How to Hire the Right CMO for Your SaaS Startup: A Comprehensive Guide

Hiring the right CMO isn’t as simple as finding someone with a great resume. 

It’s about ensuring they’re the right fit for your company’s current stage, your culture, and your vision for the future.

This is a hire you can’t afford to make a mistake on. But somehow the average CMO tenure is just over 3 years and half that of other Executives. 

Hiring a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is one of the most critical decisions a B2B SaaS founder or executive can make. 

Especially for companies under $50 million in revenue, the CMO's impact can be transformative. They are the bridge between your product and the market, the architect of your brand, and the driver of your growth engine.

If the CMO fails to reach the company’s goals, it is possible that the growth projections are higher than what many CMOs can reach.

But more than likely, it’s also because the company’s executives didn’t take the right factors into consideration when hiring their CMO, and chose one that wasn’t the best fit for their organization.

The CMO role requires an immense combination of breadth and depth of marketing knowledge. 

This guide will take you through everything you need to know to make that decision. From understanding your company’s stage to evaluating candidate experience, and from assessing cultural fit to designing a compensation package that attracts top talent, we’ll cover it all.

The High Stakes of Hiring the Right CMO

In B2B SaaS, every decision can impact growth trajectories, and the role of a CMO is vital. 

The right CMO can propel your company to rapid growth and market capture, while the wrong one slows your growth or even be a hire that crumbles your entire GTM strategy. 

If you make the wrong decision on this hire, it can be a major setback for your company. Choosing the wrong CMO can lead to:

• Losing significant capital to their base salary.
• Sacrificing equity to their lucrative comp package.
• Getting stuck with a “parachute clause” of their contract, so that even if you do fire them, you’ll be paying their full salary for months to come.
• Spending precious capital on expensive, ineffective marketing initiatives.
• Hiring a team with the wrong skill set for your Go to Market strategy.
• Losing precious time and runway to grow your business, reach profitability, or acquire the next round of funding.

For companies in the early stages of growth, this decision becomes even more crucial.

But what exactly should you look for in a CMO? It’s more than just experience or skills. It’s about alignment with your company’s needs, culture, and strategic goals. 

The right CMO needs to be a visionary, a strategist, and a leader who can translate big ideas into actionable plans. They also need to be able to utilize a team your company can actually afford, and sometimes even get their hands dirty with campaign tactics to deliver the results you need.

Your CMO needs to be an expert in your company’s GTM strategy and needs to be someone who can work in lockstep with your product, sales, and customer service teams, to ensure your company’s success.

So, how do you ensure you make the right choice? Let’s dive into the key factors.

1. Understanding Your Company’s Stage: The Foundation of Your Search

Before you start interviewing candidates, it’s essential to understand where your company is in its growth journey. You also need to know about the market you’re playing in and some key details of your Go to Market strategy. 

Let’s start with where your company is in its growth journey. Typically Kalungi sees companies in one of three growth stages. Each of these stages require a different type of CMO:

• MVP Stage (Minimum Viable Product): At this stage, your GTM focus is on validating your product and understanding your market. The CMO you need here is someone who can wear multiple hats—part strategist, part doer. They need to be able to help refine the product-market fit, build initial brand awareness, and generate the first wave of users or customers. Often, this means working closely with the founder, if not acting as an extension of the founder’s vision.
  
  
• Product-Market Fit: Once you’ve validated your product and secured initial traction, your focus shifts to scaling. Here, the CMO’s role becomes more tactical. You need someone who can take what’s working and amplify it. This includes scaling customer acquisition efforts, optimizing marketing funnels, and starting to build out a marketing team that can handle increasing complexity.
  
  
• Scaling and Beyond: At this stage, your company is growing rapidly, and the stakes are higher than ever. The CMO you need now is a seasoned leader who can manage large teams, drive strategic initiatives like pricing, distribution, and global expansion, and maintain a laser focus on customer retention and lifetime value. This is where the CMO must transition from being a hands-on marketer to a leader who can guide the company through rapid growth while keeping the marketing engine aligned with business objectives.

