The CMO Bullpen: Leveraging Baseball Strategies for Marketing Success

I grew up in a family of diehard, never-miss-a-game Chicago Cubs fans. So when the calendar turns to late March, I start thinking about baseball. ⚾

The heroes of my childhood were the home run hitters and starting pitchers. Both had straightforward job descriptions, but the game changed with the influx of data. The evolution of pitching strategy is particularly interesting, drawing many parallels to our roles as CMOs.

In the past, starters were generalists who were expected to “do it all” and go deep into the game, only to be replaced by a reliever when their effectiveness diminished.

Yet, with the advent of advanced analytics, baseball has witnessed a transformation in pitching dynamics, with expert roles such as starters, mid-inning long relievers, 7th and 8th inning specialists and closers, all working cohesively as a team.

You might say that pitching has become a fractional profession.

According to sabr.org, the number of innings pitched by a starter has only gone down by about one since the 1930s, but the number of relievers per game has more than tripled.

This strategy has two key advantages: it plays to the unique strengths of different types of pitchers and it allows smaller teams, who cannot afford a roster of Cy Young winners, to compete more effectively and cost efficiently.

What does this have to do with marketing? Like the starting pitcher, the CMO’s role has become increasingly complex as the lines between marketing, communications, sales and technology have blurred, while access to data and performance measurement has become more sophisticated.

A recent A͟d͟w͟e͟e͟k͟ ͟article quotes an executive recruiter as saying “The marketing leadership role has become more complex than any other leadership role in the past 10 years”. According to the same article, only 36% of Fortune 500 companies call their marketing lead a CMO, opting instead for such tortured names as Chief Operating and Marketing Officer or Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer.

Instead of creating new titles, it’s time to recognize that the era of the solo CMO generalist has passed; the role has become so multifaceted that one person cannot excel in every area. That’s not to say that there isn’t a need for internal marketing leadership, but even experienced leaders need some relief.

For small- to mid-market companies with fewer resources, hiring a team of experienced, on-demand marketers to support the internal leadership team can help level the competitive playing field, providing access to high-level talent and functional expertise without the added costs of a full-time hire.

In companies, as in baseball, there are many ways to build a marketing team. Starters will always play a leading role, but a bullpen of seasoned specialists can help get the win.

About The CMO Syndicate

The CMO Syndicate is a diverse group of world-class Chief Marketing Officers who rapidly solve growth and profit problems for CEOs, VCs, CMOs, and PE firms. As global CMOs from the world’s top companies, The CMO Syndicate is not a traditional marketing consulting agency, and we are not typical marketing or growth consultants. We are growth experts and operators who actually do the work on a part-time or project basis as outsourced fractional and interim CMOs.