Michael Saltzstein | 4 Steps You Need to Take to Become CMO

As an experienced Marketing Specialist, Michael Saltzstein knows the road to the top of the marketing career path is rarely a clear-cut route.

The truth is becoming your firm’s chief marketing officer (CMO) is a little more involved than simply doing your best and then sending in your application when the position is open. But with some help from Michael Saltzstein, you can start working your way towards your goal. Here, then, are four steps he believes you need to take if you aspire to become CMO one day. Image Source: Thuật ngữ Marketing

1. Experience every stage of your career path

According to Michael Saltzstein, you must experience each of the three prerequisite stages of marketer’s career path before you can become a CMO.

The first stage, entry level, is where you learn the fundamentals of marketing. This includes learning how new developments, such as digital marketing, can be used to your advantage.

The mid-career stage occurs some 5 to 10 years into your career. Here, you’ll be managing and delegating most of the creative efforts to your staff and business partners. Aspiring CMOs must also excel at understanding customer acquisition metrics.

After a decade, you’ll be a senior marketer, whose focus includes brand leadership. At this stage, an aspiring CMO must know how to design and carry out a marketing plan, inspire your staff, and provide excellent customer experience. In addition, Michael Saltzstein advises aspirants should be able to prove marketing return on investment (ROI).

If you’ve experienced and exceled at all three stages, you can reach the fourth stage – the CMO.

2. Know the responsibilities of the CMO

According to Michael Saltzstein, the CMO isn’t merely the chief marketing manager, as they’re also required to do the job the job of the chief growth officer (CGO). This involves cultivating the company’s growth by creating long-term plans and using organization-wide project management to execute them.

For this reason, Michael Saltzstein suggests aspiring CMOs must have in-depth knowledge of every facet of the company’s business, which includes sales, market share, customer experience, customer acquisition, and the like. In addition, they need to be able to prepare and implement strategies which take each of these aspects into account.

In other words, CMOs must excel at marketing as well as business strategy.

3. Learn and master critical soft skills

Michael Saltzstein advises aspiring CMOs not to neglect the development of soft skills, including the ability to communicate and get along well with others, and the two we’ll discuss below.

Candidates must know how to develop a vision, which entails being able to craft short and long-term goals, and use frameworks to define intricate strategies.

Leadership, which allows you to make plans, delegate tasks, and manage and inspire your team, is another crucial skill aspirants must acquire. Aspirants must also be ready to lead the charge towards the company’s digital future, which takes us to the next step.

4. Aim for digital expertise

Aspirants must be well-informed about digital solutions that can be used to execute strategies and grow the company’s business.

Michael Saltzstein also believes those who want to become CMO must be able to incorporate data in their strategies, and lead data-driven initiatives designed to benefit the entire organization. Familiarizing yourself with new data initiatives and digital transformation projects is also paramount.

Michael Saltzstein stresses reaching the top is something anyone can do, provided they are committed to making the effort. For more strategies on how to excel at your marketing career, make sure to keep coming back to this blog!