Now, let’s talk about your market’s competitive density:

• Competitive market: The CMO for a competitive market needs to be an expert in “demand capture”. Because the market is mature and established, typically the audience is what we call “solution aware”, meaning they know that solutions to their problems exist and their primary decision will be which solution best fits their needs. As a result, they’re actively searching for solutions. You need a CMO who  can “niche down and carve out” to find the best fit prospects for your business and make sure your solution stands out as the clear choice for them. They’ll need to make sure you show up in the right place, with the right campaigns, at the right stage in the funnel, followed by the right nurture campaigns to bring high-quality, high-intent prospects to sales. 
  
  
• Nascent market: To win in a nascent market, you need a CMO who is great at “demand generation”. Because this market is immature, the audience typically isn’t “solution aware”, but they may also go as far as being “problem unaware”. This means that your company won’t just be able to show up for the right google search and capture demand. Instead, the right CMO will need to be an expert in finding the target audience who isn’t looking for a solution, and then educating them on the key problems they’re facing and solutions they need, so that the prospect can eventually purchase your solution.

Next, let’s discuss the audience you’re trying to target. At Kalungi, we like to use Geoffry Moore’s framework from Crossing the Chasm. 

I’ve condensed it here for simplicity's sake but feel free to review his work for more detail:

• Innovative/early majority audience: This audience sits on the left half of the adoption curve and are hungry for a new solution. They are excited by new solutions and are likely to switch to your solution. These people want to build the product with you and are usually very willing to spend their time and money to make sure they can use your solution to get ahead. You’ll need a CMO who is energetic, scrappy and can speak their language. You’ll need to constantly be adjusting your messaging based on your audience’s feedback and will need to consistently and proactively communicate customer sentiments and needs to the sales and product team to make sure that you can align your product development with your target audience.
  
  
• Late majority/laggard audience: Unlike the innovative/early majority audience, these prospects don’t really want to change. In fact, it may feel like you need to drag them kicking and screaming from their inferior “status quo” solutions. Their motto is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, so they can be very difficult to market to without the right approach. To be successful here, you’ll need a CMO who is credible and is great at understanding and highlighting customer success stories, so that you can showcase your authority and effectiveness with this audience. Your CMO will also need to be really effective at winning over the blockers or nay-sayers within an organization, as these will run rampant in these industries.

Here’s some more information on how to craft the right GTM strategy for “immature” and “mature” markets.

And finally, let’s review the Go to Market strategy you’re employing to penetrate your market.

• Product Led Growth: Product Led Growth requires a CMO who is great at developing brand awareness and generating a high volume of demand at a low cost. This person will likely need to be an expert in social media marketing, as well as organic content and viral marketing. This CMO will also need to be great at Conversion Rate Optimization and utilizing marketing within the product to effectively onboard, engage, and upsell users.
  
  
• Marketing Led Growth: Marketing Led Growth requires a CMO who can balance long-term organic growth (e.g. SEO, thought leadership, etc.) with pay-to-play strategies (e.g. Google Ads, paid social, events, etc.). This CMO will have to be in lockstep with sales and customer success to ensure that the promises marketing makes are in line with the sales pitch, and what the customer will receive, after purchasing the product.
  
  
• Sales Led Growth: Sales Led Growth requires a CMO who is fantastic at Account Based Marketing, thought leadership, and sales enablement. They will need to find key targets, work with sales on coordinated outreach campaigns, and ensure that sales has every asset and nurture campaign it needs to close complex deals throughout a long sales cycle. This CMO will have to be great at custom marketing campaigns, and will likely have to be effective in event marketing and networking.

Here’s a podcast episode with more information on how to choose the right GTM strategy for your company.

Keep in mind that your ideal Go to Market strategy is highly dependent on the Average Contract Value and Average Revenue Per User of your company. The higher these are, the higher your Customer Acquisition Cost can be, and the more targeted, involved, and customized your campaigns can be for each prospect. Make sure to choose a GTM strategy that will support the unit economics that are dictated by your product pricing and packaging.

