CMO Turnover Escalates
In BtoB Magazine this month, they say that in 2007, the average tenure for Chief Marketing Officers is up to 26.8 months from 23.3 months in 2006. The pressure on these executives is attributed to a lack of proof of contribution to the bottom line.
If proposals are part of an executive’s responsibility, there is no reason to fail to prove value.
In many organizations, I see CMOs focusing on the advertising and branding, and shuttling off the proposal team to a corner, or even capitulating and assigning them to Sales. I always thought this was a mistake, but figured they knew something I didn’t.
Everyone working on proposals should track their performance. You should know your hit rate, the hit rate of your team, and the corporate hit rate. If you don’t know these critical measurements, you need to start tracking them.
Otherwise, you can’t prove any contribution to the corporate effort.
I harp on this a good deal, but it is critically important to your career. Being able to bring your hit rate, improvements thereon and comparisons with the corporate/division hit rate quantifies the value of your contribution.
And when you are tempted to “promote” yourself above the fray and work exclusively on branding and advertising, consider how long a tenure you plan.
After all, in your next job interview, who will get the job?
- I have a portfolio of attractive and expensive brochures and collateral material designed under my supervision.
- My hit rate is 84% and I raised the hit rate of our team from 71 to 84% over a three year period. We won $751 million for our firm.
Humm?
Make it a New Year’s Resolution to track hit rates!
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