CMOs in B2B tech struggle with execution, not strategy

The role of CMOs is dramatically shifting in the B2B landscape. They're stepping up to meet heightened expectations from CEOs, offering a blend of strategic insight and operational expertise. The modern CMO is not just a marketer but a leader who facilitates business growth through effective integration of marketing strategies and operational efficiencies. Consider the cases of Eric Lent and Kurt Uhlir, who show how marketing leaders are evolving into drivers of innovation and customer success within their organizations. By merging the functions of marketing and operations, they’re creating a unified approach that ensures alignment with customer needs and business goals. In this transformation, CMOs are encouraged to embrace technology and data analytics to pioneer new marketing strategies, ultimately reaping tangible benefits for their companies. If you were in a CMO role today, what steps would you take to adapt to these new expectations? https://lnkd.in/d3j5CS4c

The "Lone Wolf" Marketing Manager's Burden Your marketing manager is likely talented and hardworking, but they are operating in a silo. They are the engine of your marketing output—handling everything from email campaigns to social media—yet they often lack the senior-level sounding board and strategic guidance that a CMO provides. This isn't a performance issue; it's a structural one. The pain is a profound strategic knowledge gap. When a single manager shoulders this burden, it inevitably leads to: Tactical Treadmill: They become trapped in daily tasks, executing without a cohesive long-term strategy. This results in wasted budget on unproven channels because there’s no senior voice to validate or veto high-stakes experiments. Decision Fatigue: Every major marketing decision—from tech stack investments to vendor selection—lands squarely on their desk, leading to slowed momentum and a pervasive feeling of being overwhelmed. Stagnant Growth: They can't possibly keep up with the latest B2B GTM frameworks, acquisition models, or brand positioning shifts while also managing daily operations. A fractional CMO doesn't replace them; we empower them. We step in as the strategic partner they desperately need. We provide the decades of expertise, the validated strategic framework, and the expert oversight needed to transform their efforts from a collection of isolated tactics into a powerful, unified growth engine. We mentor your manager, giving them clarity and confidence, ensuring your marketing investment finally delivers its full potential. #MarketingLeadership #FractionalCMO #TeamEmpowerment #GrowthMarketing #fractionalcmo

𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗔 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗠𝗢𝘀? The question came up in a recent conversation. Fair point. Working in UK B2B tech usually means you're the EMEA arm of a US-HQ'd company. I’ve been blessed with International and Global roles, but if you’re an EMEA marketer can you really call yourself CMO? I think of it like cooking with three scenarios: 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘂. Pick what you want from pre-made options. 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗲. Follow it exactly. No substitutions. 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. Make something amazing. At Microsoft 20 years ago? Pure menu. Literal ring-binder of approved campaigns. But regional marketing has evolved. US companies realised there's value in having experienced people who understand 40+ countries. Cultural nuances. Economic realities. Political landscapes. Today's EMEA marketing leaders: - Operate at the highest level with senior GTM leadership teams with decades of experience (and Ferrari collections to prove it) - Make strategic decisions based on deep customer understanding - Build market-specific activations from scratch that drive awareness - Know how to run multi-national launches & campaigns across borders (and, no, EMEA is not a single country) - Design pricing, promotions and partnerships that actually work locally That's CMO work. Of course, marketing is a broad church - every CMO position can mean something different: from full product & revenue responsibility through to brand & corporate marketing only. The title matters less than the scope. Geography doesn't diminish responsibility. If you're setting strategy, not just executing it - if you're using ingredients, not given a menu - you're doing CMO-level work. Own your experience. Call it what it is.

Over the past decade in marketing — across both B2C and B2B — one thing has always stayed true: 💡 Campaigns rarely fail because of bad ideas. They fail because of misalignment and poor execution — between marketing, sales, and data. Early in my career, I focused heavily on analytics and performance metrics. Now, I focus on connecting marketing activity to business outcomes. Whether it’s launching a consumer tech product or driving demand in healthcare, the winning formula is always the same: ➡️ Clear alignment + disciplined execution. As marketing evolves faster than ever, alignment isn’t a “nice to have” — it’s the multiplier that makes every dollar work harder. And solid execution, on firm timelines, is the secret sauce that turns good strategy into real impact. Curious — what’s the biggest challenge you’ve seen when trying to align marketing and sales?

Many manufacturing and B2B executives share the same frustration: The growth vision is clear, but marketing execution isn’t keeping pace. Here’s what’s getting in the way: Strategy - You know where the company needs to go. But most internal teams don’t have the capabilities or perspective to craft a marketing strategy that truly drives growth. This gap is fueling the rise of Fractional CMOs for manufacturing and B2B companies. Execution - Internal marketing teams are built to support, not to scale. They juggle projects instead of moving quickly and driving initiatives across the finish line. Testing - Most teams can barely get a campaign out the door. That leaves little room for testing, optimizing, and finding the most effective channels to reach your buyers, especially in complex B2B environments. The result: Sales teams point to marketing as the reason growth is stalling. Marketing teams feel stuck and under pressure. AI tools aren’t fixing the issue; they’re adding complexity instead of delivering speed. 👉 If your growth vision is strong but marketing execution is slowing you down, let’s talk.