As you can see, the ideal CMO candidate for your company will vary widely, depending on where your company falls in these categories, so be sure to spend time identifying where your company sits, and adjust your CMO hiring filters accordingly. 

2. In-House vs. Fractional CMO: Deciding What’s Right for Your Business

One of the first decisions you’ll face in your hiring process is whether to hire a full-time, in-house CMO or to bring on a fractional CMO. Each option has its own set of advantages and challenges, depending on your company’s needs, budget, and growth aggressiveness.

• In-House CMO: A full-time CMO is a long-term investment. They are deeply embedded in your company’s culture, have a strong understanding of your business, and are committed to your company’s success. This option is ideal if you’re looking for someone who can lead large-scale, long-term initiatives and build a marketing team from the ground up. However, hiring a full-time CMO is a significant commitment, both in terms of time and money. You’ll need to ensure that your company has the financial runway to support this role and that you’re ready to invest in their development and integration into the team. 
  
  
• Fractional CMO: A fractional CMO offers flexibility. They bring the expertise of a seasoned marketing leader but without the full-time commitment. This option is particularly useful if your company is still in the early stages, where you might not need—or be able to afford—a full-time CMO. A fractional CMO can provide strategic guidance, help set up your marketing processes, and ensure that your initial marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals. The downside is that they might not be as deeply integrated into your company culture and might split their focus between your business and others. Fractional CMOs can be quite effective, as long as they have a marketing team to support them and execute their strategy. But a fractional CMO without a team will often struggle to execute enough to effectively impact your company’s growth.

For more information on whether or not you should hire a Fractional CMO, take a look at this blog.

Choose a full-time CMO if you’re ready for a long-term commitment and need someone with deep industry knowledge to lead comprehensive marketing efforts. Opt for a fractional CMO if you need expertise without a full-time commitment, and have a marketing team or set of agencies to support them, especially in the early stages of growth.

3. Art vs. Science: Balancing Creativity and Analytical Skills

Marketing is both an art and a science, and your CMO needs to be adept at balancing both. If they over index too heavily on one end, it could lead to gaps in your marketing function and an ineffective Go to Market. 

We’ve found that the best type of CMO for your company complements your strengths as a founder and fills in the gaps where your team might be lacking.

• Art: If you’re more data-driven and analytical, you might need a CMO who excels in the creative aspects of marketing. This means someone who can craft compelling brand narratives, build emotional connections with your audience, and drive brand loyalty through innovative campaigns. A CMO who leans more toward the art of marketing will focus on storytelling, brand identity, and creative content strategies that excite and resonate with your target market.
  
  
• Science: On the other hand, if you’re more of a visionary or creative type, your ideal CMO might be someone who can bring structure and discipline to your marketing efforts. This type of CMO is highly data-driven, focusing on metrics, analytics, and the operational side of marketing. They’ll ensure that every marketing dollar is spent efficiently and that your campaigns are optimized for maximum ROI. A science-oriented CMO will prioritize performance marketing, A/B testing, and data analytics to drive growth.

The best CMOs can navigate both worlds, but most will have a stronger inclination towards one. Understanding your own strengths as an executive or founder and what your company needs will help you find the right balance and set you and your CMO up for long-term success.

Evaluate whether your company needs a CMO who can drive creative brand initiatives or one who can bring a data-driven, analytical approach. Ideally, find a candidate who can navigate both but can fully own the areas where you need the most help.

4. Evaluating Experience: The Pitfalls of Overemphasizing the Resume

Experience is a crucial factor in any hiring decision, but when it comes to hiring a CMO, it’s important to dig deeper than just the number of years or the prestige of past roles. 

Often, the best CMO for your organization won’t be the one with the most experience, or the largest logos on their resume. It will be the candidate who has already accomplished what you’re looking to achieve, and is hungry enough to not only set the right strategy, but lead your team in executing it, while also getting their hands dirty in the process. 

