20 Questions to Help You Get the Most Out of Your Fractional CMO Partnership
When you bring on a fractional CMO, you’re not just hiring a consultant. You’re investing in strategic clarity, external perspective, and focused execution that can align your marketing with the future of your business.
But here’s the secret: the more prepared you are, the more effective your CMO can be from day one.
These 20 questions are designed to help you, and your future marketing leader, get aligned on what matters most. They’ll surface clarity around your brand, audience, goals, and value, even if you’ve been running your business for years.
Pro tip: Don’t rush through them. These aren’t checkboxes—they’re starting points for deeper insight.
Getting in the right headspace for this exercise
Answer these questions as if you’re meeting your ideal customer for the first time. They don’t know your jargon. They don’t care about your org chart. They do know their needs, and have an idea of their problems and how your offerings may solve them. They have reached out to you because they do want to believe that you can solve their problem.
Write your answers like you’re talking to a friend. Skip the marketing lingo, get real. Be thorough in your answers. You are not trying to hide information from your fractional CMO. The more you are able to share, the good, the bad, the unknown, the easier it will be to get on the same page faster.
🧭 Brand & Business Identity
1. How would you describe your business to a friend or first-time customer?
Imagine you have 20 seconds in an elevator. What do you say?
2. What sets your business apart from your competitors?
If you’re stuck, ask your best customers what they’d say.
🎯 Audience & Segmentation
3. Who is your ideal customer or client?
Think about needs, not just demographics.
4. Do you have multiple ideal clients?
List them all. Break them into logical groups or buyer types (audiences).
5. What pain points or desires do these audiences share?
Why do they seek you out?
6. What actions do you want each audience to take?
What counts as success when someone lands on your site or hears about your business?
7. How does each audience typically make decisions?
Are they fast-moving? Analytical? Do they need social proof? Budget approvals?
🛠️ Services, Products & Offers
8. What are your core offerings today?
List them plainly, no buzzwords. What do you actually deliver?
9. What are the alternate names or ways people describe what you do?
Think about how your audience might talk about it in their own words.
10. Which offers drive the most revenue? Which drives the most leads or interest?
11. How would someone unfamiliar with your industry describe your service?
This helps surface language for top-of-funnel messaging.
💡 Buyer Personas
12. Describe 2–3 types of people who interact with your brand.
This isn’t just about demographics. What are their situations, motivations, and concerns?
13. What does success look like for each persona after working with you?
14. What might stop them from taking the next step?
Identify objections or hesitations.
🔍 Competitive Landscape
15. Who do you view as your biggest competitors (online or offline)?
List names and URLs if you have them.
16. Who do your customers compare you to (even if you don’t)?
Sometimes competitors exist only in the minds of your buyers.
17. What sources do your prospects use to learn about your space?
Think influencers, industry blogs, newsletters, YouTube, and podcasts.
🌐 Website & Content Foundation
18. What pages or content are most important on your website right now?
Not just by traffic, but by value to your business. What content converts?
19. Which pages/content get the most engagement or questions from leads?
Where do people linger, click, or comment?
🧠 Question That Sparks Better Strategy
20. What questions would your customers ask a voice assistant—or AI search—to find you?
These are gold for content, messaging, and targeting.
(e.g., “Best fractional CMO for B2B startups” or “How do I fix my marketing strategy?”)
Why These Questions Matter
This isn’t about filling out a form. It’s about creating a shared foundation for strategic growth.
As a fractional CMO, I don’t just show up with a plan. I help build a marketing system that fits your business, your goals, your team, your customers, and your constraints.
The more you reflect, the faster we move from noise to clarity.