Ross Stockdale and Rajat Kapur | Fractional CMOs & The 90-Day Win
This video is a podcast interview with Ross Stockdale and Rajat Kapur 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 understanding client needs, aligning marketing strategies with business goals, and achieving quick wins to build momentum. Their expertise in strategic planning, customer insights, and leadership alignment drives growth and enhances overall marketing effectiveness.
Key points
🗣️ Communication and Alignment: Clear communication with the leadership team and understanding their expectations are crucial for successful engagements.
🔍 Deep Discovery: Spending the initial 10-14 days on deep discovery helps understand the client’s past marketing efforts, costs, and returns, which is vital for making informed recommendations.
🎯 Early Wins: Identifying big obvious wins early on, such as optimizing marketing processes and aligning with customer needs, helps build credibility and momentum.
📊 Assessment Framework: Utilizing a comprehensive assessment framework, including digital, non-digital, and customer insights, to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
📈 Customer Insights: Conducting customer research to understand their needs and expectations, which often reveals misalignments with what the company delivers.
💡 Strategic Planning: Emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and not rushing into execution to ensure sustainable success.
🤝 Collaboration with Sales: Ensuring strong collaboration between marketing and sales teams, with aligned metrics and open communication, to drive revenue.
🚀 Long-Term Vision: Focusing on long-term strategic goals and aligning short-term actions to achieve them, which is essential for sustainable growth.
👥 Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging key stakeholders early on and understanding their perspectives helps in aligning the company’s vision and strategy.
🧠 Complexity of Marketing: Educating clients on the complexity of marketing and setting realistic expectations regarding timelines and outcomes.
Summary
- Introduction: The podcast introduces the topic of fractional CMOs and their impact within the first 90 days.
- Initial Challenges: Ross discusses the importance of deep discovery to understand the client’s past marketing efforts and their impact.
- Alignment with Leadership: Rajat emphasizes the need for coordination and alignment with the leadership team to understand their expectations and decision-making processes.
- Early Wins: Both guests highlight the importance of identifying early wins, such as optimizing marketing processes and aligning with customer needs.
- Assessment Framework: Rajat describes a comprehensive assessment framework that includes digital, non-digital, and customer insights to identify gaps and opportunities.
- Customer Insights: Rajat highlights the importance of understanding customer needs and expectations, which often reveals misalignments with what the company delivers.
- Strategic Planning: Both guests stress the importance of strategic planning and not rushing into execution to ensure sustainable success.
- Collaboration with Sales: Both guests provide insights on what to look for when hiring a new head of sales, emphasizing communication, metrics, and cultural fit.
- Marketing Complexity: Rajat explains that many clients do not understand the complexity of marketing and the importance of strategic foundations.
- Finding Ross and Rajat: Information on how to connect with Ross Stockdale and Rajat Kapur through LinkedIn and their respective websites.
Quotes
- 00:30: “I spend 10 to 14 days doing deep discovery. If you don’t understand where the client is and where they have been, you can’t make any recommendations.” – Ross Stockdale
- 01:40: “It’s all about coordination and alignment with the leadership team. If they don’t have marketing, who does it, how do they do it, and what do they talk about?” – Rajat Kapur
- 03:20: “It’s really important to find a big obvious win. You have to staple yourself to an invoice and make yourself indispensable.” – Rajat Kapur
- 04:00: “The best thing you can do to have success in your first 90 days is to scope the project well and set expectations with your client.” – Rajat Kapur
- 06:50: “I like to get an emotional and dopamine boost in my client by understanding their core desire and beliefs about their business.” – Ross Stockdale
- 08:00: “We signed at about the 90-day mark. The goal was to take the gym business from 80 members to 120 by the end of the year, and we went from 80 to 140 by Thanksgiving.” – Ross Stockdale
- 10:30: “Most people don’t understand how complicated marketing is. They think it’s campaigns like a LinkedIn or Facebook post, but it’s much more.” – Rajat Kapur
- 12:45: “Understanding and setting a foundation usually is the biggest gap. It takes real time and discipline.” – Rajat Kapur
- 14:10: “If a CEO is not willing to give up the strategic decisions, it’s a red flag. They need to be ready for someone to provide outside opinions.” – Rajat Kapur
- 16:40: “One of the core strengths you have as a fractional CMO is breadth of experience, seeing how lots of companies succeed or fail.” – Ross Stockdale
- 18:50: “Marketing is supposed to work with the hiring group to tell a separate value proposition about why that employer is a great place to work.” – Rajat Kapur
- 20:20: “First impressions last a lifetime. Often the first impression of a company is its website, and it can significantly influence a salesperson’s conviction.” – Ross Stockdale