The Impossible CMO

There are few jobs in B2B more thankless than that of the Chief Marketing Officer. On paper, the role is the engine of growth. In practice, it’s the seat where budgets vanish first, expectations expand fastest, and success is hardest to prove.

Growth demands more than demand

A bit of background. My time is split between working with private equity sponsors and assisting CEOs in the middle of a growth push. That usually means companies either moving from Series A to Series B or independents gearing up for an exit. In both cases, the challenge is the same — how do you build an organization that not only grows, but grows in a way that maximizes value when it’s time to cash out?

My work is less about theory and more about building the roadmaps and alignment needed to actually get there. Throughout my career, I have been a CMO, CEO & Founder, CGO, Operating Partner, Managing Partner, Management Consultant, Investor, and Board Director. I’ve been in the trenches, but I can also provide the objectivity of the outside observer.

Every year, I take on seven to ten new companies, and the growth levers are always familiar: marketing, sales, packaging, pricing, go-to-market, strategy. My role isn’t to tell C-suites what to do, but to guide them through the realities of acceleration — where to place bets, how to create alignment, and how to clear the barriers that keep organizations from hitting their next stage.

From what I can see, in those moments, the B2B CMO may have the toughest seat at the table.

The hardest job in the room

For companies trying to break through their next stage of growth (and not just then), the CMO is usually asked to be a miracle worker — and just as quickly becomes the scapegoat. We know they’re indispensable, but B2B is still really bad at connecting the dots between their work and concrete, added value. Sure, you’re C-suite, but it’s not glamorous.

Then there’s the reality of what today’s markets demand of a good CMO. Their remit stretches from brand to demand gen, product positioning to analyst relations. They need to be a corporate storyteller, a data scientist, a growth strategist, and a therapist for both sales and product teams. Few leaders have that entire toolkit, can straddle strategy and execution. Fewer still are given the resources to use it.

Budgets are cut from marketing first. Teams are reduced faster than in any other department. And the pressure to “show impact” is relentless. There’s this popular idea that marketing should deliver 25% of all leads and prove it. Maybe you’ll get there on a good day. Most of the time, it’s a pipe dream, especially when touchpoints are messy and attribution is a constant fight.

When a company is in growth mode, marketing isn’t just about filling the pipeline. It’s about proving the company’s value story to investors, expanding into new categories, diversifying revenue streams, and building resilience so that a few large customers don’t dictate the company’s destiny. That means packaging, pricing, integrations, and narrative—hard, structural levers of value creation, not just campaigns and content.

And yet, many CMOs are still judged by short-term lead counts. The people tasked with unlocking a company’s long-term story are often evaluated on metrics that barely scratch the surface of strategic impact. Or they don’t know how to deliver the right metrics themself.

Below, I want to explore three ways to make life easier for CMOs.

Alignment is the baseline

When I consult a firm, I won’t champion one executive or department over another, but there’s a baseline I can (and need to) create to allow everyone to perform and function, and that’s an environment that certainly also benefits marketing.

The most common barrier to growth isn’t external competition; it’s internal misalignment. Immature companies often lack a clear, shared roadmap. Different divisions sprint in different directions, and priorities shift weekly. 

Mature organizations—the ones that hit their growth milestones—look different. They have clear two-year roadmaps, alignment across executive teams, and accountability frameworks that prevent noise from drowning out signal. Many companies don’t get there alone. An outside perspective is needed because self-reflection is hard — at the organizational level as much as on the personal.

To add another layer of complexity, there’s the issue of boards. A vanishingly slim percentage of board members come from commercial or marketing backgrounds. Instead, they’re dominated by finance and audit expertise. CMOs walk into boardrooms where no one truly speaks their language, and where sales and financial performance get all the oxygen. Understandably, some don’t even bother to attend in the first place.

Diversity matters here. Without it, it’s a constant fight for recognition, as any woman board member can tell you.

Connecting the dots

Truthfully, it's a real struggle for CMOs to prove metrics inside their organizations and consistently be able to justify investment.

That’s why automation needs to be a priority, not only for the marketing team. It's really sales where your CEOs, CFOs, and board are going to be looking. You need to have funnel metrics, be able to clearly see what's happening at every touch point, and know the average impact of every move you make.

Pay attention to companies like Octane 11 or Keen Decision Systems for measurement. Showcase your campaign ROI and find a way to compare campaigns against each other. Learn to go beyond your digital footprint. Can you take your measurement offline? Can you cover all of the different components of what B2B marketing is? Public events, private events, content syndication, call centers, PR, BDRs, etc.?

Big question: Is your measurement across everything you do good enough to be predictive, rather than just prescriptive?

Measurement is key to growth, but more concretely, it’s key for CMOs who want to be heard and who want to unlock budgets. The above is the holy grail, but the good news is that you’re not the only one working on the attribution problem.

Keep moving with the times

It’s telling that many companies are experimenting with alternative titles: Chief Customer Officer, Chief Experience Officer, Chief Client Officer. These roles acknowledge what many CMOs know also—growth isn’t about ads or campaigns; it’s about how the entire company shows up to the customer.

But changing the title doesn’t change the underlying challenge. The job still demands someone who knows when to scale up and scale down, shift priorities quickly, and stay on par with sometimes unpredictable change: COVID, the rise of AI, the collapse and rebirth of events, the social-first buying behavior of Gen Z B2B decision-makers. In short, someone who can do the seemingly impossible.

And yet, really great CMOs can move with those times with ease, have the resources to do so, and know how to deploy them. As markets and technology accelerate, that makes these leaders very rare and so very, very expensive.

In light of this, good leaders know when to bring in external partners. Agencies and managed services are resurging for a reason, and B2B is well-advised to leverage them. Most CMOs will need them to keep pace with shifting platforms, fragmented data, and the sheer cost of experimentation.

And still, we’re here

If the role is so punishing, why take it? Maybe it’s that the industry is evolving, we’re on track to figure out perfect automation and perfect attribution soon, and the B2B CMO will get their moment of limelight. More likely, it’s simply because you’re passionate about it.

And that’s a good thing. You’re the impossible CMO. You’re here to tell a story.