Most of the time, this isn't strategy. It's cost-cutting. Private equity doesn't want to pay two senior leaders, so they jam them together and hope it works.
But something interesting happens when a CMO actually takes ownership of the BDR function. The excuses disappear.
Here's what nobody wants to admit: most marketers don't actually want to own inside sales. It's uncomfortable. It means owning headcount, turnover, compensation decisions, and—scariest of all—owning the revenue miss when it happens.
But that discomfort is exactly the point.
When you own both demand generation AND demand pursuit, you can't hide anymore. You can't blame sales for poor follow-up. You can't complain about leads being rejected when you're the one responsible for both creating them and pursuing them.
Three things happen fast:
Lead quality stops being an excuse. Suddenly it's not "sales rejected our leads" anymore. It's "we're not pursuing them correctly" or "we're not creating good ones." Either way, the conversation gets real.
Marketing's focus shifts to revenue. When your comp plan is tied to the actual number—not impressions, not MQLs, not engagement—marketing stops obsessing over content downloads and starts obsessing over pipeline. Because the pressure is real and the hunger for results changes everything.
Accountability becomes inescapable. There's nowhere to hide. Bad quarter? That's on you. Underperforming BDR? That's on you. Poor lead quality? That's on you. It's terrifying and clarifying in equal measure.
The organizational structure itself isn't the magic fix. What matters is whether the CMO is willing to actually own the outcome, not just influence it. Whether they understand that "marketing should be strategic" is meaningless unless you're willing to say "marketing IS strategic because we're delivering revenue."
That shift in mindset—from marketing as support to marketing as revenue driver—that's what this structure forces.
Most CMOs aren't ready for it. They want the title. They don't want the responsibility. They want to be "strategic" without the messy reality of managing people, hitting numbers, and owning misses.
So if you're thinking about giving your CMO ownership of the BDR function, ask yourself this: Is this person willing to own both the opportunity AND the outcome? Are they prepared to stop being a cost center and start being a revenue center?
If yes, you might actually be onto something.
If not, you're just creating a more complicated way to fail.
Revenue Marketing Raw tackles the uncomfortable truths nobody else will. Catch Jeff Pedowitz and Dr. Debbie Qaqish every week on unfiltered demand generation, revenue alignment, and what's actually broken in your go-to-market.