CMOs are charged with making their companies customer-obsessed — so they can win in an age where customers are highly empowered. But the irony is that many marketing shops themselves are not customer-obsessed.
I am continually thinking about the customer-centric approach and who should own it in the organization. The CMO is the obvious choice, however are they the best choice? I have seen where organizations have a C-level position, something to the tune of Chief Customer Officer. This is also thought because it ends up being another level in the organization, another potential touchpoint in the organization that has to bring different groups in the organization together around one common goal. I think it comes down to having the right person.
Marketers are predisposed to think about the market first. So why are marketers not naturally predisposed to be customer-obsessed? The answer lies in gravity — the gravity of the P&L and the associated product, solution or service performance.
It's always about the customer. Everything should come back to customer analytics. I think Finance departments have too much power in some organizations where high-level KPI's are all about a product or a service. The problem with these KPI's is they don't go far enough down to the "people" who are driving those metrics. It is similar to fixing a symptom instead of the actual source of the problem.
For example, the company sells 1,000,000 widgets and they want to grow this by 3% in the next quarter. This is the entire wrong approach to the problem. Widgets don't grow by 3%. 3% more customers buy widgets in the quarter. It is imperative to start with the customer because they are the ones that are purchasing these widgets. So to grow those numbers, marketers need to embrace the customers to grow their numbers.
I have spoken with many CMOs — across industries and geographies — and this common theme has emerged: Marketing’s relevance and performance is now predicated on putting the customer at the center of the universe. This is neither elective nor minor surgery. Most believe an overhaul — not a simple refinement — is needed to make marketing customer-obsessed and truly able to drive growth.
Changing to a customer-centric organization is a complete change in culture. This does not happen overnight. It takes a dedicated team with a singular focus many months to accomplish. I once read to change a culture, a great organization with amazing focus will take 18 months. There are not that many of these organizations out there. The average is 4 years. So organizations need to start their culture change today. There is no time to waste. The customer-obsessed organization will be the most successful in the new customer empowered buying dynamic.