Barriers to growth: Inside the firm

• Key findings

• Insights and interpretation

• Partnership model friction

• Budget stagnation

• Key takeaway

Barriers to growth: Inside the firm

Sadly, growth never “just happens”, and CMOs must overcome several internal barriers to success.

Key findings

The top two barriers identified by CMOs are both internal: partner alignment and buy-in and budget constraints (both 46%) were ahead by some margin. More than a third (37%) of respondents see market competition as a significant challenge.

Data quality and availability (29%) and technology limitations (24%) were also named as barriers to achieving growth objectives.

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Insights and interpretation

The reality is that many constraints to growth are internal, not market-driven. Clearly this means CMOs and the rest of the C-suite face some difficult questions if they are to reach their strategic goals.

Partnership model friction

Under the traditional law firm partnership model, CMOs may face additional challenges in trying to define and execute a unified go-to-market strategy. To succeed requires a change of mindset from control to consensus.

CMOs must work hard to align stakeholders, persuade partners and to build agreement across practices. Only then will they secure the buy-in required to deliver effective campaigns.

Budget stagnation

Added pressure comes from the state of budgets. This survey suggests a trend towards stagnation, with 72% of the surveyed professionals seeing a freezing of budgets this year, and 8% expecting a cut. No respondents reported a rise.

Key takeaway

Looking ahead, CMOs will need to become internal influencers in order to secure critical buy-in for their projects – and to lay the groundwork for increased marketing budgets in future.