Executive Guide: What would a more strategic role for your marketing function look like?

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A strategic role is not just about doing what you already do better. It’s about becoming essential to the success of the business.
This guide helps you shift from a production house role to a vital factor in your company's business concept.

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Watch the video and read more: Executive guide for B2B marketing leaders

In this guide, we tackle four critical questions to rethink your function:

- Do you need a more strategic role for your function?
- What needs to happen to get to a more strategic role?
- How to evaluate if the change is needed?
- What would your more strategic function look like?

Watch the video that highlights three steps to a more strategic role.

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Is your current role limiting your potential?

Most CMOs want a strategic role, but few feel they have realized the full value of their function. If you recognize these common indicators, it is time to evaluate your role:

● Inability to prove marketing value: value is scattered or fragmented, making defending or increasing the budget a major challenge.
● Lack of alignment and clear expectations from business stakeholders, resulting in marketing having to “guesstimate” needs or “overservice” those stakeholders.
● Marketing department operates in an ad hoc manner, leading to shortsighted tactics.
● CMO's time is consumed by short-term, reactive firefighting. This makes it challenging to work “on marketing” rather than “in marketing,” preventing focus on strategic topics.
● The level of discussion with key stakeholders easily drops to tactics and outputs, instead of focusing on outcomes.

How to assess your function

To move forward, you must understand what needs to change and why. We evaluate the shift across several critical dimensions:

Role & Brand: Is your "internal brand" clear, or are you stuck in a supportive "execution engine" role?

Way of operating: Do you have the autonomy to be proactive, or does your model invite constant ad hoc requests?

Skills & Resources: Do you have the business acumen and seniority required to support strategic development goals?

Where do you want to create value?

A strategic vision clearly states which value levers you drive. There is no single right answer, but your role must be something marketing can be accountable for:

Commercial Efficiency: Impacting how efficiently the organization generates revenue.

Pricing Power: Influencing the brand’s premium status and the customer's willingness to pay.

Competitive Advantage: Building long-term market strength through proprietary research or industry-leading initiatives.

4 value levers

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