Finding and onboarding a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is hard. During the search, an organization’s marketing efforts are left in limbo. Hiring an interim CMO can help organizations bridge the gap and make the transition smoother. FinThrive, a Clearlake Capital portfolio company that offers revenue management solutions to healthcare organizations, brought in an interim CMO, but they did something unexpected. They kept their interim CMO as an executive coach after they found their permanent CMO. The company and the executives involved could not be happier.
To find out more about this unique approach, HITMC sat down with Cheryl Alden – Chief Marketing Officer at FinThrive, Rick Pleczko – Vice Chairman at FinThrive, and Alan Gonsenhauser – Principal & Founder at DemandRevenue.
Getting to Market Quickly
In 2021, the company needed to search for a new Chief Marketing Officer, but at the same time, they did not want to lose momentum on the important marketing projects that needed to be done.
“It was all about velocity,” said Pleczko. “We had a fantastic technology platform that we needed to rebrand quickly in order to get it to market. We couldn’t wait a year (potentially) to have a permanent CMO to help with that.”
Based on this need, the FinThrive executive team and private equity owner Clearlake Capital decided to bring in an interim CMO while they continued their search for a permanent one.
Interim CMO / Fractional CMO
For their interim CMO (also known as a fractional CMO), FinThrive used the following criteria:
- A leader with CMO experience in the healthcare market
- A marketing expert with experience with building brands and bringing new brands to market
- A person who knew how to implement marketing infrastructure from the ground up
Through their personal networks, they found Alan Gonsenhauser who checked all the boxes.
“In addition to his background as a CMO and General Manager, we were particularly impressed with Alan’s background as an CMO analyst,” explained Pleczko. “He had worked at Sirius Decisions and Forrester. He really understood the market and the players in the space. That was the icing on the cake and sealed the deal with Alan.”
As soon as Gonsenhauser was brought in and joined the executive leadership team, he immediately began the work to create a demand generation engine at FinThrive. He also started putting in place all the groundwork for a new company/product brand and hiring new marketing talent. Gonsenhauser did all of this knowing that a new CMO would be inheriting these projects so he ensured that everything could be transitioned easily.
“I was thrilled to be able to contribute to FinThrive’s future growth,” said Gonsenhauser. “The team and I did a lot of work together to lay the foundation for the company’s go-to-market plan.”
Gonsenhauser’s work included:
- Developing a multi-year financial model that looked at revenue, bookings, margins, marketing resources, processes, and technologies to fill identified gaps in infrastructure
- Creating a long-term marketing plan and organizational structure (approved by the CFO prior to Alden’s arrival) which made it easier for her to start rebuilding her marketing organization
- Launching a new website and interim brand
- Collaborating with Product Management to create an integrated value proposition that spanned the entire product portfolio
Permanent CMO Transition
In the early fall of 2021, FinThrive found its permanent CMO – Cheryl Alden who had been the Senior Vice President of Marketing at PointClickCare for over 12yrs. When Alden arrived at FinThrive, she worked closely with Gonsenhauser to transition the marketing initiatives that he had started. That transition went smoothly.
“It was like having a friend doing your onboarding,” said Alden. “I cannot tell you how valuable it was to have Alan there. Usually when you join a new company as a CMO the role has been vacant for a long time and you spend a lot of effort trying to reconstruct the prior marketing strategies. With Alan there, I was able to get up to speed very quickly and allowed us to focus on the go-forward plan much sooner.”
In addition, because Alden had known Gonsenhauser from before, she was confident that what he had implemented at FinThrive during his interim period were best practices. This further compressed the time Alden needed for her transition into her new role.
Retained as an Executive Coach
During the transition period and over the following year, FinThrive decided to retain Gonsenhauser as a part time executive coach so that Alden could have a sounding board for new ideas and strategies.
“We are big believers in providing sounding boards for our executives,” said Plezcko. “The old adage ‘it’s lonely at the top’ has never been more true, especially in marketing.”
“Just having Alan around has been really helpful not just for me, but for the entire team as well,” continued Alden.
“It was my pleasure to be able to leverage my network to help give Cheryl and FinThrive the best head start possible,” said Gonsenhauser. “I was able to connect them with a PR consultant, a PR firm, a branding agency, and a demand generation vendor. We even found a match for the open VP of product and portfolio marketing position that Cheryl was looking to hire.”
Paying Dividends
Gonsenhauser and Alden have helped FinThrive see a quick return on its marketing investment. The company’s new brand is performing well and the marketing team is humming. By retaining Gonsenhauser as an executive coach and with Alden firmly established as the CMO, FinThrive has given their marketing team a strong foundation for future success.
Other companies may want to consider working with an Interim CMO / Fractional CMO and then retain them as a CMO executive coach.
Watch the interview with Alden and Pleczko to learn:
- What they believe the primary role of a Chief Marketing Officer is
- Why alignment on the marketing team and with other functional areas is critical
Learn more about FinThrive at: https://finthrive.com/
Learn more about DemandRevenue at: https://www.demandrevenue.com/
DemandRevenue is a supporter of Healthcare Scene.
