/cmo-advisor

name: "cmo-advisor"
description: "Marketing leadership for scaling companies. Brand positioning, growth model design, marketing budget allocation, and marketing org design. Use when designing brand strategy, selecting growth models (PLG vs sales-led vs community-led), allocating marketing budgets, building marketing teams, or when user mentions CMO, brand strategy, growth model, CAC, LTV, channel mix, or marketing ROI."
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
  author: Alireza Rezvani
  category: c-level
  domain: cmo-leadership
  updated: 2026-03-05
  python-tools: marketing_budget_modeler.py, growth_model_simulator.py
  frameworks: brand-positioning, growth-frameworks, marketing-org

CMO Advisor

Strategic marketing leadership — brand positioning, growth model design, budget allocation, and org design. Not campaign execution or content creation; those have their own skills. This is the engine.

Keywords

CMO, chief marketing officer, brand strategy, brand positioning, growth model, product-led growth, PLG, sales-led growth, community-led growth, marketing budget, CAC, customer acquisition cost, LTV, lifetime value, channel mix, marketing ROI, pipeline contribution, marketing org, category design, competitive positioning, growth loops, payback period, MQL, pipeline coverage

Quick Start

# Model budget allocation across channels, project MQL output by scenario
python scripts/marketing_budget_modeler.py

# Project MRR growth by model, show impact of channel mix shifts
python scripts/growth_model_simulator.py

**Reference docs (load when needed):**

• `references/brand_positioning.md` — category design, messaging architecture, battlecards, rebrand framework
• `references/growth_frameworks.md` — PLG/SLG/CLG playbooks, growth loops, switching models
• `references/marketing_org.md` — team structure by stage, hiring sequence, agency vs. in-house

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The Four CMO Questions

Every CMO must own answers to these — no one else in the C-suite can:

1. **Who are we for?** — ICP, positioning, category 2. **Why do they choose us?** — Differentiation, messaging, brand 3. **How do they find us?** — Growth model, channel mix, demand gen 4. **Is it working?** — CAC, LTV:CAC, pipeline contribution, payback period

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Core Responsibilities (Brief)

**Brand & Positioning** — Define category, build messaging architecture, maintain competitive differentiation. Details → `references/brand_positioning.md`

**Growth Model** — Choose and operate the right acquisition engine: PLG, sales-led, community-led, or hybrid. The growth model determines team structure, budget, and what "working" means. Details → `references/growth_frameworks.md`

**Marketing Budget** — Allocate from revenue target backward: new customers needed → conversion rates by stage → MQLs needed → spend by channel based on CAC. Run `marketing_budget_modeler.py` for scenarios.

**Marketing Org** — Structure follows growth model. Hire in sequence: generalist first, then specialist in the working channel, then PMM, then marketing ops. Details → `references/marketing_org.md`

**Channel Mix** — Audit quarterly: MQLs, cost, CAC, payback, trend. Scale what's improving. Cut what's worsening. Don't optimize a channel that isn't in the strategy.

**Board Reporting** — Pipeline contribution, CAC by channel, payback period, LTV:CAC. Not impressions. Not MQLs in isolation.

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Key Diagnostic Questions

Ask these before making any strategic recommendation:

• What's your CAC **by channel** (not blended)?
• What's the payback period on your largest channel?
• What's your LTV:CAC ratio?
• What % of pipeline is marketing-sourced vs. sales-sourced?
• Where do your **best customers** (highest LTV, lowest churn) come from?
• What's your MQL → Opportunity conversion rate? (proxy for lead quality)
• Is this brand work or performance marketing? (different timelines, different metrics)
• What's the activation rate in the product? (PLG signal)
• If a prospect doesn't buy, why not? (win/loss data)

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CMO Metrics Dashboard

| Category | Metric | Healthy Target | |----------|--------|---------------| | **Pipeline** | Marketing-sourced pipeline % | 50–70% of total | | **Pipeline** | Pipeline coverage ratio | 3–4x quarterly quota | | **Pipeline** | MQL → Opportunity rate | > 15% | | **Efficiency** | Blended CAC payback | < 18 months | | **Efficiency** | LTV:CAC ratio | > 3:1 | | **Efficiency** | Marketing % of total S&M spend | 30–50% | | **Growth** | Brand search volume trend | ↑ QoQ | | **Growth** | Win rate vs. primary competitor | > 50% | | **Retention** | NPS (marketing-sourced cohort) | > 40 |

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Red Flags

• No defined ICP — "companies with 50-1000 employees" is not an ICP
• Marketing and sales disagree on what an MQL is (this is always a system problem, not a people problem)
• CAC tracked only as a blended number — channel-level CAC is non-negotiable
• Pipeline attribution is self-reported by sales reps, not CRM-timestamped
• CMO can't answer "what's our payback period?" without a 48-hour research project
• Brand work and performance marketing have no shared narrative — they're contradicting each other
• Marketing team is producing content with no documented positioning to anchor it
• Growth model was chosen because a competitor uses it, not because the product/ACV/ICP fits

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Integration with Other C-Suite Roles

| When... | CMO works with... | To... | |---------|-------------------|-------| | Pricing changes | CFO + CEO | Understand margin impact on positioning and messaging | | Product launch | CPO + CTO | Define launch tier, GTM motion, messaging | | Pipeline miss | CFO + CRO | Diagnose: volume problem, quality problem, or velocity problem | | Category design | CEO | Secure multi-year organizational commitment to the narrative | | New market entry | CEO + CFO | Validate ICP, budget, localization requirements | | Sales misalignment | CRO | Align on MQL definition, SLA, and pipeline ownership | | Hiring plan | C