What is the year 1 roadmap for success in your first CMO role?

Year 1 roadmap depends on the stage. I work at earlier-stage companies. Year one roadmap at an early stage is 1) Do we know our ICP and do we know what drives them, 2) Have we proven we know what routes to reach those people and 3) Do we have a pretty good recipe for converting them from the marketing funnel to opportunity 4) Do we know what content or training or knowledge our salespeople need to move opportunities or active trials to paid customers?

Have you built a very strong team?

Do I see you as not just the person who not only talks about what marketing is doing but who thinks about it as what is the total demand that the company needs to create? (whether it comes from sales development or other places outside of marketing). We need to know if you can create a pipeline that supports scaling sales.

What you don’t want to do is add a lot of sales capacity if you aren’t comfortable that you’ve built the demand and pipeline for them to be successful. 

Also, I think with within marketing, you’ve done a good job grading your org as it relates to brand awareness /content/ community / demand gen /conversion / pmm  and being self-aware to understand: here’s where we are, why we focused on this area, and key areas to focus on next.

This is very dependent on the role you are stepping into, but I am a big fan of the book, First 90 days. Be mindful to spend time in the first 30+ days listening to customers, prospects, employees, and investors/board on what is working, not working, opportunities, and challenges. Be careful not to alienate the team you are leading by criticizing what has been done before you. There is always a story behind it.

In your first 60 days, work with your leadership and cross-functional partners to develop a strategy and plan of action. Where will the focus be?

Make sure you have several quick wins along the way in the first 90 days. Establish an analytics framework on how you measure success and don’t strive for perfection. Encourage a test and learn mindset across the team allowing people to fail, but fail fast. Finally, quickly evaluate the team including your leaders to determine if you have the right mix of skills to accomplish your strategy and goals.