A marketing leadership roadmap
An illustrative example of how I turn a broad growth brief into priorities, ownership and a useful leadership conversation.
Illustrative example. This is a sample working framework, not a client deliverable or a statement of achieved results.
Start with a commercial brief.
Imagine an established business with a capable marketing team, several external partners and inconsistent enquiry quality. The brief is to improve the quality and visibility of its pipeline while giving the leadership team greater confidence in marketing decisions.
Make the priorities explicit.
| Priority | Leadership decision | Delivery responsibility | Evidence to review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Define a valuable enquiry | Agree customer fit and qualification criteria with sales | CMO, sales leader and business owner | Accepted enquiries, reasons for rejection and follow-up quality |
| Clarify positioning | Choose the audience and problems the business should lead with | CMO with the internal team and creative partner | Customer feedback, enquiry themes and message consistency |
| Improve the enquiry journey | Prioritise the friction affecting suitable buyers | Marketing team and website partner | Form completion, customer questions and sales feedback |
| Align acquisition | Agree each channel’s role and investment rationale | CMO and channel specialists | Qualified opportunities by source and acquisition economics |
| Connect reporting | Agree definitions, owners and review cadence | CMO, sales and reporting specialists | Data completeness and progress from enquiry to customer |
Understand & prioritise
Review the customer journey, marketing activity and measurement. Agree the decisions that matter first.
Align & activate
Set responsibilities and channel roles. Begin agreed improvements and address measurement gaps.
Review & refine
Interpret the evidence, resolve outstanding decisions and agree the next quarter’s priorities.
Sequence the work.
Understand the current position
Review the business objectives, customer journey, channel activity and reporting. Speak with the people handling enquiries. Identify where missing evidence is preventing a useful decision.
Agree the plan and begin delivery
Build a prioritised work list with an owner, dependency and review date for each item. Address critical measurement gaps while progressing improvements that can be delivered with the current team.
Review and adapt
Compare the response with the initial assumptions. Record what changed, what remains uncertain and which decisions require leadership input. Update the next phase of work accordingly.
A useful executive review.
- Commercial progress: enquiries, qualified opportunities, proposals and new customers, with consistent definitions.
- Customer insight: who is engaging, what they need and why suitable opportunities are being lost.
- Delivery: completed work, unresolved dependencies and decisions needed.
- Investment: the rationale for maintaining, changing or stopping activity.
- Next priorities: a short list of actions with accountable owners.
The value is in the decisions this framework enables. The final roadmap reflects the business, the team’s capacity and the evidence available.
Give your marketing a clear direction.
Tell me about your business, your priorities and where you need stronger leadership. We’ll explore whether there’s a fit.