Accountable to revenue, not activity
I have run the sales side, so I know which numbers a CRO will act on. Marketing should carry a bookings number and be measured on closed revenue, not on leads delivered. Sourced pipeline, conversion by stage, and cost to acquire are diagnostics that explain why the number moved. They are not the number.
AI fluency is a floor, not a specialty
A marketing team where only the designated AI person uses AI is already behind. Every marketer needs enough hands-on use to tell good output from output that merely sounds right, and that has to start with the leader of the org. At Elementum I ran go-to-market with a marketing team of two, so there was nobody to hand it to. I learned the tools myself, and I built this site the same way.
Your customers are more persuasive than you are
The strongest brand moments I have been part of were customers with something to prove, given a stage worth standing on — not campaigns about the company.
Build the team so it survives you
An organization that only works when the CMO is in the room is not an organization. Hire people better than you at their function, give them the context to make their own calls.