When a new marketing leader joins an organisation, the first 30 days should be focused on understanding, listening and establishing direction, not immediately changing everything.
For a CEO, the first month is an opportunity to assess how quickly the new leader understands the business, builds trust across the leadership team and identifies where marketing can have the greatest commercial impact.
The strongest marketing leaders do not arrive with a predetermined playbook. They take the time to understand the organisation, its customers, its people and its priorities before deciding what needs to change.
What should a marketing leader achieve in their first 30 days?
The first 30 days should create a clear foundation for the months ahead. A CEO should expect a new marketing leader to:
Build relationships with the CEO, executive team and key stakeholders
Understand the organisation's commercial strategy and growth objectives
Develop a clear view of the customer, market and competitive environment
Assess the existing marketing strategy, performance and capabilities
Understand the strengths and gaps within the marketing team
Identify the most important opportunities and challenges
Establish early priorities and agree what success will look like
Build confidence that marketing is aligned with the wider business
The emphasis should be on diagnosis before prescription.
1. Understand the business before changing the marketing strategy
A senior marketing leader needs to understand what the business is trying to achieve before deciding what marketing should do differently. That means spending time with the CEO and leadership team to understand the commercial strategy, growth ambitions, customer priorities and challenges facing the organisation. They should be asking questions such as:
Where is growth expected to come from?
Which customers or markets matter most?
What are the biggest commercial challenges?
Where is the organisation performing well?
Where is momentum being lost?
What does the CEO need marketing to deliver?
This helps establish whether marketing is genuinely aligned with the wider business strategy. and where it may need to evolve.
2. Build relationships across the leadership team
Marketing rarely operates in isolation. The effectiveness of a CMO or Marketing Director depends heavily on their relationships with sales, finance, product, technology, customer and other functions.
During the first month, a CEO should expect their marketing leader to build those relationships and understand different perspectives across the organisation. This is particularly important where marketing needs to influence commercial performance, customer growth or transformation.
A strong marketing leader should quickly become a credible member of the wider leadership team, not simply the person responsible for the marketing function.
3. Assess the marketing function and team
The first 30 days should also provide a clear view of the current marketing capability. That includes understanding:
The existing marketing strategy and priorities
Team structure and capability
Agency and partner relationships
Budget allocation
Technology, data, AI and digital capability
Performance measurement and reporting
Key campaigns and programmes already underway
Areas of duplication, inefficiency or capability gaps
This doesn't necessarily mean making immediate changes to the team. In many cases, the best leaders spend time understanding why the current structure exists before deciding whether it needs to change.
4. Identify the biggest opportunities
By the end of the first month, a CEO should expect the marketing leader to have developed a clearer view of where the greatest opportunities lie. These may be commercial, customer, brand, digital or operational.
The important point is that they should be connected to the organisation's wider objectives. For example, the opportunity might be to improve customer acquisition, strengthen retention, reposition the brand, improve marketing effectiveness, accelerate digital transformation or build a stronger marketing capability.
The new leader doesn't need to have solved these challenges within 30 days. They should, however, be able to explain which challenges matter most and why.
5. Establish early priorities
One of the most valuable outcomes of the first 30 days is clarity. A new marketing leader should begin to establish what needs attention immediately, what can wait and where the organisation should focus its resources. This is where CEOs can distinguish between activity and impact.
A strong leader won't necessarily arrive with a long list of initiatives. Instead, they should be able to prioritise the actions most likely to support the business strategy. As Suzie Walker, MD & Founder of Suzie Walker Executive Search, puts it: “The best senior leaders don't feel the need to prove themselves by changing everything in the first few weeks. They earn credibility by understanding the business, identifying what matters and then acting decisively.”
What shouldn't a CEO expect in the first 30 days?
There can be a temptation to judge a new marketing leader on visible activity: new campaigns, organisational changes or a completely rewritten strategy. But some of the most important work during the first month is less visible. A CEO shouldn't necessarily expect:
A complete new marketing strategy
Immediate organisational restructuring
Major changes to agencies or suppliers
Significant measurable revenue growth
Every problem to have been solved
A fully implemented transformation programme
Some changes will take time to assess and implement properly. The first 30 days should instead create the clarity and confidence needed to make those decisions well.
What should success look like after 30 days?
By the end of the first month, a CEO should ideally feel that their new marketing leader:
Understands the business
They can articulate the organisation's commercial priorities and how marketing contributes to them.
Understands the team
They have a clear view of capability, strengths and gaps.
Understands the customer
They have started developing a meaningful perspective on customer needs, behaviour and opportunities.
Has built credibility
They have established productive relationships across the leadership team.
Knows what matters
They can identify the most important marketing and commercial priorities.
Has a plan for what comes next
They can articulate the key actions, decisions and priorities for the next 60–90 days.
The first 30 days are about creating momentum
The first month shouldn't be viewed as a test of how quickly a marketing leader can make changes. It is a test of how quickly they can understand, connect and create clarity. The strongest leaders use those first 30 days to build the relationships, insight and confidence required to make the right decisions, and then turn that understanding into meaningful action.
For CEOs, that provides an important early indication of whether they have appointed someone who can do more than lead the marketing function: someone who can contribute meaningfully to the wider growth and direction of the business.
Looking for your next marketing leader?
Whether you're appointing a CMO, Marketing Director or another senior marketing, digital or technology leader, the quality of the first 30 days starts with appointing the right person for the business challenge.
If you're planning a senior leadership appointment, we'd be happy to discuss your requirements and the leadership capability you need for the next stage of growth.
Suzie Walker Executive Search is a specialist headhunting firm dedicated to finding exceptional interim and permanent senior marketing, digital, and technology leaders for both B2C and B2B organisations. We partner with FTSE 350 and private equity–backed companies, recruiting for roles at Head, Director and Chief (C-suite) level.
If you’re ready to make your next move, we regularly post new opportunities on our LinkedIn company page. If you apply for a role on the platform, it requires a 1st connection for us to respond, so please make sure to connect with Suzie Walker. Our company page is also frequently updated with the latest hiring news, expert interviews, and candidate guidance, so well worth following.