🚀 In today’s B2B landscape, marketing isn’t just about campaigns — it’s about building a marketing engine that scales, aligns with business goals, and drives measurable growth. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to: Design and launch marketing functions from the ground up, aligning them with sales and GTM priorities. Craft brand narratives that resonate globally, turning positioning into a competitive advantage. Implement integrated multichannel strategies where every piece — content, SEO, digital, automation — was measured against ROI, CAC, and pipeline contribution. Lead and coach cross-functional, distributed teams to execute with agility in fast-paced environments. One lesson stands out: a Marketing Director must be both strategist and builder. It’s not enough to create a vision — you must translate it into execution, systems, and data-driven improvements that scale over time. 👉 For my network: When building a marketing function from scratch, what do you see as the hardest part — defining the brand, aligning with sales, or scaling execution? #B2BMarketing #Leadership #GrowthStrategy #BrandBuilding #CMO #MarketingDirector

Sometimes I feel marketing still isn’t taken seriously enough. It’s treated like sales support. A cost center. A tactical checkbox. B2B founders and senior leaders demand instant results. But they won’t give marketing the time or investment it needs to drive real growth. It leads to overworked teams, campaigns judged on vanity metrics, and zero long-term brand equity. But we've seen it first-hand; when marketing is given space to operate strategically, everything changes. Its influence on pipeline and revenue growth becomes obvious. One SaaS client gave us the space to test bold ad creatives. CAC dropped by 70%. Another saw their brand recognition in-market double within a year. The playbook is simple, people. Companies that keep treating marketing as “support” will lose. The ones that treat it as the growth engine will win.

Marketing is sometimes seen as the “top of funnel” function: creating awareness, generating leads, then passing them on. We can argue about whether that was ever true anywhere — but it’s certainly not even the starting stakes in complex deals. When the goal is to influence multiple senior stakeholders across a complex account, marketing’s role is ever-evolving: • Not just broad reach, but account-specific resonance • Not just MQLs, but moments of credibility and influence • Not just campaigns, but joined-up orchestrated engagement in collaboration with sales and sales development teams The real impact happens when marketing, sales and sales development are locked together: • Messages land consistently — across digital, physical, and human touchpoints into the right accounts • Senior decision-makers hear the same story reinforced from multiple angles • Activity builds into sustained account momentum, rather than isolated noise We see it with clients every day: where marketing is tightly integrated into an account influence strategy, pipeline isn’t just larger — it’s stronger and more likely to convert.   Not everything marketing does can or should be measured in direct pipeline terms. But if it’s not believed to be shaping pipeline and revenue over the longer term, then it risks becoming activity for activity’s sake.

Biggest bullsh!t of todays' time: “B2B marketing is done on whitepapers or trade fairs, not on internet, reels, or memes”. That’s simply not true anymore. Reason being.. the decision-makers now are not those 50-year-old CEOs who only respond to brochures and phones calls only. They’re 25–30-year-old second/third generation managers whom you spotted scrolling their phones all the time. They grew up on Discord, gaming, memes, anime, and reels. And today, they hold big budgets and buying decisions. They don’t separate “personal” internet and “professional” internet. For them, it’s all one single feed. The factory manager to purchase officers.. high chances that they’re digital natives. They are resourceful, and they don't shortlist proposal on the "lowest cost" basis. They search about them online.. read their reviews.. see their digital reputation... they speak to their sales representative.. and then make a decision. You will observe, the big brands have already anticipated this change and made a move. They’re mostly targeting the GenZ buyers who grew up in the internet world, and dominating the market. For the business still speaking in the language of the 80s and 90s, it's high time to unlearn, tweak the buyer persona profiles and re-frame the marketing campaigns. #Genzmarketing #B2BMarketing #MarTech

🔥 Why Marketing Needs a Seat at the Industrial Boardroom Table In too many industrial-sector organizations, marketing is still seen as the team that designs brochures or runs the trade show booth. But today, marketing is no longer a back-office function; it’s the first and last touchpoint in the buyer’s journey. Before a salesperson gets involved, buyers have looked at your website, read your whitepapers, compared competitors, and often narrowed their shortlist. After the sale, marketing is also the team driving customer loyalty and advocacy alongside sales and external partners. When CMOs sit alongside Business Development, Finance, Operations, and Engineering, companies don’t just “get more leads.” They get: - Market intelligence to spot risks and opportunities early - Campaigns tied directly to revenue growth, not vanity metrics - Stronger positioning against global competition Companies that fail to elevate marketing to strategy will always struggle with unpredictable pipelines. The ones who win see marketing as a growth driver, not overhead. 👉 Not every business is ready for a full-time marketing executive. That’s where a Fractional CMO model brings this perspective to the table without the full-time cost.