#416 | Dave sits down with Dave Kellogg, former CMO at Business Objects and CEO of MarkLogic and Host Analytics, to talk about what makes a world-class CMO. This is one of the most-played Exit Five episodes of all time, brought back as a greatest hit. Dave Kellogg breaks down his three traits of a great CMO: partner to sales, dispassionate analyst, and partner to the CEO. He explains why sales and marketing alignment often breaks down because of how the CEO measures marketing, why you should side with sales when the CEO and CRO disagree, and why stage two opportunity count beats pipeline dollars as the core marketing metric. They also get into presenting problems without getting defensive, how to use benchmarks without being ruled by them, why spending 5% of budget on market research guides the other 95%, and why every CMO should know the numbers well enough to fill in for the CFO.

Follow Dave Kellogg’s blog at kellblog.com and on Twitter at @kellblog.

Timestamps

(00:00) - Why we’re replaying this greatest hits episode (04:31) - Dave’s path from programmer to CMO, CEO, and board member (08:11) - The 3 traits of a world-class CMO (12:14) - Being a great partner to sales and why it breaks down (16:47) - When the CEO and CRO disagree, side with sales (19:18) - Why stage two opportunity count is the right marketing metric (26:54) - Be a dispassionate analyst instead of getting defensive (33:30) - How to use benchmarks without being ruled by them (36:21) - Spend 5% on market research to guide the other 95% (42:53) - Why a CMO should be able to fill in for the CFO

Join 50,0000 people who get The Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/


***


Brought to you by:

Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.

Webflow: Webflow helps you get discovered in AI search and build fully custom sites without a developer, and its new Webflow Campaigns turns your brand system into on-brand landing pages and ads. Make your website your biggest growth engine in 2027 at webflow.com/exit-five.

Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.

Compound Growth Marketing- A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.

Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.

***


Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

  • They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
  • Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Exit Five. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Exit Five och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.