"Dissecting Compensation - A Primer on Understanding, Negotiating and Managing Pay"

A CMO Confidential Interview with Richard Sanderson, the Marketing, Sales, and Communications Practice Leader at Spencer Stuart. Richard starts with the basics of salary, bonus and equity and branches out to compensation mix, the various types of equity, negotiating best practices, and the "other" elements of an offer. Key topics include: why the devil is in the details; when and how to discuss compensation; the difference between dumb luck and bad luck; and why everyone should do a "multi-year cash flow analysis." Tune in to hear why you should always read the proxy statement and the importance of being prepared to explain how you are using AI.

In Part 2, host Mike Linton sits back down with Spencer Stuart Practice Leader Richard Sanderson to get tactical about comp negotiations, severance, equity, and managing your team through pay anxiety. If you’re a CMO (or headed there), this episode is your field guide to securing a fair offer and stewarding compensation conversations with your org.

Points of interest:

• Your moment of maximum leverage: why the verbal offer is the prime time to align on comp—and how to use that window without damaging trust.

• How different companies negotiate: spotting “full & fair” one-shot offers vs. multi-round negotiators—and how to work the process with your recruiter as a broker to keep heat and emotion out.

• Beyond base and bonus: what’s often negotiable (e.g., severance, sign-on/bridge, relocation, start date, work location, travel, even one-offs) and how to prioritize your asks.

• Severance norms & timing: what policies typically look like (e.g., 6–12 months in many cases), when to ask, and why it’s safest through the recruiter.

• Feeling underpaid? Building a data-backed case with market signals, peer benchmarks, recruiter insight—and how proxy statements can ground internal conversations.

• Underwater equity & team morale: acknowledging pain, reframing to a long-term vision, and understanding annual equity refresh dynamics (timing matters).

• Do the 5-year cash-flow analysis: compare current state vs. new offer (vesting, cliffs, bridge needs) so you don’t get surprised in Year 1–2.

• Today’s relocation reality: mortgage-rate math and why moves can be financially punitive—plan your package accordingly.

• Offer etiquette & reputation risk: why turning down a written offer is a red flag on process—and why reneging after signing can follow you.

• Be ready for the AI question: every senior marketing interview now probes AI use cases, impact, and CFO alignment—have crisp examples.

Sponsored by Quad

Marketing only works when everything works together. Quad helps your marketing machine run with less friction and smarter integration—so you get speed, efficiency, and ROI. Better marketing is built on Quad. See how better gets done at www.quad.com/buildbetter.

If you missed Part 1, go watch that next—then subscribe for weekly conversations with leaders who’ve sat in the CMO chair.

#CMOConfidential #CMO #ExecutiveCompensation #MarketingLeadership #Negotiation #Equity #Severance #AIinMarketing #SpencerStuart #MikeLinton #RichardSanderson #Quad

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A CMO Confidential Interview with Richard Sanderson, the Marketing, Sales, and Communications Practice Leader at Spencer Stuart. Richard starts with the basics of salary, bonus and equity and branches out to compensation mix, the various types of equity, negotiating best practices, and the "other" elements of an offer. Key topics include: why the devil is in the details; when and how to discuss compensation; the difference between dumb luck and bad luck; and why everyone should do a "multi-year cash flow analysis." Tune in to hear why you should always read the proxy statement and the importance of being prepared to explain how you are using AI.

What should CMOs (and aspiring CMOs) know about salary, bonus, and equity—and how do you actually negotiate it? Mike Linton sits down with Richard Sanderson, Practice Leader at Spencer Stuart, to demystify executive compensation for marketing leaders. They cover base pay vs. bonus, RSUs vs. options vs. PSUs, vesting mechanics, event-based triggers, how and when to negotiate, and what new pay-equity laws mean for candidates. Real talk on forfeitures, bonus history, and why your “one big ask” matters when the offer finally comes.

