The CMO role: connect demand, promises and delivery

After launching a 600,000 ₸ ad campaign, an analytics reporting service confirms 40 meetings with new prospects for next week. At each meeting Yernar, who is responsible for delivery, looks at a store's data export and decides whether a pilot can start. The team has time for only 30 of these reviews. Altynai, who runs marketing, is pleased with the leads, Zhanar from sales wants more budget, and Yernar is already working out whose meeting will have to move.

This is the same Almaty service for small retail chains as in the marketing strategy lesson: a 60,000 ₸ monthly package, 20,000 ₸ of variable fulfilment and 40,000 ₸ of contribution before acquisition and fixed expenses. The figures are made up. Talgat, who owns the service, expects a decision for next week from Altynai as chief marketing officer (CMO): how to match demand with what the team can actually deliver.

Which decisions the CMO owns

The AMA definition of marketing includes creating, communicating and delivering value. So a marketer's work runs into product, sales and delivery. But the company decides who runs each of those areas. The CMO title does not give Altynai the right to move Yernar's schedule or change the terms of a contract.

That is why it helps to write authority down as a list of decisions. Altynai can reallocate the agreed media budget and change approved ad wording on her own. She does not touch the price without Talgat and the accountant, Meruert. Extra meetings appear only if a free specialist can be found. If the company expects more paying clients, agree in advance who removes each constraint along the way.

In a small business the owner stands in for several directors, but the agreement is needed there too. The marketer brings options with their consequences, the owner decides where the resources go, and the person delivering gets a task. Without that conversation, "marketing owns growth" makes you responsible for a calendar you have no access to.

Reconcile the forty promises first

A form booking, a confirmed meeting and a completed review are three different events. Before you touch the budget, reconcile the 40 bookings by client ID: look for duplicates, reschedules and companies that need a different service. Then reconcile the 30 slots: the same days, the same duration, a specialist with the right skills.

A salesperson's free hour does not replace an hour from someone who can check an export. There may be gaps in the calendar, but they are meant for other work. In this case the shortfall is confirmed: ten promised reviews have nobody to run them. Those prospects have already received a confirmation, so retuning the ads will not solve their problem.

Zhanar, who keeps the meeting calendar, contacts them, offers other dates and records who agreed to move. Meanwhile Altynai takes the promise of an early date out of new ads and off the page if that date is not available. If a prospect is fine with a queue and sees the wait before booking, the service can keep taking new leads.

Compare options and costs

For the calculation, suppose each extra review is one hour from an outside specialist at 5,000 ₸. Ten reviews cost 50,000 ₸. This is one-off work before service begins: it is in neither the usual 20,000 ₸ of fulfilment nor the 6,800,000 ₸ of fixed expenses. Hours of permanent staff who are already paid do not get counted here a second time.

If this help wins the service two paying clients, they bring 2 × 40,000 = 80,000 ₸ of first-month contribution. Take off the 50,000 ₸ for reviews and 30,000 ₸ is left, provided other costs stay the same. One extra client brings 40,000 ₸ and does not earn that money back. So Altynai's note carries two figures: what the resource costs and how many clients she assumes it will add.

This is a forecast for a decision; nobody has run a comparison yet. Some prospects may well accept a later date and pay without the outside specialist. Work out both paths: how many prospects can be served later, how many will leave rather than wait, and what the company has already promised. Money already spent on advertising plays no part in this choice: it is gone whichever option you pick.

The promise passes through several teams

The ad, the page, the first WhatsApp message and the meeting should all mean the same thing. Suppose the page promises reports from any data, sales books everyone, and Yernar works with only two accounting systems. Then the ten extra slots may go to companies the service cannot help anyway. In that case the problem starts before the calendar.

Product defines where the service ends. Sales records reasons for refusals and prospects' questions. Marketing changes the promise and the audience. Finance helps separate the cost of new demand from expenses the company will carry anyway. One named coordinator updates the shared offer card, and each area owner confirms their part.

An exception needs an owner too. Promising a new chain a special integration to win one deal can be sensible if the company has costed it and taken on the commitment deliberately. If a salesperson promised it alone, on a call, costs and a queue appear without anyone deciding. The sales report shows it only once the promise has been made.

What belongs in the leadership report

For the overloaded week, Talgat needs the path from promise to delivery: how many meetings are confirmed, how many slots exist, how many reviews took place on time, how many reschedules were agreed and how many prospects declined. Add payments and contribution as those same prospects reach payment, using the same IDs.

Cost per lead shows what changed in acquisition. The share of requests for unsupported systems shows how well the promise matches the service. Time to the meeting shows how available the service is. Each row has an owner and an update schedule. Departments do not need one shared metric. They need metrics that all describe the journey of the same client.

Take the financial part from the P&L. In the last closed month, before this launch, 180 companies received the service and paid: 10,800,000 ₸ of revenue and 7,200,000 ₸ after fulfilment. Less 200,000 ₸ of advertising and 6,800,000 ₸ of other fixed expenses, that left 200,000 ₸ before tax. More bookings will not raise that line. Only clients who reach a paid service enter it, and new costs come in with them.

Next week and the strategy

Once the overload is sorted out, there is time for a longer question: which clients the service wants to attract next. If every week brings new export formats and requests for custom reports, the standard package may not suit the chosen audience. If clients fit the standard, onboarding should follow the same steps every time, and sales should know what they can promise.

These decisions are part of the CMO's job just as much as advertising. Segment research, a new offer, materials that explain the product may pay off later than the next report. For each piece of such work, write down in advance the question, cost, timing and the signs that would justify continuing. There is no ready-made split of "this much for brand, this much for ads" here.

A note to leadership can fit on half a page: the confirmed gap, the options, the costs, the chosen action, the owner and the review date. Talgat should see at once which decision is needed from him. A list of dozens of metrics without a proposal carries the same argument over to the next meeting.

Exercise: a request for 30% more

Talgat wants 30% more confirmed meetings with the same team. There are currently 40 meetings and 30 slots. Suppose the growth really happens. How many meetings will have no specialist? Write Talgat a reply: what action you propose and what it costs.

There will be 40 × 1.3 = 52 meetings, 22 more than there are slots. At the illustrative 5,000 ₸ per extra hour, closing the whole gap costs 110,000 ₸, assuming the specialist is free and each meeting takes an hour. But that is only the cost of the resource. The note also needs timing, quality and a payment scenario: three new clients on the monthly package bring 120,000 ₸ of contribution, just 10,000 ₸ more than this expense. If only two pay, it is 80,000 ₸ in the first month, and the expansion loses money. So the company has another route too: later bookings or smaller growth instead of expanding right away.

Video: a strategic view of decisions

A Harvard Business Review video. Apply the video's idea to your own offer: which clients and which commitments come first when there are not enough resources for everything?