How a CMO-As-"Chief Connecting Officer" Keeps Product, Sales And Finance Moving At The Speed Of AI

AI has sped up marketing work, and the pressure to deliver results is rising with it. Campaigns that once took months can now go from brief to launch in weeks. Moving that fast depends on marketing, product, sales and finance working in close step, which makes the CMO's role as the connector between those teams more important.

In a recent MediaPost commentary, Mat Zucker, Chief Marketing Officer at Prophet, makes the case that CMOs should act as "chief connecting officers." Zucker began his career as an advertising copywriter and later served as Chief Creative Officer at OgilvyOne New York and Global Executive Creative Director at Razorfish. At Prophet, a growth and transformation consulting firm, he helped build the firm's digital marketing work and co-led its marketing strategy practice for clients before taking over Prophet's own marketing about two and a half years ago. In that role, he works to get functions with different goals moving toward a common view of the customer, and he sees AI as a way to help.

"I find AI a galvanizing opportunity, and one that can hopefully bring us closer together, not further apart," says Zucker. For him, AI is most useful when it gives other teams better information about customers and the market. The connecting itself still depends on listening, and that often starts with product.

Listening on the factory floor

Zucker still approaches product teams the way he did as a copywriter, asking what went into the work and listening for what customers would care about. "I'm on the factory floor trying to find out what makes that cookie so special, and the baker is getting all excited about how you create that smell," he says. Products and services keep changing, so those conversations have to be ongoing.

Those teams usually know what sets their products apart. "They might find differentiation, but you need to win first on relevance," Zucker notes. Marketing's part is to connect that difference to what the market is asking for. When a product team has designed around an unmet need, the connection is already there. When it hasn't, marketing has to dig for it.

Demos make that relevance visible. A track record is now table stakes, and buyers want to see what a product can do before they commit. Zucker looks for anything product teams build that can be demonstrated and makes it easy for people to see for themselves.

A shared journey

For marketing and sales, alignment starts with common language. The two teams agree on basics, like what counts as a lead, and set goals that tie back to the company's. Zucker finds sales enablement too narrow a label for that work. It takes steady effort from both sides, well beyond marketing attending sales meetings.

Zucker anchors it in the customer journey. A funnel splits customers into stages, and each team owns its own piece. A journey gives both teams a stake from first contact through repeat purchases. "The funnel separates us. We own the journey together," he says.

The partnership also has to be visible to leadership. When possible, marketing and sales leaders present results and updates together. When they're in separate meetings, each can speak for both teams and point to the other's work. Over time, the executive team comes to see one plan for growth.

Consumer brands often face a similar divide between acquisition and retention. One team brings customers in, and another works to keep them buying through email and SMS. Agreeing on definitions and goals across those teams keeps a customer's first purchase and the next one connected.

Proof for the boardroom

AI tools can track what's happening across the market, including conversations and trends outside a company's own channels. Zucker shares those findings with product, sales and the executive team before decisions get made.

Digital twins go further. These AI personas are built from customer data, and teams can talk with them like a focus group whenever they need to. Zucker uses them to test ideas and weigh media choices. The twins don't hold back.

Their feedback also helps when a proposal goes to leadership. Executives get a customer's view to consider alongside the idea, which can make bolder concepts easier to approve. Customer research has always helped win support, and AI removes much of the wait. "I could do it much faster, and I could do it all the time," he says.

The same goes for budget requests. Before asking for money, Zucker builds models of the expected return with the teams that will review them. "I'm building out all these calculators that I probably wouldn't have done before, and I'm doing them with sales and with finance," he notes.

Built to connect

Marketing works close to customers, which puts it in a good position to connect the rest of the business. "Who better than marketing to reach across to different areas and pull people together with a shared goal of the customer?" Zucker says.

Connecting teams also takes broad knowledge. Integrated programs depend on channels like email, events and the web working together, so CMOs need to understand how each one fits. That includes skills outside their own background. He sees that mindset in the strongest CMOs he has advised, who bring people and expertise together across their organizations.

In his view, the connector role comes down to ambition. "If you just want to optimize and get through the day, you can probably manage your way through it. But if you're looking for what we call uncommon growth and real impact, you need to pull everyone together," he adds.