

What changes when the seat is the CMO

Growth operator or brand leader, and the board usually wants one while describing the other

A growth operator runs paid acquisition, lifecycle, conversion and attribution, and lives in a dashboard. A brand leader runs positioning, category, communications and the long-term asset, and lives in the market. The best candidates for each dislike the other job. A brief that says 'full-stack marketer' gets a longlist of people who are average at both, and a hire who is managed out in eighteen months by a board that wanted one of them.

Results from the last company are the hardest to verify of any seat

Revenue growth has many parents, and a marketing leader's claim to it is easy to make and hard to check. The assessment has to separate what the candidate decided from what the market, the product and the sales team did. Ask for the plan they wrote, the budget they held and the metric they were measured on, then reference the CEO and the sales leader from that period, not the team that reported to them.

The relationship with sales is the job, and it should be interviewed for

In B2B companies the CMO's success is decided by whether the sales leader trusts the pipeline. A CMO candidate should meet the head of sales before an offer, and the search should ask both how they would settle a disagreement about lead quality, because that disagreement will happen in the first quarter.

The channel mix the company needs may be one the candidate has never run

A leader who built a consumer brand on paid social is not the person for an enterprise company that wins on events, partners and analyst relations, and the reverse. Marketing channels are more specific than most boards realise, and the brief should name the two or three that matter and ask candidates to show their work in them.

The process, where it differs

Decide the problem

Pipeline or positioning for the next two years, agreed by the founder, the sales leader and the board before anyone is approached.

Map

Marketing leaders in companies with the same buyer and the same channel mix, which matters more than the same industry.

Approach

With the growth target and the budget stated. Marketing leaders have been burned by companies that wanted pipeline on no spend, and they ask early.

Assess

A plan presented against the company's real position, references with the CEO and the sales leader from the last role, and a session with the current head of sales.

Base, bonus tied to a metric the candidate had a hand in defining, and equity; a CMO on a revenue bonus they do not control resigns within the year.

What to ask a search firm

Is our problem demand or positioning, and what makes you say so?
How do you verify a marketing leader's claimed results?
Which candidates on your list have run our specific channels, not just our industry?
Will the head of sales meet the final candidates, and how will you handle a disagreement?
What does CMO tenure look like in the companies you have placed into?

Where it goes wrong

Hiring a brand leader to fix a pipeline problem, or a growth operator to fix a positioning one
Taking revenue growth at a previous company as the candidate's own work without checking
Keeping the sales leader out of the process
Setting a bonus on a metric marketing does not control
Briefing for an industry when the real match is the buyer and the channels

When a search is the wrong instrument

A company that has not yet found its positioning does not need a full-time chief marketing officer; it needs the founder to do that work with a fractional CMO two days a week, then hire permanently once there is a message to scale. Searching for a permanent CMO before the positioning exists hires somebody to execute a strategy that has not been written.

Common questions

How long does a CMO search take?

Ten to fourteen weeks to an accepted offer is typical for a retained search. UK marketing leaders usually carry three-month notice periods, sometimes six at larger companies. A fractional CMO commonly holds the seat through the search and the notice period and hands over to the permanent hire.

What does a CMO executive search cost?

The UK retained market charges 25 to 33 per cent of first-year earnings; contingency recruiters charge 15 to 25 per cent on placement. The fee is the same shape as any C-suite search. What differs is that the base for a CMO is usually a little under the CFO or CTO at the same company, so the fee is too.

Why do CMOs have the shortest tenure in the C-suite?

Most often because the board hired for one kind of marketing leader while needing another, and because marketing's results are attributed loosely enough that a downturn lands on the CMO whatever caused it. A clear brief, a metric the CMO can influence and a working relationship with sales fix most of it.

Should a startup hire a CMO or a VP of Marketing?

Under about £5 million of revenue the seat is usually a head or VP of marketing executing a positioning the founder owns, and the title CMO attracts candidates who expect to set strategy and run a team. Hire the title that matches the job, because the wrong one leaves quickly.

Two ways in

Permanent, or the part-time version first

Retained search runs a full-time appointment end to end. Operator Search answers the same brief fractionally in five business days, which is usually the faster way to find out whether the seat is real. Or browse the bench and approach somebody direct at no cost.

How to Hire a CMO: Brand or Growth, Process and CostDeciding whether the company has a pipeline problem or a positioning problem, how to verify a marketing leader's results, the sales relationship, and the loaded cost.How to Brief an Executive Search Firm So the Search Starts RightWhat a search firm needs from you before approaching anyone: the scope, the package, the decision-makers, the no-go list and the timeline, with the questions a good firm will ask back.