Here are a few indicators you can look for to evaluate your candidates’ experience:

• Relevant Experience: Look for candidates who have experience at companies of similar size and stage. If you’re aiming to grow from $10 million to $50 million in ARR, you need someone who has navigated that transition before. This kind of experience is far more valuable than general experience at a much larger company. The challenges of scaling from $10 million to $50 million are very different from those at a Fortune 500 company, so make sure their experience is relevant to your current stage.
  
  
• Curiosity and Agility: Beyond just experience, look for traits like curiosity and agility. The best CMOs are always learning and adapting, especially in the ever-changing world of SaaS marketing. They should be able to pivot quickly, experiment with new tactics, and adapt their strategies based on what’s working and what’s not. In a startup environment, these traits are often more valuable than decades of experience.
  
  
• Potential Pitfalls: Be cautious of candidates who have spent too much time at large, established companies. While their experience might be impressive, they might struggle to adapt to the fast-paced, resource-constrained environment of a startup. They may be accustomed to having large teams and budgets at their disposal, which isn’t always the case in a smaller, scaling company.

Don’t just look for experience—look for the right kind of experience. 

Focus on finding a candidate who has successfully navigated the growth stage your company is in and who exhibits the curiosity and agility needed to thrive in a fast-paced environment. 

For instance, the CMO who excels at taking a company from $1 million to $5 million in ARR is often not the same person who can scale from $10 million to $50 million.

A more specific example of this is the Associate CMOs at Kalungi. These marketing leaders may only have around 10 years of marketing experience but can run circles around typical fractional B2B SaaS CMOs. 

This is because they’re backed by the right playbook and the right marketing team who has done it before. In fact, these marketing leaders have a unique blend of marketing strategy and tactical marketing ability that make them perfect for most B2B SaaS companies under $30 million in ARR.

5. Industry Expertise: Weighing the Pros and Cons

Industry-specific experience can be a double-edged sword. While it’s valuable, it’s not always necessary—and sometimes, it can even be a hindrance. 

Can your industry be learned quickly, or is it highly technical? Do you need your marketing leader to have industry expertise or do you have other subject matter experts in the business that can be utilized by the CMO for the same impact and outcomes? 

While industry experience is critical within your company, there are multiple paths to make sure it manifests itself in your marketing team and marketing initiatives. 

Here are a few areas to consider when looking at CMO candidates, in regard to industry experience and how it can impact your company:

• Complementary Skills: If you or your team already have deep industry knowledge, it might be more beneficial to bring in a CMO who can offer a fresh perspective. They might come from a different industry, but their skills in marketing strategy, brand building, or growth hacking can be highly transferable. This fresh perspective can help you see opportunities you might have missed and avoid the echo chamber effect where everyone on the team thinks in the same way.
  
  
• Learning Ability: A candidate’s ability to quickly learn and adapt to your industry’s nuances is often more important than having direct experience. A great CMO will dive deep into understanding your industry, your customers, and your market, even if they haven’t worked in your specific field before. They’ll bring the best practices from other industries and apply them in innovative ways to your business.
  
  
• The Downside of Over-Specialization: On the flip side, hiring someone with too much industry-specific experience can sometimes limit your marketing strategy. They might be stuck in traditional ways of thinking and less open to experimenting with new approaches. In the fast-evolving world of SaaS, where innovation and agility are key, this can be a significant drawback.

Don’t overemphasize industry expertise. 

While it’s nice to have, it’s more important to find a CMO who can learn quickly, bring a fresh perspective, and apply innovative marketing strategies to your business.

6. Cultural Fit: Why It’s Non-Negotiable for a Leadership Role

Cultural fit is crucial, especially for leadership roles like the CMO. 

A misaligned CMO can create friction, slow down progress, and even cause rifts within your team. What’s more, a CMO is the arbiter of your company’s brand voice and how your brand comes across in the market. 

Having a CMO who doesn’t fit your culture could very easily put your brand at risk of veering off course, and losing touch with your target audience. 

Make sure to prioritize these factors while interviewing potential candidates: 

• Core Values Alignment: During the interview process, assess how well candidates align with your company’s core values. Do they share the same vision? Do they approach problem-solving in a way that resonates with your team? Their leadership style should complement the existing culture and enhance it, rather than clash with it.
  
