CMO Shakeup: Turning Potential Turmoil into Triumph for Your Agency
The most dreaded phone call a Managing Director can get from a client: “We’ve made a change at the top….” Suddenly you’re pressing the reset button on years of time, effort, and relationship-building. The scramble is on to learn about the new CMO, get a meeting, bring all your thoughts (old and new!) and try to get back to level as quickly as possible. And to do it before you get squeezed out by another more aggressive shop.
With the average CMO tenure at about 3 years, and 22% of B2C CMOs still in their first year in the job1, this turnover isn’t going to stop – and it might even speed up. While these marketing leadership changes can be a time for panic at an agency, they don’t have to be. Like any moment of change, it provides an opportunity for positive updates in the relationship from both sides.
By focusing on the how more than the what, leaders can quickly build trust and support for a successful future.
Expectations should be at the top of the first meeting’s agenda. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and CMOs are obviously no different. Putting your cards on the table at the first meeting ensures neither side makes any faulty assumptions that get the relationship off on the wrong foot.
Clear communication from the start prevents misunderstandings and aligns both parties on their common goal of great creative work. Our experience shows time and again that the misunderstandings of process problems are often the root cause of creative problems. So, don’t be afraid to ask pointed questions about how the CMO wants to engage with the work: When do you want to see work in the creative development process? What level of work do you want to see? How involved do you want to be in the briefing process? Heck, even Are you a texter, Slacker, or emailer? is a fair expectation-setter. In exchange, you’ll want to share key agency points: Who is the CMO’s point of contact? How and when do we break SLAs?
Getting on the same page from the start here will save a lot of time (and budget!) down the line.
Be direct and honest about what’s worked – and what hasn’t – on both sides of the table. A leadership change is a good time to course-correct challenges that might’ve plagued recent work. While you don’t need a laundry list of wrongs, it’s totally fair to prioritize a couple areas that you need CMO-level help with. Don’t be shy about sharing where the agency has room to get better, too. The honesty and transparency will help you each keep the other accountable.
Early in my tenure at a digital agency, I was able to do exactly this with their new marketing leadership. I brought two challenges that only leadership could solve: cutting down on circuitous early rounds of creative prior to leadership input, and getting direct and clear creative feedback. At the same time, I told the client point-blank that they hadn’t been getting our “A” creative team, and that our project management had lagged due to turnover. Following that tough but honest one-hour conversation, it took us less than two months to cut through client and agency red tape on creative and get our project management back up to par. That hour saved a relationship, leading to the award-winning creative work we both wanted, plus multiple years of scope and revenue growth on the agency side.
Resist the urge to pounce. Nothing brings out agency “zombies” like a CMO change: that Cannes-worthy idea that couldn’t find an advocate, or a new service line that you want to sell in. While creative and financial pressure are surely on, new opportunities require a level of trust and comfort that (candidly) hasn’t been earned yet. Put the effort into solidifying the partnership at the start by showing you can do what you’re being asked to do, and do it well.
We work with CMOs and marketing leaders to help them create better lines of agency delineation. We’ve found that the strongest (and therefore, most well compensated) partners for these CMOs tend to be the agencies that know and deliver in their lane first and consistently. That positive impression makes marketing leadership more willing to take an “organic pitch” meeting, or reach out with a new stretch assignment.
Commit to “grace and space.” New relationships always have bumps at the beginning, especially when 71% of Fortune 500 CMOs are in that function for the first time. You want to create an environment where it's ok for (reasonable) mistakes to happen without dire consequences. Being quick to admit and correct, and keeping the lines of communication open throughout, will lower the tension at the agency. And if things do flare up, commit to having top-to-top discussions before any big decisions are made.
I’ve been thankful to countless bosses and clients for their grace and space throughout my career, especially in new relationships. Recently, I watched as one of our client’s new agencies struggled on what marketing leadership’s experience suggested to be routine social media tasks. But because of the early commitment to communication between both sides, the challenges were addressed quickly, and the partnership actually strengthened and grew.
Times of change can be turbulent, especially given the history and frequency of CMO-level turnover. Whenever that moment hits, agency leaders need to prioritize communication over remuneration. While it’s unlikely to solve the present quarter’s bottom line, it promises to make future quarters brighter, while also building strong, long-lasting client-agency relationships.
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[1] All stats in this article are sourced from: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/cmo-tenure-fortune-500-advertisers-marketing-hiring/713323/
Source: Advertising Week
