The Underestimated Role of the CMO

Fractional work demands aggressive questioning that goes far beyond typical contractor relationships. You need to see the financials, understand the exit strategy, review the proforma, and know how founders think about growth. If you’re investing your strategic expertise and time into building something significant, you better know whether the company is actually set up for success. This isn’t just consulting anymore. It’s about becoming deeply embedded in the business fundamentals that determine whether your work will matter. Marketing at the executive level encompasses far more than the promotional tactics everyone expects. It starts with the product itself. Was it market tested? Do the features match what customers actually need? Has anyone even talked to customers, or did the founders just assume they knew what the market wanted? The customer experience, the design, the workflows, the entire process of how value gets delivered, that’s all marketing. Most founders launch products without basic customer research, wasting years pivoting and reworking because nobody taught them to validate first. As a fractional CMO, you’re essentially the number two in the company, and sometimes you’re the grown up who has to redirect the CEO toward market reality. You need to understand the deeper dynamics, including the tensions between business partners that could derail everything. You’re part therapist, part strategist, helping founders see that there are better ways to build their business than just guessing what customers want. This level of involvement means you can’t stay on the surface. You need the same depth of insight and influence as any full executive, because without it, you’re just another vendor building the wrong thing.