The Marketing Elephant in the room

There’s this never-ending debate on when it’s the right time to hire a CMO or marketing leader. It’s a question that’s always in vogue, but there’s one huge point that always seems to get overlooked — the role of a marketing leader in bringing customer focus into the leadership team.

Here’s the thing: when you break down why you hire a marketing leader, it almost always comes down to one main goal — building scalable engagement. Sure, it has to link to sales and revenue, but at the core, marketers are professional attention seekers. Their job? To align the business with a problem (or something fun) that customers want, then charge them for the privilege. Everything else is secondary.

But here’s the kicker: the focus is almost always seen as external. Yes, that should always be a priority, but there’s a massive gap in not recognizing how a CMO or marketing leader can help align the leadership team’s goals with a focus on customers, users, and market opportunities.

Anyone who’s worked in any organization knows this: running a team, big or small, is about uniting people and aligning them toward a common goal. The bigger the team, the harder it gets to keep everyone pulling in the same direction. When misalignment happens (and it always does), it takes a lot of effort to refocus everyone. This is where a marketing leader can play a huge role — by helping the leadership team get aligned internally.

Let me ask you this: Have you ever worked somewhere where innovation or Gen AI ideas are flying out of the tech or ops teams — completely detached from any customer or product benefit? It’s a total surprise to the CEO, and sometimes, it’s even a surprise to the people working on those ideas. Or worse, have you ever stumbled across another team working on the exact same thing?

I’ve seen this firsthand — at big players like Santander, Experian, and Equifax, as well as smaller companies. They all have a growth mindset but constantly struggle with misalignment about what truly matters. Teams are competing for resources and budgets, but their efforts are often so disconnected from customer or market needs that the business impact is minimal at best.

Here’s what I’ve come to realize: internal alignment, values, and objectives should reflect your external ambitions. Sounds simple, right? The closer you get those aligned, the better your chances of success, even if your budget is tight. And in the leadership team, there’s no one more equipped than the marketing leader to help make that happen.