How a New CMO Gets off to Fast Start

Speakers: Robin Saitz
Hosts: Matt Sharrers, Melissa Valdez
Podcast: https://traffic.libsyn.com/salesbenchmarkindex/AP1773_Robin_Saitz.mp3

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Our guest on SBI TV is Robin Saitz, the Chief Marketing Officer at Avecto. Robin is a transformational marketing executive who knows how to get off to a quick start in a new role.  In today’s show we demonstrate how to get off to a fast start in a CMO’s first 90 days.[p]

Getting off to a fast start actually starts in the interview process.  Robin interviews with the end in mind, and through the interview process she learns a great deal about the company and team.  She dove deep into learning about Avecto, a cybersecurity software company that provides privileged management and application control solutions.   Robin states, “I think of the interview process as the precursor to the first 90 day. It’s not really counted in the first 90 days, but the interview process is a core part of preparing for those first 90 days. I like to say that I was interviewing the company as much as they were interviewing me, and it wasn’t just about making the decision to join, but also,  to get answers to questions that I had that would make my first day and the first month go well. I insisted on meeting with a lot of people in this process, because it was a big decision for me, and it was a big decision for them.” [p]

Once Robin accepted the role as CMO, she prepared for her first day and how she planned out her first 90-days before the start date. Listen as Robin describes her preparation steps. [p]

Matt summarizes Robin’s first 90 days, “ Robin articulates how she broke down short-term first 90-day initiatives, kind of putting points on the board as we like to say, with more longer-term initiatives that needed to get done. Building that content strategy. Knowing it was both people and resources. Recognizing that, but willing to live with not just doing something haphazard out of the first 90 days to check a box, being thoughtful.” [p]

Robin describes how to assess the marketing team and shares: [p]

“Whenever a CMO or any new leader joins a company, I think there’s probably a healthy amount of skepticism, nervousness and excitement. It’s all of that. I had to knock down the nervousness and skepticism. I firmly believe it’s important to understand the individual career objectives and the job satisfaction of each team member. So that’s the first set of questions that I tried to hit on with my team, and I met with all of them individually. And then I also collected feedback from their peers, from folks inside marketing, folks outside of marketing.” [p]

“I also assess their work output, their responsiveness, and then metrics to the extent they were available. Then the other tool that we’re testing, is the Predictive Index for behavioral assessments. I said, “Hey, I’d love to pilot it with the marketing organization,” and they were very cooperative with that. Everybody’s taken the PI. We have an understanding of who’s got a strong process orientation, who’s got a high sense of urgency, who’s very dominant, and that I think will help the whole organization perform better.” [p]

Additional Resource [p]

For additional help evaluating your marketing strategy click here to take SBI’s . This self-assessment helps CMOs:[p]

1. Understand the strength of their current brand strategy
2. Determine whether they are communicating with the right buyers through the right channels
3. Facilitate discussions with the Executive Leadership team on the importance and value of creating a strong compelling brand and message [p]

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