“Our budget was slashed again,” exclaimed a frustrated CMO from a $75mil SaaS company. “The staff I have left is depressed, and those who can are jumping ship. Anyone have any ideas for me?” the CMO asked. And so began another CMO Huddle in the “hidden recession” of 2024.

Reflecting on the Economic Realities

Before breaking down the potential solutions to this common challenge for many B2B CMOs, let’s reflect on the economic realities our recent research revealed:

• 69% of B2B marketing leaders believe their industry is in a recession
• 50% noted their company experienced layoffs
  
• 69% of marketing leaders were asked to do more with less budget
  
• 76% of marketing leaders are experiencing more pressure to deliver pipeline results

Rebuilding After Layoffs

Now let’s tackle this CMO’s leadership challenge after layoffs and budget cuts. Most of the time, layoffs do not end up with the optimal mix of talent based on the reduced budget. Sure, you may have eliminated some weak performers. That’s always helpful. But the critical question is, given your new budget, do you have the right mix of talent? If you had started from scratch, is this the team you would have put in place?

Optimizing Your Team

Rather than fretting about staffers jumping ship, think of that as an opportunity to right-size and rebuild with a team unburdened by what happened before. Look for “utility players” who are eager to tackle more than one role and “Impact Players” as outlined in Liz Wiseman’s great book. These more flexible individuals will be invaluable as you look to stretch every penny.

Questions to Guide Your Go-To-Market Strategy

Now, on to allocating your smaller budget. The biggest mistake you can make is to cut each area equally. Instead, restart your strategic process. Notice I didn’t say “restart your budgeting process.”

A smaller budget requires more focus. First, your smaller staff won’t be able to cover the same ground they did before. Second, your overall reach is likely to drop or your dollars will be spread too thin to make an impact. But again, you need to tackle your go-to-market strategy before deciding on budget allocation.

So, where to focus? Here are some questions to consider:

• Can you eliminate one or more products/services in your portfolio?
  
• Can you drop a vertical market or two?
  
• Can you refine your Ideal Customer Profile?
  
• Can you fixate on one vulnerable competitor and win more of those deals?
  
• Can you reposition your product/service to make it more appealing to a specific target?
  
• Can we adopt a more distinctive personality to help us cut through?
  

Finding Your Unique Market Position

This exercise is ultimately about differentiation. Narrowing the market and finding your unique position, your most leverageable point of difference. Once you have this, allocating your reduced marketing budget will almost be fun.

Ultimately, this is a leadership opportunity for CMOs. Force the big-picture discussion. Remind your leadership team, “We can’t keep doing what we did before with fewer resources and expect better results.” You can also promise them that a tighter strategy is the ultimate driver of innovation.

Written by Drew Neisser