It’s a pressurised job nowadays
Welcome to our new regular update on everything related to marketing that gets deals, well, over the line.
The quote in the subject comes from a CMO earlier this month. It’s not news that marketing leaders are under greater pressure than ever to demonstrate a commercial return for what they do. It’s not enough to use volume metrics anymore – boards expect marketing to be an engine of growth. To have an impact.
Introducing our research
It’s no coincidence that Grounded was set up for this exact climate: to connect marketing activity to sales outcomes. So to get to the bottom of what impact truly means, the Grounded team have kicked off an industry study supported by Joel Harrison – combining a survey with a deep-dive set of CMO interviews.
So far we’ve run 20 of these and top line analysis confirms the new mandate for success which has been evolving over the last few years, is now being locked in. As one CMO put it:
“The value has shifted away from producing outputs and towards judging – knowing which things matter, and being close enough to sales and the business to make those commercial calls.”
Rob MItchell unpacks this new imperative for B2B marketing brilliantly in his article on our blog this week.
The climate is tightening
I fed the interviews so far into Claude and asked what it made of them. It’s top-line take: “Marketing has changed because it’s stopped being allowed to exist on faith and started having to prove itself in the business’s own terms.” Nothing new there. But it followed up with the context: “Money has got tighter, so marketing has to prove itself.”
The climate is abysmal. The pressure is bigger.
Lack of C-suite trust doesn’t help
The interviewees make the point that the relationship with the C-suite is everything in delivering impact: “The highest currency marketing has in a business is trust from the C-suite.”
But numbers from the survey back up what we’re hearing: only 27% of you feel valued by senior leadership.
Perhaps this lack of trust comes down to how well we tell our story. Our interviewees think so: “I think a lot of us are maybe not strong enough in telling the revenue story, not deep enough into the numbers to know what’s actually come out the machine on the other side.”
McKinsey flagged this disconnect a few years back – worth a read if you haven’t seen it. Their take: an unclear marketing remit, misalignment on measurement, and underestimated potential are the key issues undermining CEO/CMO trust. Fix it, and you fix lagging growth.
Sales and marketing misalignment
Unsurprisingly, another thread running through the early data is that sales and marketing alignment is patchy. 50% of senior marketers in the survey describe the relationship with sales as completely siloed or mostly separate.
But the CMOs I spoke with are unanimous on how critical a strong relationship is: “Marketing’s impact on the business requires a shift in how marketers look at engaging with sales.”
Self imposed pressure
What’s struck me from the interviews is that a great deal of pressure comes not from outside, but from within – the CMO’s own ambition, their own standards, their own fear of letting something they care about, fail. The challenge of impact it appears, has a big impact on, our emotions.
As one CMO exclaimed: “You take the pressure to get the joy.”
We’re also looking at Joy in more detail as part of the CMO Impact Study 
which will be published in September 22nd.
About Grounded
We help B2B marketers build bold, data-backed campaigns that drive brand trust and support sales conversations. Our content and technology helps drive tangible commercial outcomes, supporting marketers and making them feel comfortable about making the brave campaign choices that build their credibility and make their voice heard. To find out how we are helping them make an impact, please get in touch.
Media Contact: Julieta Holleveot julieta.hollevoet@thinkgrounded.com