  
• Homework Assignments: One effective way to gauge cultural fit is to ask candidates to complete a task or provide insights on your company’s challenges as part of the interview process. This will not only give you a sense of their thought process but also show how they might interact with your team and whether their approach aligns with your company’s ethos. It’s also a good opportunity to see how they handle feedback and whether they’re willing to collaborate and iterate on their ideas.
  
  
• Long-Term Impact: Remember, the CMO will set the tone for your entire marketing department and have a significant influence on your company’s culture. A good cultural fit means they’ll be more likely to stay with your company long-term, reducing turnover and ensuring that your marketing efforts are consistent and aligned with your overall business goals. They’ll also be in charge of hiring and managing the marketing team, which means that a culture fit will be more likely to hire culture-fit employees, mentor and promote them, and even manage bad-culture-fit employees as well. All of these won’t show up on a balance sheet but are critical to your company’s success.

Prioritize cultural fit when hiring a CMO. Ensure that they align with your company’s core values and that their leadership style complements your existing culture. This will lead to a smoother integration and more effective collaboration across your team.

7. Compensation: Crafting a Package That Attracts Top Talent

So you have a good idea of what to look for and prioritize in your CMO search. Now, how do you put a compensation package together to attract the right type of CMO to your company? 

Compensation is a critical component of attracting and retaining a top-tier CMO. However, it’s not just about the salary—it’s about crafting a package that aligns with your company’s stage, values, and long-term goals. 

Here are some levers you can pull to make sure you build a compelling package:

• Base Salary vs. Equity: In early-stage companies, it’s common for executives to accept lower base salaries in exchange for equity. This equity should be meaningful and structured in a way that aligns the CMO’s success with the company’s long-term success. It’s important that the equity package is attractive enough to motivate the CMO to stay and grow with the company, but also realistic given the company’s current financial situation.
  
  
• Bonuses: While bonuses can be a great incentive, they need to be tied to meaningful, measurable outcomes. Be cautious with bonuses tied to early-stage KPIs like MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads). These metrics can be gamed, and bonuses tied to them might not reflect true value creation for the company. Instead, consider tying bonuses to more strategic goals like revenue growth, customer retention, or successful product launches. This will not only ensure revenue growth to pay for the additional bonus cost, but it will also directly align your CMO’s efforts with those of the Sales and Customer Success teams.
  
  
• Parachute Clauses: If you’re in a startup, consider including a parachute clause in the CMO’s contract, providing some financial security if the relationship ends early. This can help attract top talent who might otherwise be hesitant to join a risky startup. It also provides a safety net for both parties, ensuring that if things don’t work out, there’s a clear and fair exit strategy. Be careful to balance this with being attractive, while not being overly generous, so you don’t end up staying with a CMO who’s a bad fit, because you don’t want to pay their salary for 6 months after you let them go.
  
  
• Flexibility in Compensation: Finally, be open to creative compensation structures. This could include performance-based milestones that trigger additional equity grants, or flexible working arrangements that can be highly attractive, especially in today’s work environment. The key is to craft a package that not only attracts top talent but also aligns their incentives with the long-term success of your company.

Design a compensation package that reflects the realities of your startup while incentivizing long-term success. Consider a balance of base salary, equity, and performance-based bonuses to attract and retain top talent.

Here’s some more information on what to pay a B2B SaaS CMO, to put some numbers behind the theory I’ve outlined.

8. Leveraging the Interview Process: Asking the Right Questions

The interview process is your opportunity to dive deep into a candidate’s skills, experience, and cultural fit. 

It’s not just about their past achievements—it’s about how they think, how they lead, and how they will contribute to your company’s growth. 

Make sure that you plan your interview process and questions out so that you can hold each candidate to a similar standard, and you can make sure to gain as clear of a picture as possible of each one, their strengths and their weaknesses.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

• The Dashboard Question: Start with a question that gets to the heart of their strategic thinking: “What do you have on your marketing dashboard today?” This question reveals what metrics they prioritize, how they measure success, and how data-driven they are in their decision-making. It also gives insight into how they structure their marketing efforts and what they consider most important in driving growth.
  
