--> reasons you don't need a fractional CMO

There’s a video format going around called “reasons why you don’t need to...” The text promises a list of reasons; the audio is too muffled to hear them, and the whole joke is that the creator wants you to do the thing. It’s reverse psychology. Psychologists call the mechanism reactance: threaten someone’s freedom to choose, and they tend to push back.

I don’t want you to ‘do the thing’ because sometimes it doesn't make sense, and there are fair reasons why.

When it comes to hiring a fractional CMO, there are great reasons to hire one, and I’ve talked about it at great length, but there are also reasons not to. Let’s dive in there.

Ego. Sorry, not sorry.

You want the title rather than the work.

Believe it or not, there is a prestige that comes with building a company to a psychological size that needs a CMO comes with prestige. Many founders love it when their company reaches the size where building the C-Suite reflects the company's profitability and scale. The CMO is another title, another addition to that C-Suite signaling of a company’s strength and position.

Thorstein Veblen had a term for this back in 1899: conspicuous consumption, or spending as a public display. He was writing about luxury goods, but a C-suite title can do the same job.

You can usually spot it on the walk-in. They bought the fancy office but can’t stock the free coffee. In marketing budget terms, they bought the CRM, but they cannot afford the lead gen, digital marketing, or comms to drive the ‘C’ of the CRM.

Having a CMO, or fractional CMO, is great, but there is nothing left in the budget to build a strategy around in terms of money or time. You likely don’t need a fractional CMO, in fact, it may make things worse. Any money left should go to your ‘C’ customers, not your ‘C’ suite marketing.

In this case, an audit may be a great place to start. You may be better off with a consultant who will help you align your remaining marketing budget to ROI or goals. Someone who can review your market, spend, and goals, and offer a few clear suggestions and tips on how to make the most of your allocation, excluding salaries.

You can’t let go.

As a founder, you really want the help; you are on board with a fractional CMO joining the team; you are comfortable with their experience, cost, and plan. But that’s where it seems to end.

Everything needs oversight, a review, a sign-off and the founder is the bottleneck.

Opportunities start to come and go. The founder's capacity shrinks because someone with capacity adds marketing tasks to their plate.

People value what they’ve built themselves more, and they call it the IKEA effect. Your first website and the tagline you agonized over are your flat-pack bookshelf. It leans a little, and you love it anyway simply because you built it. Handing over the marketing feels like letting go.

So the marketing plan sits on your bookshelf, and you pay for an overqualified assistant instead of a strategic operator. Spoiler: your fCMO, and many people hired to work in marketing, will likely leave feeling unfulfilled.

Test this: How many decisions do you let others make without your oversight?

You actually want a part-time employee.

You get that feeling when you know who you are, what you expect from a role, and the role doesn't match. I experienced this one directly.

Discussions happen without the fCMO—the quiet exclusion. Projects were handed to someone else because the fCMO was not around at that moment. The assumption becomes that they probably don’t have the time because the founder-requested contract doesn't align with the visibility and presence to make the role impactful.

Research helps explain the instinct. Kruger and colleagues showed people a poem, paintings and medieval armor, and found that people rated the same work higher when told more effort went into it. They called it the effort heuristic.

If your fCMO is on contract 2 days a week and excluded from opportunities where they can have an impact, you may not need an fCMO; you may be better off with a part-time employee.

Fewer hours seem to be the focus, not the experience or ability — do you want a senior-level marketer to develop and execute, or a part-time marketing person to take tasks as needed?

Consider: if a major project came up on a day when your fCMO is off, what would you do? 1. Contact them and request an additional day/hours, 2. wait until they are available or proceed with the team available around you?

My worst sales pitch yet as a fractional CMO.

This may not make sense: a whole post telling you why you shouldn’t hire me or a fCMO? Truth is, I am looking for opportunities to make an impact at every organization, and sometimes that means being critical about goal alignment, the role, and our working relationship. These may be my red flags, but they can be good considerations for any fractional C-suite role a founder hires for.