CMO Without the Title
- Cristin Padgett
- Oct 15
- 3 min read
Every role comes with OKRs — write X number of blogs, launch X press releases, acquire X inbound leads, or influence X pipeline.
That works perfectly when you’re in your own lane. You own your outcomes, you control your levers, and you measure success by what you can deliver.
Demand Generation owns awareness and lead flow. Product Marketing shapes the message and the market fit. AR/PR handles the perception. Field Marketing drives relationships. Customer Marketing nurtures retention. Creative brings the whole thing to life.
Everyone’s racing toward success — in parallel.
Then, enter Partner Marketing.
And suddenly, you’re not racing in parallel anymore. You’re weaving six lanes into one.
What Partner Marketing Really Is
Partner Marketing is the most underestimated discipline in B2B.
It’s not a single function — it’s creating connective tissue between every marketing function.
You touch:
Digital campaigns and paid ads
Field events and roadshows
Press releases and analyst relations
Case studies and customer stories
E-books and whitepapers — both evergreen and industry-specific
Creative assets and sales enablement tools
You are, in essence, a Chief Marketing Officer.
You coordinate six-plus teams, each with their own OKRs, personalities, and competing priorities — and none of them report to you.
It’s leadership without authority. It’s influence without control. And it’s where the best marketing leaders are forged.
The Channel Conflict
When I stepped into the role of Director of Global Channels for a late-stage startup, I quickly realized something:
Our Partner Marketing strategy was running headfirst into what I call “the channel conflict.”
Every team had its own success metrics. I had mine — partner-sourced revenue.
But the leads and OKR’s we needed to hit our goals?
They were the same ones Demand Gen was chasing. The same ones Field wanted to claim. The same content Product Marketing was creating.
We were competing for the same oxygen.
The result was predictable: misalignment, duplicated efforts, and a quiet race to the bottom — where everyone was protecting their own OKRs instead of advancing the company’s growth.
Flipping the Script
So I made a choice.
Instead of fighting for credit, I gave it away.
If the Demand Gen team ran an ad that benefited my partners, they got the attribution
If Field hosted an event that helped me hit my revenue target, they got the recognition.
Why? Because motivation moves faster than mandate.
When teams feel they are being treated fair and valued, campaigns get done. When you stop competing internally, you start winning externally.
I used my partner budget not just to fund campaigns, but to fuel collaboration.
I measured success not by who got the credit, but by how many programs crossed the finish line — and how many people wanted to work with me again.
The impact was immediate.
Campaign velocity accelerated.
Partner co-marketing improved.
And we generated a 7-figure pipeline without adding headcount or changing org structure.
The Leadership Lesson
That experience changed how I see leadership.
Being a CMO isn’t just about owning all marketing functions. It’s about aligning them — even when you don’t have the org chart authority to do it.
Leadership isn’t positional. It’s relational.
You lead through trust, empathy, and a shared sense of success.
Partner Marketing taught me that motivating people to meet their goals can be the fastest route to meeting your own.
And that’s when it hit me: I wasn’t just managing partner marketing.I was already acting like a Chief Marketing Officer.
💥 Impact Summary
✔️6+ marketing functions aligned to unified GTM strategy
✔️12+ global co-marketing campaigns executed across demand gen, digital, PR, and field.
✔️40% faster campaign delivery velocity
✔️7-figure pipeline influenced through collaboration-first strategy
🥷 Led through influence, not authority
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