Marketing is changing

Why people want to learn marketing from consultants and fractional operators

Marketing is changing.
The way people want to learn about it is changing.

Folks want to hear less from people in top leadership positions.

Now, top consultants and fractional experts seem to be more in-demand than CMOs.

I know this research from Peep Laja only considers 385 votes (including my biased one!).

But imho, it'll be a growing trend, which is rooted in the following:

→ In the age of AI, people need more hands-on, operational advice vs. "leadership"

→ Also, with less funding and pressure on GTM efficiency, there'll be less full-time CMOs

→ So it and it'll be much more rare to become a CMO with success stories to learn from

→ With focus on hands-on execution, people prefer learning from those in the field

→ Consultants who operate across multiple orgs compound expertise more quickly

→ Because they do the thing repeatedly vs. getting bogged down with internal politics

→ They're also encouraged to share their work here to get new business

→ And so the influence (eg. logos, case studies, POV) that make them worth learning from

→ They also must adapt quickly and learn the latest, making them more current

___

There's obvs a lot of exceptions to this, but I still think this'll be a growing trend.

What do y'all think?

PS. Not to toot my horn as a consultant myself, but I've also genuinely been learning a a lot more from fractional/consultants vs. CMOs/VPs lately.