  
• Branding Approach: Another key question to ask is, “How do you approach branding at both the company and product levels?” This helps you understand whether they see branding as just a logo and a tagline, or as something deeper that encompasses company values, culture, and customer perception. Depending on your needs, you might look for someone who excels in either the creative or strategic aspects of branding—or ideally, both.
  
  
• Biggest Challenges: Ask about the biggest challenges they believe CMOs face today. This question not only reveals their awareness of current trends and issues in marketing but also shows how they’ve overcome similar challenges in the past. Are they aware of the complexities of scaling a SaaS company? Do they understand the balance between short-term results and long-term brand building?
  
  
• Inbound vs. Outbound: Inquire about their approach to inbound vs. outbound marketing. This question is crucial, especially in a B2B SaaS context where different strategies are needed depending on your product, market, and sales cycle. Their response will tell you how well they understand your go-to-market needs and whether they can create a balanced strategy that drives sustainable growth.
  
  
• Vision and Execution: Finally, challenge them to think on their feet: “If you were our CMO today, what would you do first?” This question tests their knowledge of your company, their ability to quickly assess a situation, and their readiness to take action. It also gives you a glimpse into their vision for your company and how they would execute on it.

Use the interview process to ask questions that reveal a candidate’s strategic thinking, problem-solving skills, and cultural fit. Focus on how they approach key challenges in marketing and how they would contribute to your company’s success. 

Finally, here are a few more questions you can ask in your CMO interview, to identify great-fit candidates.

9. Setting Clear Expectations: The Importance of Defining Success Early

One of the main reasons CMOs fail in their roles is a misalignment of expectations. 

This misalignment could come from revenue targets, budget allocation, resource allocation, or even GTM strategy. This can be avoided by aligning on a few key areas during the interview process:

• Define Success: Before you even start interviewing candidates, take the time to define what success looks like for this role. What are the key metrics that the CMO will be responsible for? How will you measure their performance? Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving lead generation, or improving customer retention, having clear goals will help you find the right candidate and set them up for success.
  
  
• First 90 Days: Outline what you expect the CMO to achieve in their first 90 days. This could include auditing the current marketing strategy, building out a marketing plan for the next 12 months, or identifying quick wins that can generate early momentum. Having these expectations in place will give the CMO a clear roadmap and help them prioritize their efforts.
  
  
• Regular Check-Ins: Establish a regular cadence of check-ins to review progress and adjust the strategy as needed. This will ensure that the CMO stays on track and that any potential issues are addressed early. It also fosters a collaborative environment where the CMO feels supported and aligned with the broader company goals.
  
  
• Long-Term Vision: Finally, make sure that the CMO is aligned with your long-term vision for the company. They should understand where the company is headed and how their role fits into that journey. This alignment is crucial for ensuring that the CMO is not just focused on short-term wins, but also on building a sustainable, scalable marketing strategy that supports the company’s growth over the long term.

Set clear, measurable expectations for your CMO from the outset. Define what success looks like, establish a 90-day plan, and maintain regular check-ins to ensure alignment and progress.

10. Long-Term Success: Building a Strong Relationship with Your CMO

Once you’ve hired your CMO, the work doesn’t stop there. 

As tempting as it can be to focus on the many other pressing issues you have on your plate, once you’ve hired your marketing leader, it’s critical that you spend the time to set them up for long-term success with the right communication, goals, and resources. 

Building a strong, collaborative relationship with your CMO is essential for ensuring long-term success.

• Onboarding: The onboarding process is critical. Make sure your CMO has the resources and support they need to succeed from day one. This includes a clear understanding of the company’s goals, access to key stakeholders, and a roadmap for their first few months.
  
  
• Communication: Maintain open lines of communication. Regular one-on-ones, team meetings, and strategy sessions are crucial for keeping everyone aligned and on the same page. Encourage your CMO to be transparent about challenges and opportunities and foster a culture where feedback is valued and acted upon.
  
