Ep 18 - Industry Expertise Does Not Matter Any More

Some of you may have noticed there was a bit of a gap in the podcasts from probably the beginning of May to the beginning of June. We had almost a month off. Crazy, crazy busy times. I’m back in the habit, and we’re getting back into the swing of things again with the three short episodes per week. These are meant to be bite-sized insights into the world of working as a fractional CMO, specifically helping CEOs and founders understand the world of a fractional CMO, understand the benefits and the value this can bring to your organization, and how you could save an absolute shed load of money rather than employing someone full time and paying six-figure salaries, multiple six-figure salaries, and paying far less for a fractional who could come in to work with you that may never have worked with you in your industry.And that’s really what I just want to unpack a little bit today: this difference between people looking for a fractional CMO who’s had maybe 10 to 15 years experience in your industry, and also the people who’ve never worked in your industry.I feel like I get shot down quite a lot when talking to businesses I feel I could really help. When we get into conversations, I can see that my job as a fractional CMO is to help connect their product to their audience, to lead a strategy, and to have marketing leadership ingrained within the company that does that one job. And then we measure the revenue that’s generated from the marketing activity, from what we do.So if my job is to connect your ideal customer to your product, the main thing through our marketing that we need to really focus on is the payoff. What is it? What’s in it for them when they purchase? What’s in it for them when they buy? What result are they going to get? What transformation are they going to experience and achieve? And it really doesn’t matter what industry a marketing professional has come from, because in essence the company themselves, the history, the values, the stories that have come from all the business that company or that brand has actually transacted, the products they’ve sold to customers, the lives they’ve changed… those are the stories that can then demonstrate that transformation.If marketing leadership in your organization is set on the path of pulling together that information, pulling together those stories, and then executing tactical marketing strategies to get those stories out in the public domain, that’s going to be the biggest win you can have in your marketing today.I see so many brands and so many companies forget that storytelling is important. They focus on features, they focus on the product itself, they focus on themselves as a brand and telling their story or their founder’s story. Those things are valid and they’re important. But in my mind, where we’re at right now in the age of disconnection, human disconnection, with so many AI bots doing the job of connecting brands with customers, bringing the human back into all of this means sharing story and being real.And if you’re looking for a fractional CMO and you’re putting on that job description, or that advert, or that post you’re putting up on Indeed or any job board, and you list a requirement for 10 or 15 or 20 years experience in your industry, you’re going to get somebody who has been conditioned by that industry. The things people take as the norm, the things people in your industry just settle for, because that’s the way it’s always been done… that’s what they’re bringing to the table.When you bring somebody with the experience of taking products to market and leading the marketing within companies for maybe 10 or 15 years, and they don’t have experience in your industry, they’re going to bring a fresh way of thinking. They’re going to be able to bring some nuances to things. They’re going to help you to, you know, row against the tide and find your blue ocean of customers.And I really feel like I need to champion this. I need to champion this idea of expertise not necessarily being the prerequisite for finding the right CMO. The experience of taking products to market and seeing results in different niches will help you see that they’re good at their job, particularly if they’ve worked in lots of different niches as well and had success, because ideally you can then see it really doesn’t matter about niche.When you’re looking to bring somebody in to assist you in building the marketing leadership in your organization and in your brand, don’t just focus on industry expertise. Focus on results they’ve already got for clients.If you’re having conversations now in your board meetings, or with your senior management team, about bringing a CMO into your business right now, consider flipping the conversation and just asking the question I’ve posed today. Should we be bringing somebody in with industry expertise, or should we be bringing somebody in with proven knowledge and expertise and results from multiple industries, and help apply that to our business?If it’s something you want to have a conversation with me about, then you can dive over to www.anthodges.com or even email me directly at [email protected]. I’m the host here at the CMO Field Notes podcast. Three bite-sized podcasts every single week, helping you understand the very nature and thinking of modern-day CMOs and how they can help your business. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.cmofieldnotes.com