How to hire a CMO
What the role does, the job description, the interview questions, and the 42-minute screening pack that tells you who can do the job before you book a single interview.
The role
What a CMO does
A CMO sits in the Leadership function. The sections below give you the job description, the interview questions and the screening pack for the role.
Screen before you interview
The CMO screening pack
A CMO must hold brand, numbers and market insight together and argue for them. Every applicant gets one link. You get one ranked report.
- 1
How do you set a marketing budget and defend it to the board?
- 2
Describe a campaign that failed and what you learned.
- 3
How do you balance brand building against pipeline targets?
- 4
How do you structure a marketing team for a company our size?
- 5
Which metrics prove marketing is working, and which are vanity?
Interview questions
CMO interview questions
For the candidates who pass the pack. Each comes with a sample answer on the full page.
Ask these after the screening pack, not instead of it. A candidate who has already scored on Brand Management, Marketing Analytics, Market Analysis, Critical Thinking has shown they can do the work, which frees the interview to do what a test cannot: find out how they think, how they explain themselves, and how they behave when something goes wrong.
- Ask every CMO candidate the same questions in the same order. Comparable answers are the whole point; a different conversation with each person tells you who you liked, not who was strongest.
- Look for a specific example with a result, not a description of how the candidate would approach it in principle. Follow up once with “what happened next?” and stop talking.
- Score each answer before moving to the next question, and write down what was said rather than the impression it left.
- At volume, record the first 4 of these instead of calling. Candidates answer on their own time, the answers are transcribed and scored, and you keep live interviews for the shortlist.
The pack takes a candidate about 42 minutes, so a CMO applicant arrives at this interview already measured on the parts you can measure without a meeting.
- 01
Why are you the right person to lead marketing for this company?
- 02
Walk me through the scope of marketing you have led.
- 03
How do you define the CMO's relationship with sales and product?
- 04
What excites you about our market and brand?
- 05
How do you build a demand generation engine that drives pipeline?
- 06
How do you approach brand positioning and messaging?
- 07
How do you measure marketing performance and prove ROI?
- 08
How do you build and lead a marketing team across specialties?
Frequently asked questions
Send every applicant one link that carries 4 skills tests (Brand Management, Marketing Analytics, Market Analysis, Critical Thinking), 2 personality inventories and 5 one-way video questions. springhire scores everything automatically and ranks the candidates, so you interview the top few. The free plan covers 10 candidates a month.
About 42 minutes for the tests, plus 10 to 15 minutes for the video questions. Candidates complete it on their own time, on any device.
A short brief, key responsibilities, must-have and nice-to-have skills and the requirements. The JD generator writes one for this role in a minute.
Questions that ask for a specific past example and a walkthrough of how the candidate thinks. This page lists 8 with sample answers, and the full bank has more.
Yes. The free plan includes every screening tool with 10 candidate credits a month and no card. Paid plans start at $39 a month.
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