The Problem
CMOs aren’t confused about what marketing should do.
They’re stuck on something harder: what to decide right now, with incomplete information and real pressure to move. That’s a different problem — and if you’re an agency showing up with answers to the first question, you’re missing the conversation entirely.
The Signal
Across my interviews with CMOs, three decisions kept surfacing unprompted. Not as strategic debates, but as live, unresolved friction.
- Build vs. Partner CMOs with lean teams and PE-backed urgency aren’t asking whether to use agencies. They’re asking what to protect internally versus what to hand off without losing the muscle. The word that came up again and again: speed. Not quality. Not cost. Speed. An agency that can’t articulate how it accelerates results — not just delivers them — is invisible in this conversation.
- Bets by Market This one is more complex than “localize the creative.” CMOs are trying to figure out how to build an organization that absorbs market-by-market variability without constantly reinventing itself. For a fantasy sports app, variability is compliance-driven — state by state. For a global consumer social platform, it’s safety and culture. The mechanics are different, but the underlying question is the same: do we build one scalable play or multiple? And how do we stay coherent while doing it?
- AI Meaning Here’s where it gets interesting. CMOs aren’t just choosing tools. They’re deciding what AI is for their company — a productivity layer, a strategic bet, a channel disruptor, or a trust liability. A security company selling deepfake detection sees AI as a category definition problem. A media brand sees it reshaping the traffic economics they’ve relied on for years. When a client says “we want to use AI,” that sentence contains almost no information. The real question underneath it is the one worth asking.
Why It Matters
These three decisions share a common structure: the CMO knows something has to happen, doesn’t have complete information, and still has to move. That’s not a strategy problem. That’s a decision-under-uncertainty problem.
And it changes what an agency should be offering.
The Mistake Most Teams Make
Walking in with solutions before understanding which decision the client is actually stuck on.
Most agencies pitch to the stated problem. But the stated problem is almost never the real one. “We need a new campaign” often means “I’m under pressure to show results and I don’t know which channel to bet on.” “We want to use AI” often means “I need to look ahead without breaking what’s working.”
Pitching to the surface locks you into a vendor position. Engaging with the underlying decision is how you get a seat at the table.
The Smarter Move
Before your next new business or renewal conversation, identify which of these three decisions your client is actually sitting in. Then ask what’s making it hard to decide, not what they need delivered.
That question alone will separate you from most agencies in the room. Most are waiting for a brief. You’re showing up as someone who helps them decide.
How to Use This
The next time a client mentions speed pressure, market complexity, or AI uncertainty, resist the move to solutions.
Ask what decision they’re stuck on, and stay there longer than feels comfortable.
Signals aren’t permission to pitch. They’re guidance on how to show up with something worth hearing.
These patterns come from ongoing CMO and brand leader conversations we share each month with NextBigWin Pro members.
If you’d like access to the full briefings, you can learn more here.
