Oct 17

Don't Become a 'Legacy' CMO, CRO, or CSS Leader

A future-ready GTM leader will look very different than it does today as CMO, CRO and CSS roles converge to serve the digital-first B2B tech customer.

CMO, CRO and Customer Success leaders need to move beyond alignment, and move toward convergence. The shift in many small- and mid-sized B2B tech companies is already happening resulting in some of these symptoms: funnel gets flatter, traditional lead flows need adjusting, existing siloed systems create logjams, role confusion, and a debate over who does what ensues.

These roles are converging due to the emphasis on a seamless customer experience, the importance of expansion revenue, and pressure from investors to generate lasting value versus just chasing growth lost to churn. This is causing a lot of disruption in some organizations because the way many GTM teams are operating, isn't aligned with the rapidly evolving next-generation requirements of the digital-first B2B 'techsumer'.

CMO, CRO, and CSS roles of the future will look nothing like they do today, so current and aspiring GTM leaders need to design for the future and evolve their approach to leading in the next AI-fueled wave of digital transformation. In addition, we need to build a future-ready bench of GTM leaders from our high-potentials starting today!

What's required in the future will look nothing like it does today! — The Future-Ready CMO, CRO, GTM Leader

Convergence is driven by several factors:

Customer-Centric Go-to-Market Strategies

Companies are adopting customer-centric models, where the focus is on delivering value throughout the customer journey rather than just closing deals. Marketing, sales, and customer success are trying to navigate how to ensure customer’s needs are being met across their entire lifecycle.

Customer success is playing a more proactive role in expansion sales, cross-selling, and upselling, which traditionally were under the purview of sales. Marketing is being asked to do more digitally to support renewals and expansion, which was once left mostly to sales. And sales is being asked to expand the relationship and beyond the initial transaction.

AI-Fueled Digital Transformation

Marketing, sales and customer success tech stacks, which largely grew in silos, have over the years accumulated tech debt from customization and insular maintenance with revolving teams supporting them making them less agile and efficient over time. Many, many tools have been added to augment data and take advantage of modern customer targeting and engagement methods that are being used to varying degrees.

Now, AI tools are being piled on top, creating more fragmentation and technology creep. While some have found ways to unify the customer experience platform, many still don't think of this sprawling virtual platform as the front office of their business - often without a tech roadmap, funding, and proper ownership. Companies need to address the tech debt, but with the rapid evolution of the B2B GTM motion towards more of a B2C model, and with roles converging, it's time to take a fresh look at the technology that will support it.

Account-Based Revenue Approaches

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a key driver in the convergence of these roles. ABM strategies have helped align the marketing team, sales, and customer success teams as they identify, target, and expand key accounts. This has been a great first step and has evolved many organizations but most consider this a type of play or campaign versus a way of doing business. Companies need to think about what an the entire GTM organization would look like if it were set up to optimize ABM from the start.

Investor's Focus on Recurring Revenue

With the economics of subscription-based and SaaS business models, there is much more emphasis on customer retention and expansion over time. CROs now oversee both net new sales and recurring revenue, and CMOs are tasked with supporting both acquisition and customer loyalty initiatives. Meanwhile, Customer Success leaders focus on driving value realization and reducing churn, making these roles highly interdependent but often accountably and execution can get sloppy.

Digital-First Models - the Evolving B2B TechSumer

The expectations of the B2B tech buyer are changing to become more consumer-like, but the traditional 'funnel' operating models are still deeply entrenched. Digital-first and self-service expectations are putting demands on the in-product capabilities for sure, but the 'aligned but separate' handoffs across well established funnel paradigms, don't match the agility and radical unity required for a customer-centric motion.

Alignment Isn't Sufficient - Convergence is a Must

A unified customer experience (CX) has become the central focus for many B2B tech companies. CMOs, CROs, and Customer Success leaders now jointly own the end-to-end customer experience, ensuring that messaging, service, and support are consistent across every touchpoint.

The convergence of these roles to support the full customer experience is forcing the GTM team to completely rethink their roles, workflow, and redefine decision-authority that can move at the speed of the digital-first customer. Hand-offs and alignment are no longer sufficient and causing a lot of confusion internally using legacy methods and traditional role definition. To maximize revenue and customer value, GTM leadership teams need to adjust their paradigms and quickly pivot to a next-generation GTM model that matches the expectations of the modern, digital-first B2B technology customer.

This requires CMOs, CROs, and CSS leaders to reimagine what the functions and roles will require in the future and begin making the pivot.

There's a Thin Bench of Next-Generation GTM Leaders in B2B Tech

As it is, recruiting high-caliber GTM talent is a challenge for small- and mid-sized B2B tech companies competing with larger, multi-national organizations, and the challenge will get even greater. This is especially true in PE portfolio companies who tend to rely on high-potential talent to 'grow into' a bigger job. However, it's up to the person to determine how to lead and operate and they are typically relying on old models of the past, or trying to replicate what worked at a legacy company before, versus what will be required in the future.

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