I just walked out of Infosec Europe. Half the stands were empty. The other half were staffed by marketers. Steers. Someone doing a card trick in the middle of the aisle.
People were pitching product like it’s still 2018.
It’s not.
Budgets are frozen. Buyers are cautious. The general economy is running on fumes.
But don’t be fooled by that. The macro economy isn’t your biggest problem.
Keep your eyes on the road.
2025 won’t be saved by AI campaigns or brand refreshes. No time for that.
I think you can still save 2025.
You just need budget cover.
If you’re a CMO in 2025, you’ve probably watched your martech stack balloon, your campaign costs double, and your CFO only smile when you say “cut.”
If you’re also the CFO, then good luck.
2025 isn’t a market for brand strategy. It’s a market for proving you know where the money comes from, and how to get more of it, with less.
First thing I’d do?
Burn the roadmap.
If your team’s still running quarterly themes, you’ve already lost. Themes are what marketers do when they can’t show ROI. Replace them with sales-led priorities. Not alignment. Ownership.
Pick one product. One ICP. One vertical. Build the whole funnel around closing deals this quarter.
Most CMOs I’ve seen waste half their headcount on “awareness.”
Problem is, awareness doesn’t pay payroll.
Conversion does.
You want results?
Steal from sales.
Their decks. Their call notes. Their objections. That’s your new messaging. Write what closes.
Did you know 80% of key commercial activities are missing input from sales or marketing? That’s Gartner data from 2023.
Second, cut the stack.
Most teams I see are buried under 20 tools and no one knows what’s doing what.
One CRM. One email engine. One attribution model.
If it doesn’t move a lead to pipeline, bin it.

Third: compensation.
You want marketers to act like owners?
Pay them like closers. No more “marketing influenced revenue” bonuses. Give them a number. Tie it to pipeline.
It changes everything.
Your content lead stops writing for likes. Your ops lead stops fiddling with tags. Everyone moves the same metric.
Fourth: meetings.
Stop talking about MQLs. They’re dead. I’ve watched teams drown in dashboards while reps are still cold calling with last year’s pitch.
Sit down with sales weekly. One deck. One story. One ask.
The only startups making it to 2026 are the ones who know how to sell — and teach their teams to do the same.
Everyone else?
They’re writing brand guidelines no one reads.
This isn’t marketing anymore.
It’s survival. And the ones who know where the revenue lives are the ones who stay funded.
If not, no card trick saves you.
It’s not 2018. But that’s not bad news.
It’s just a new game. Play it sharper.
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