The Fundamental Problem with Outsourced CMOs
From Drucker on Marketing:
Marketing is not only much broader than selling; it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business.
It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise.
The idea of an “outsourced Chief Marketing Officer” has always struck me as odd, and I think Peter Drucker gets at the reason why here.
When you outsource your CMO position, you turn marketing strategy into a “specialized activity,” placing it entirely within the purview of an outsider.
When marketing becomes specialized—and especially when you outsource the lead position—you begin to view it as someone else’s problem. When it’s someone else’s problem, then poor performance is someone else’s fault.
The problem is that poor marketing performance could come down to any number of issues: service, product, customer experience—something more core to the overall business than which drive-by marketing expert is lending you their expertise. In the end, you could end up delaying the discovery of where your real marketing issues lie—or missing it entirely.
Drucker referred to marketing as one of the “two most important functions of a business” (the other being innovation). When you hire an OCMO, you delegate oversight of one of your most important functions to an outsider—someone who doesn’t have much of a dog in the race of whether your company wins or not in the end. Sure, it’d be great if they kept you as a client, but clients come and go all the time.
I’m not saying you should never work with a marketing agency. But if marketing is an internal concern that should permeate your entire business, you need a marketing lead on the inside.
Not necessarily a CMO, but also not just someone who posts on your Facebook page and updates your website. You want someone with experience and a backbone who can help infuse a marketing mindset into how you approach your business. Then when they need help with execution—creating content and campaigns—they can outsource that to the creative professionals at marketing agencies.
But for my money, your strategy should be homegrown rather than farmed out, because the hard truth of the matter is this: No OCMO is going to parachute in and generate hundreds of leads out of thin air if you can’t drum up much interest on your own.
I know hiring an internal CMO or marketing lead isn’t in the cards for smaller shops, and that’s why they outsource the position. But rather than "bring in an expert" to market your business from the outside, maybe a better place to start is, as Drucker said, to consider "the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is from the customer’s point of view." Maybe it’s a business audit, maybe it’s hiring an advisor coach, maybe it’s doing some research on your own…
I’m sure people will disagree with me on this, and that’s great. By all means, please do (also, feel free to agree with me—that sounds like more fun 😀). I’d love to hear about your experiences with outsourced CMOs. Feel free to email me at zach@claypigeon.us.