  
• Set the right goals: Work with your CMO to establish the right quarterly goals (like Objectives and Key Results) that support your growth target. Make sure to balance speed with feasibility and remember it’s much more important to build marketing the right way, than to do it fast. 
  
  
• Alignment: Ensure that the CMO’s goals are aligned with the company’s broader objectives. This alignment is crucial for driving the right outcomes. Regularly revisit these goals to adjust as needed based on the company’s progress and market conditions.
  
  
• Empowerment: Once your marketing goals are set, empower your CMO to make decisions and take ownership of the marketing strategy. Trust is a key component of this relationship. The more you empower your CMO, the more they can contribute to the company’s growth and success.
  
  
• Long-Term Vision: Finally, involve your CMO in the company’s long-term vision. They should be a key player in shaping the company’s future and should have a seat at the table in strategic discussions. This not only ensures that your marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals but also helps retain top talent by giving them a stake in the company’s success.

Building a strong relationship with your CMO is essential for long-term success. Focus on effective onboarding, open communication, goals,  empowerment, and alignment with the company’s long-term vision.

11. Build the Right Marketing Team for Success

No matter how good a strategy is, at the end of the day, if it can’t be executed it’s just an idea. 

Said another way, great execution of a mediocre strategy beats mediocre execution of a great strategy every time. 

Once you hire your CMO, make sure you work with them to build the right team to execute your GTM strategy. If you’re a more mature company, you’ll likely already have budget for this, and you’ll need to empower your CMO to make the right personnel decisions to support your strategy. 

Alternatively, if you’re in a smaller company, your budget will likely heavily influence who you can hire and when. 

Regardless of your situation, it’s good to be clear on the pros and cons of a few key marketing support options that are available to your company:

• Full Time Employees (FTEs): Full time employees are great because they’re fully  incentivized for your company’s success. They will also develop deep company and industry expertise and can also be molded into exactly what your marketing team needs, if you have a CMO that can take the time to properly guide and mentor them. However, FTEs can be very expensive and will eat up your marketing budget quickly. Additionally, if your budget is constrained, it can be really difficult to field a team that covers the full marketing discipline.
  
  
• Agencies: Agencies are often relatively easy and cheap to hire. They can also be exceptionally effective within their disciplines. If you can find the right mix of agencies in the right areas, you can effectively extend a small marketing team. Unfortunately, most marketing agencies have a relatively narrow scope and they are hard to hold accountable to real, revenue-based numbers (MQLs, pipeline, logos closed won, etc.). This means that the marketing leader will have to make sure they know the exact right channels to pick to make the agencies successful, will have to have a mature GTM strategy, and will have to spend a lot of time making sure the agencies are properly aligned, directed, and accountable for the right results. 
  
  
• Fractional marketing team: Fractional marketing teams can be a great hybrid between the above two options. Fractional marketing teams are inexpensive, relative to FTEs, but they don’t run into the same scoping or incentive problems as typical marketing agencies. Fractional marketing teams can pivot as your company goals change, swap in and out marketing skill sets to make sure they can support the right initiatives, and can sign up for revenue-related metrics. However, they will be fractional, so they’ll be working for other clients/companies alongside your own, and you won’t be able to have full control over their schedules.

Here are a few marketing roles I’d recommend you look to hire first, to make sure your marketing team is well rounded, and can fully execute your GTM strategy. 

The Path to Hiring the Right CMO

Hiring the right CMO is a complex, nuanced process. 

It requires a deep understanding of your company’s current stage, a clear definition of what success looks like, and a careful evaluation of candidates’ experience, skills, and cultural fit.

But when done right, hiring the right CMO can be one of the most impactful decisions you make for your SaaS startup. The right CMO will not only drive your marketing strategy but will also play a key role in shaping the future of your company.

Make sure that you spend the time early in the hiring process to identify what you want, what “good looks like” and what you’d like your CMO to accomplish early in their tenure with your company. This will ensure that you can hire the right candidate and set them and your company up for long term growth and success.

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