The CMO’s most important job when scaling? To create focus, protect focus, and seize control of the strategic planning process – not just for marketing, but for the company as a whole. Here’s how to do that.

 

Jay Gaines runs marketing at insurance tech scale-up AgentSync. He and I discuss:

  • How to avoid ‘random acts of marketing,’ reinforce the role of marketing as the business scales, and drive a shared common understanding of what marketing is there to do for the business
  • How marketing can — and should — seize control of the strategic planning process for the company as a whole
  • How to respond to a CEO who over-rotates on a demand-first view of marketing 
  • The one question the best CMO candidates ask the CEO before they say yes to a scale job: “How exactly do you plan to expand?” 
  • How to avoid a surprisingly tantalizing organization mis-step when scaling
  • How employees’ values are changing away from ‘growth at all costs’ – which means companies need to be pitching themselves differently
  • How a tangible commitment to work/life balance and DEI, embodied from the top down, can accelerate hiring in the long run

This is Episode 2 of The Get podcast, now in Season 4. This season, we explore the theme ‘Solving for the Scale Journey.’