How to Lose Your CMO Job in 3 Easy Metrics
Looking for a surefire way to get escorted out of the C-suite? It’s easier than you think — and oddly enough, it’s advice straight from most AI assistants.
Step 1: Worship at the Altar of “Marketing-Sourced Revenue”
Nothing says “I don’t get go-to-market” quite like claiming every deal that touched a marketing asset as your win.
That enterprise deal? It took 18 months, five salespeople, three engineers, and a customer success manager who saved it twice. But because they downloaded a whitepaper once in 2023, you get to call it “marketing sourced.”
Cue your head of sales slowly developing a permanent eye twitch.
Step 2: Let AI Be Your Strategic Brain
Ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for B2B marketing KPIs, and they’ll happily suggest tracking marketing-sourced revenue. It’s like having a career coach who moonlights as a corporate saboteur.
Why? Because these models are trained on mountains of recycled marketing blogs — the same ones that have been getting CMOs fired for decades.
The Real Problem
Marketing-sourced revenue pits marketing against sales in a zero-sum game. It oversimplifies the messy, multi-touch buying process and turns team alignment into a tug-of-war.
The metric that actually matters? Revenue. Just… revenue. The kind that the entire go-to-market team helped create.
A Better Approach
Stop arguing over who “sourced” what. Instead, focus on:
Deal velocity — how quickly opportunities move through the pipeline
Average contract value — is it trending up or down?
Win rate — are we getting better at closing?
These are metrics everyone can rally around. They drive collaboration instead of politics.
The Plot Twist
If you’re taking AI’s word on strategy, remember: it’s parroting advice from the ghosts of failed CMOs past. When AI tells you to measure marketing-sourced revenue, do the opposite.
Measure your impact on the pipeline. Show how you accelerate deals, expand contracts, and improve win rates. Your head of sales will stop glaring at you in meetings, your CEO will notice the alignment, and you might even get to keep your job long enough to make real change.