Founders and small business leaders often face a dilemma of who they should hire first for their marketing organisation. They tell me that they need to decide between
hiring a seasoned marketer who can build a strategic framework but who is unlikely to get their hands dirty when it comes to the nitty-gritty of executing the plan; or
hiring a junior person who will hustle and bootstrap to get shit done but who likely doesn’t have the experience to develop a sound strategy independently
Pros and cons are usually clear -- the earlier a company is able to lay a strong foundation for brand vision, strategy and execution, the better. However, the salary of a full-time senior marketing leader is a significant factor on the company’s monthly overheads while desired revenue growth from campaign executions are not imminent. On the flip side, an affordable junior person can hit the ground running and focus on ‘performance marketing’, which promises measurable, immediate effects. However, the lack of work experience and strategic, big picture thinking requires the kind of guidance that a founder often cannot provide.
“Strategy without execution is just good intentions. And execution without strategy is just noise.”
My recommendation is to consider a third option: engage a seasoned marketing expert to only do what they are best at: build the brand foundation and an actionable strategic framework that the founder buys into; then let that senior person go, but only a little bit. Keep them around part-time to oversee the strategy put into action, guiding the junior marketer (team) and agencies to deliver business growth through execution excellence.
This is “CMO as a Service” (I find this term clearer than “Fractional CMO”).
“X As a Service” originated as a business model when static resource solutions didn’t fit the circumstances for start-ups, who couldn’t afford major investments in infrastructure and relied on flexibility in scaling up capacities (computing, for example). Instead of making a large one-off payment and owning potentially idle capacities, start-ups benefited from making considerably small, monthly payments to access cloud computing and the ability to increase or decrease capacities as needed.
With CMOaaS, business leaders have access to a senior marketing expert when they need them to deliver crucial marketing leadership as well as ongoing support to the team. Depending on the maturity of the business or the task at hand, the part-time CMO could come in at an early stage to collaborate with the founders on customer centricity and product-market-fit, help to build and develop the team as well as write the playbook to scale the business up and set creative standards. Engaging a CMOaaS ensures expertise and leadership while maintaining flexibility and full control over the cost.
Unlike a conventional consultant, the CMOaaS would not just drop a 100-slide theoretical presentation but instead be embedded in the leadership team and set the company up for success by delivering an actionable plan that they should continue to oversee when it comes to life. Everybody wins.
Comentarios