What we cover

• Why CMO pay data is scarce (and what that means for “market rate”)

• Compensation mix: public vs. private/PE, U.S. vs. Europe, and “CMO+” roles

• Equity 101: RSUs, options (strike prices/underwater risk), and PSUs (accelerators/decelerators)

• Vesting models: time-, performance-, and event-based—and what you can/can’t negotiate

• Bonuses: how targets are set, why they’re harder to move, and the 3-year payout history test

• Negotiation timing: expectation-setting, handling the “what are your expectations?” question, and using information asymmetry to your advantage

• Pay-equity & transparency laws: what recruiters can ask (expectations) vs. can’t (history), and how to discuss forfeitures

• Offer strategy: why you typically get one high-leverage counter—and how to use it

Sponsor

@quadgraphics — Better marketing is built on Quad. When everything in your marketing machine works together, efficiency, speed, and ROI go up. See how better gets done: www.quad.com/buildbetter

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A CMO Confidential Interview with Dwight Hutchins, Senior Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and a Northwestern Adjunct Professor, previously Managing Director at Accenture focused on Consumer Products, Health Care and Public Service. Dwight shares his thinking on why marketers should be prepared to reduce expenses and shift resources into a re-imagined future versus incrementally evolving spend and structure. Key topics include: his belief that the complexity of marketing has resulted in many instances of wasted spending; the importance of "unaided first brand response;" why it's important to be "ahead of the expense reduction game;" and how to focus on working versus non-working dollars. Tune in to hear how about reducing $1B in spend to fund new initiatives and a "wild west" story about a battery on-pack promotion.

The Fine Art of Reducing Marketing Expense in an AI World

This week on CMO Confidential, Mike Linton sits down with Dwight Hutchins—Senior Partner & Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group and adjunct professor at Northwestern—to tackle the question every CMO hears from the CFO: “Keep the top line growing… and cut your budget.”

Dwight explains how to find waste without hurting performance, where AI actually improves efficiency (and where it doesn’t), how to test into cuts with confidence, and why many brands still miss “sufficiency” by spreading spend like peanut butter. We dig into frequency capping, working vs. non-working ratios, zero-based budgeting (used sanely), org design, insource vs. outsource, and a real-world case where a company freed up billions and redeployed it to growth channels. Stay for his “Wild West” in-store marketing story—complete with batteries taped to milk.

Sponsored by Typeface — the AI-native, agentic marketing platform that turns one idea into thousands of on-brand assets across channels, safely integrated with your MarTech stack. See how leaders like ASICS and Microsoft scale personalized content with Typeface.

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⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Intro & guest: Dwight Hutchins (BCG)

02:05 – The market reality: uncertainty, shifting buyer values

06:10 – CFO pressure: “grow and cut” in the same breath

09:20 – AI spend vs. payoff: recalibrating expectations

12:25 – Media fragmentation & the “peanut butter” budget problem

15:55 – Where AI helps most: measurement, targeting, creative ops

19:10 – Forensic cuts case study: freeing up massive dollars

23:10 – Finding waste: frequency caps, ad length, quality controls

27:05 – “First Fast Response”: demand spaces & brand power

30:20 – Sufficiency & focus: stop starving campaigns

33:05 – Working vs. non-working: ratios that actually move results

35:20 – Zero-based budgeting (in moderation, with data)

37:10 – Org & ops: redesigning execution, in/outsourcing lines

38:55 – Fun story: the “batteries-on-milk” promo & promo ROI

40:00 – Final takeaways & sponsor

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CMO Confidential, Mike Linton, Dwight Hutchins, Boston Consulting Group, BCG, marketing efficiency, reduce marketing spend, AI in marketing, marketing analytics, media mix optimization, frequency capping, working vs non-working, zero-based budgeting, ZBB, demand spaces, brand strategy, executive leadership, CFO CMO alignment, budget cuts, marketing operations, insource vs outsource, creative operations, measurement and attribution, marketing governance, content at scale, Typeface, Typeface AI, generative AI for marketing, agentic AI, MarTech integration, CMOs, marketing leadership, board expectations, growth and efficiency, case study, social media shift, campaign sufficiency

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