Meredith Dennis and Kelly Yale | Fractional CMOs & The 90-Day Win
This video is a podcast interview with Meredith Dennis and Kelly Yale discussing the role and strategies of fractional Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in achieving significant business wins within the first 90 days of engagement.
Conclusion
Fractional CMOs focus on aligning the executive team, defining growth opportunities, and ensuring effective communication and clear goals. They emphasize building trust within the marketing team, understanding the customer experience, and avoiding scope creep to drive strategic objectives.
Key points
🔍 Identifying Strategic Needs: Assessing the company’s environment and identifying whether there is a problem, an opportunity, or a directive to address.
📊 Structured Approach: Utilizing a “pod approach” to clearly define the company’s challenges and strategic needs.
🗣️ Effective Communication: Maintaining clear and honest communication within the executive team to align on goals and strategies.
📈 Quick Wins: Focusing on immediate improvements to demonstrate value and build momentum.
💡 Customer Perspective: Understanding the company from the consumer’s viewpoint, including digital footprint, brand awareness, and reputation management.
🤝 Team Collaboration: Building relationships with existing teams, understanding their skills, and integrating effectively.
🚀 Supporting Growth: Helping companies, especially in regulated industries, navigate growth opportunities and strategic initiatives.
👥 Leadership and Advocacy: Providing leadership and direction to marketing team members, advocating for their ideas and contributions.
🧠 Marketing Education: Educating clients on the importance of strategic marketing and the role it plays in achieving business goals.
📋 Long-term Planning: Balancing short-term goals with long-term strategic planning to ensure sustainable growth.
Summary
- Introduction: The podcast introduces the topic of fractional CMOs and their impact within the first 90 days.
- Meredith’s Background: Meredith Dennis discusses her work with regulated B2B organizations and her strategic growth initiatives.
- Identifying Key Problems: Meredith emphasizes the importance of defining the environment and identifying whether there is a problem, an opportunity, or a directive.
- Structured Approach: Meredith discusses her “pod approach” to clearly define the company’s challenges and strategic needs.
- Kelly’s Background: Kelly Yale shares her experience in the fintech industry, focusing on data-driven customer relationship experiences.
- Customer Perspective: Kelly highlights the need to understand the company from the consumer’s viewpoint, including digital footprint, brand awareness, and reputation management.
- CEO and Leadership Involvement: Kelly and Meredith discuss the importance of CEOs being clear and honest about their goals and avoiding scope creep.
- Avoiding Scope Creep: Meredith advises being careful about scope creep and focusing on strategic objectives rather than getting mired in tactics.
- Team Integration: Kelly and Meredith advise new fractional CMOs to build trust and relationships with the existing team, avoiding coming in like a “wrecking ball.”
- Advice for Junior and Mid-level Team Members: Kelly and Meredith provide guidance for team members on what to expect when a fractional CMO joins and how to collaborate effectively.
- Sprint vs. Marathon Engagements: Kelly and Meredith discuss the pros and cons of sprint versus marathon engagements, emphasizing the need for clear goals and timelines.
- Long-term Strategy: Meredith explains the importance of setting a fixed end date for engagements, focusing on strategic outcomes, and avoiding scope creep.
- Final Thoughts on Engagements: Kelly and Meredith highlight the importance of having clear objectives and understanding the company’s goals and dreams for the future.
Quotes - 00:41: “My name is Meredith Dennis. I am the founder of Compression Marketing and a fractional CMO with a product marketing background.” – Meredith Dennis
- 01:10: “I take a pretty structural approach, I call it a pod approach. Usually, there’s one of three things happening: a problem that needs solving, an opportunity to take advantage of, or a directive.” – Meredith Dennis
- 01:58: “Let’s get a really clear lay of the land so that we can take what is currently your patchwork and make a really nice strategic picture out of it.” – Meredith Dennis
- 02:22: “My name is Kelly Yale. I’m a fintech fractional CMO. I work mostly in the mortgage industry, creating and designing end-to-end data-driven customer relationship experiences.” – Kelly Yale
- 03:10: “The thing I want to understand first and foremost is who the company is from a consumer perspective.” – Kelly Yale
- 03:45: “I like to examine the digital footprint. What is a customer experience when they see the brand, go through the website, and what content is out there?” – Kelly Yale
- 05:10: “Being clear and very honest while it doesn’t always win you the most points, as Brené Brown says, clear is kind.” – Kelly Yale
- 06:00: “Scope creep starts to happen very quickly. All of a sudden, their eyes are opened to all the different things you could maybe help them with in addition to the core thing.” – Meredith Dennis
- 06:50: “Be extremely careful about how you talk about scope creep and the tactics that are being explored, and if that really invites you to be a strategic partner or more of a tactician.” – Meredith Dennis
- 07:35: “Ask a lot of questions, be very open to building trust and relationships quickly.” – Meredith Dennis
- 08:15: “Being kind, assuring people that you are shoulder-to-shoulder with them, that you’re in the boat to row, not to call the shots.” – Kelly Yale
- 09:05: “Put yourself in a one-down or equal position to them. I’m just here to help you.” – Kelly Yale
- 10:45: “Don’t be scared of new. New doesn’t have to be challenging; new can just be different.” – Kelly Yale
- 11:50: “Meet with the CMO early on to collaborate on what you’re going to say or present to leadership to ensure alignment.” – Kelly Yale
- 12:55: “Acknowledge that this is a change for them and help shepherd them through it. This can make a big difference in how they perceive their work.” – Meredith Dennis
- 14:00: “Being focused on the strategic outcomes and making sure that scope creep is not making it difficult to meet those objectives.” – Meredith Dennis
- 15:10: “Fractionals have the unique ability to be incredibly adaptable and become subject matter experts very quickly.” – Kelly Yale
- 16:40: “Most of the people hiring a fractional CMO understand they can’t get to the next level without hiring an expert.” – Kelly Yale
- 17:45: “A fractional CMO provides expert guidance from the minute you hire them. They don’t need to ramp up; they come in with high-level ideas ready to execute.” – Kelly Yale
- 18:55: “The important part is meeting really early on to ensure that you’re aligned and to avoid feeling like someone’s going to one-up you.” – Kelly Yale