Dear SaaStr: How Do I Convince My CEO that Marketing is Important?

Dear SaaStr: How do I Convince My CEO that Marketing is Important?

A lot of CEOs these days do seem to be late to truly invest in B2B marketing, and most especially, to hiring a true VP of Marketing.

In the Age of AI, so many CEOs hack it to $5m, $8m, $20m+ in ARR without a true VP of Demand Gen / Marketing on board. Yes, you can get there with hustle, epic AI demand, founder-led sales, and chutzpah.

But … what if you could have done even better?

Especially first-time B2B CEOs often don’t see it, because they’ve never worked with a great VP of Marketing, or they’ve only hired junior folks that can’t own a number. Hire someone too junior, you just get a lot of energy, but often, no more leads. Not really.

So convince your CEO — by doing a little math with them.

Go through this exercise:

• What if we had 50% more leads?
• What if 50% more people showed up to our events? To our webinars?
• What if the leads our sales team receives were 50% more qualified?
• What if our content marketing was twice as good?
• What if we had 50% more sign-ups?
• What if everyone knew about us?
• What if we were in 50% more competitive deals?
• What if we were talking to another 50% more folks, just like our existing customers?
• What if we were in more of the deals that our competitor wins today?

That’s what you get from a truly great head of marketing.

One that’s done it before, at your ACV, and at a senior enough level to have held a commit.