A CMO's First 90 Days | The Twelve Decisions to Settle in the Opening Quarter

Newly in charge of marketing, it is hard to know where to start. The temptation is to launch something new, but there are things to settle first. This article organises the twelve decisions to make in the first 90 days, by period.

Why 90 Days

The boundary matters because budgets and targets run on quarters.

Spend the first quarter only understanding the current state and you cannot get your own judgment into the next budget cycle. You end up running another year on the plan your predecessor built.

Moving too aggressively on arrival is equally risky. Before you know what is working, you can stop something that was.

Days 1–30: Understanding and Early Calls

This period is more about learning than deciding.

1. Whether to list every campaign and its cost

Start in the first week. List every live campaign with its spend and its results side by side.

Without this, every decision rests on hearsay. It is a lot of work, but skipping it makes everything that follows guesswork.

2. Who to ask, and what

There is an order: sales first, then the executive team, your own department last.

Ask sales what they expect from marketing. The complaints that surface here become material for later decisions.

Your own department comes last because hearing from them first pulls you toward their existing view.

3. How long to keep your predecessor's approach

Without settling this, you run on their design indefinitely.

The guide is the end of the current quarter. Declaring that nothing changes until then lets the team settle and hand things over properly.

4. What to stop first

Building the list surfaces things that are clearly running on inertia.

Stop one of them. You do not need sweeping change, but it matters that people see someone who makes the decision to stop things has arrived.

Days 31–60: Setting Direction

With the current state visible, this is the period for deciding direction.

5. What to set as this period's target

Chase volume, raise the average value, or open a new audience?

Until this is settled, every later decision floats. Budget allocation and staffing both follow from the target.

6. Whether to rework the budget allocation

Mid-year, the range you can move is limited. Annual contracts and booked inventory will not shift immediately.

At this stage, separate what you can move now from what changes at the next planning cycle. It is natural for the latter to be larger.