A CMO spends half their week defending marketing's contribution to revenue and the other half being told it is not enough. Walk in asking about their 'brand vision' and you are the tenth vendor that month they will forget. The ones who get a second call open on the number the CEO is grilling them on: how much pipeline marketing actually sources, and what it costs. Start there.
What a CMO actually cares about
A CMO is judged on marketing-sourced pipeline, CAC and efficiency, and whether the board believes the story. They buy to defend that number, so 'creative' and 'awareness' are soft, and 'more qualified pipeline at the same spend' is the language that lands. Prep discovery around the revenue contribution and every answer maps to a case they can take upstairs.
Discovery call questions for a CMO
Copy the list and cut it to the six or eight that fit the deal. Lead with the question that gets at the number they own, and let the rest earn their place. Each is tagged with the MEDDICC field it fills, so your notes drop straight into the CRM.
- How is marketing measured against revenue right now, and who sets that bar? (Metrics)
- What share of pipeline does marketing source versus sales, and is that the right split? (Metrics)
- Walk me through how a lead becomes revenue in your model today. (Decision Process)
- What is the marketing efficiency number the board watches, and where does it need to be? (Metrics)
- When the CEO questions marketing spend, what is the hardest question to answer? (Implicate Pain)
- What would make next quarter's board deck easier to defend? (Implicate Pain)
- Which part of the funnel loses you the most: volume, quality, or conversion to pipeline? (Implicate Pain)
- What have you already tried to prove contribution, and why did it fall short? (Competition)
- If something moved the efficiency number, what does it take to bring it in? (Decision Process)
- Who signs off besides you: the CFO, the CEO, RevOps? (Economic Buyer)
- Ninety days in, what number tells your board this worked? (Metrics)
- Which of your leaders would champion this internally? (Champion)
Do not run the whole list; that is a survey, not a conversation. Pick the six that touch the revenue number, open there, and let the answers pull the rest out. The prompt below tailors these to a specific company in one paste.
Generate these for your exact account
The list is the floor: the same questions for every CMO. The call is won by grounding each one in their actual funnel and board narrative, which you would only get from reading their site and recent posts. That is the ten minutes before the call you never have. Hand it to Claude.
You are prepping me for a discovery call with a CMO at {{company}} ({{company URL}}).
First, read their website: what they sell, who they sell to, how they go to market, and any public signals about their priorities right now.
Then take the discovery questions below and, for each one, swap the generic blank for something specific to {{company}} and this CMO's world. Keep every question mapped to its {{MEDDICC}} field. Cut the list to the 8 that best fit this deal, sequence them broad to specific, and flag the ONE question most likely to surface a real gap I can act on.
Use only what you can read or reasonably infer, and mark anything inferred so I do not assert it as fact on the call.
QUESTIONS:
{{paste the list above}}Generate this for any account
- Discovery call prep skill →The Claude skill that tailors this whole list to a specific account and your framework (MEDDICC, BANT, SPICED).
- Sales discovery questions prompt →The copy-paste prompt version, tailored to the deal in front of you.
Frequently asked questions
What should you ask a CMO on a discovery call?
Open on marketing's contribution to revenue and its efficiency, because that is what the CEO and board hold the CMO to. Questions about brand or creative read as soft; questions about sourced pipeline, CAC, and the board narrative land. Keep it to six or eight and map each answer to a qualification field so you leave with a business case, not notes.
How do you sell to a CMO?
Speak in the number they defend upstairs. A CMO buys to make the board conversation easier, so frame everything as more qualified pipeline or better efficiency at the same spend, and bring a proof point they can forward. Discovery is where you find which number is under the most pressure, then you build the case around that one.