The relationship between the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can be a powerful engine for business growth, but only when the two work in true partnership.

When misaligned, and when marketing is seen as a cost centre rather than a growth driver, opportunities can be missed, and the CMO’s influence diminished.

Sam Curran, Associate Partner specialising in Commercial, Sales & Marketing at Eton Bridge Partners, recently hosted a breakfast roundtable focused on this very issue. The session brought together senior marketing leaders, and featured insights from guest speakers Emma Clayton, seasoned CMO, and Mike Trotman, a commercially-minded CFO. Drawing from their own professional journeys, they explored the challenges and opportunities in aligning finance and marketing functions, offering practical lessons on how to create and build trust and collaboration between these two vital areas of the business.

Why marketing and finance often clash

We kicked off our recent session with some interesting data:

• Over half of CFOs say their marketing counterparts aren’t doing enough to justify investment.
• Less than a quarter of CFOs describe the relationship as highly collaborative.
• And just one in four B2B CFOs believe brand marketing should remain a priority during economic downturns.

Tough stats, but what quickly became clear in the room was this: Marketing and Finance aren’t enemies. They’re simply trained in different disciplines, armed with different metrics, and sometimes caught in legacy habits that keep them siloed.

As Emma Clayton put it, “Marketing and Finance both want the same thing… growth. We just need to get better at co-authoring the plan to get there.”

That mindset shift – from pitching ideas to finance, to building ideas with finance – changes everything. When both sides align, it’s no longer a resource fight. It becomes a shared mission to unlock value and deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

From silos to shared strategy

One of the most refreshing parts of the discussion was the mutual recognition that everyone owns the plan. While marketing may lead the brand strategy and finance may own the budgeting process, neither operates in a vacuum, and both must align on the endgame: sustainable, profitable growth.

Mike shared his own experience: “When I’m in a boardroom defending the plan, no one asks about the person who isn’t in the room. If the CMO’s work is part of the strategy, I have to understand it well enough to explain it – and challenge it.”

The challenge? Most of the value marketing creates is invisible from the outside. As one participant put it, “People only see the tip of the iceberg – the promo, the creative. But the real value lies beneath, and it’s our job to surface that.”

That means bringing evidence to the table. Even if the metrics aren’t perfect, being able to credibly talk about customer acquisition, lifetime value, conversion rates, and future demand drivers builds trust.

That doesn’t mean full agreement on every tactic. What it means is alignment on principles, on shared KPIs, and on trust built through transparent conversations – especially around uncertainty.

Emma added: “CMOs don’t expect CFOs to love every campaign. But we do need them to believe that what we’re doing connects to outcomes. That’s where the relationship starts.”

Speaking each other’s language

Language was a recurring theme – not just the tension between qualitative and quantitative, but a more fundamental gap in vocabulary.

CFOs don’t wake up thinking about personas and storytelling. CMOs aren’t usually fixated on capex and balance sheet timings. So when marketing talks about “reach” and finance asks for “return,” it’s easy to see why wires get crossed.

Mike’s advice was to meet in the middle. “Give me data I understand. CLTV, CAC, conversion rates, funnel velocity – those are terms I can work with. If you don’t have perfect data yet, give me your assumptions and confidence levels. I can work with that too.”

He shared that this shift in language was a turning point in his own thinking: “It got so much better when we had a shared language. I appreciated there was an impact – I just didn’t know how it worked.”

That moment of clarity came when marketing stopped defending spend and started framing it as an investment with a measurable return. Suddenly, the conversation wasn’t about gut feel. It was about pipeline, projections, and probability.

Facing business constraints together

A common tension in the CMO-CFO relationship is resourcing. Marketing often asks for more; finance reminds them there’s only so much to go around.

Mike shared honestly: “There is no bottomless pit. It’s not that I don’t want to invest in brand, it’s that I have to make choices and I want to back the ones that show credible return over time.”

Emma agreed: “Marketing has to understand the constraints the business operates in. A brilliant idea that ignores commercial context won’t get support – nor should it.”

But when both sides operate from shared realities – when marketing presents ideas with a commercial lens, and finance sees brand as a long-term enabler of growth – the conversation shifts. It becomes collaborative, not combative.

Building real trust

Several moments in the session pointed to a broader truth: this isn’t about changing your job, it’s about expanding your mindset.

CMOs who build strong partnerships with finance:

• Show evidence (or thoughtful assumptions) of commercial impact
• Speak with clarity about risk and return
• Align brand goals with business goals

And CFOs who support strong marketing:

• Stay open to metrics that aren’t perfectly linear
• Ask questions instead of shutting things down
• See marketing as an investment, rather than a cost or an indulgence

Emma summed it up well: “The marketers I’ve seen succeed are the ones who don’t shy away from the numbers – they lean in. Not because they’re data scientists, but because they want to build trust.”

The takeaway: One business, one plan

Ultimately, the session wasn’t just about fixing a relationship between two departments, it was about rethinking what partnership looks like at the top table.

As Mike put it: “We’re all part of one business. The plan doesn’t belong to marketing, or finance, or sales. It belongs to all of us.”

At the end of the day, this isn’t about Finance vs. Marketing. It’s about building the best plan together. One that respects the numbers, values the brand, and balances short-term results with long-term growth.

If you’re navigating the CMO–CFO dynamic in your own business, or a marketing leader wanting to explore how to build stronger alignment between commercial, marketing, and finance teams, Sam would love to hear from you.

Huge thanks to Mike and Emma for generously sharing their time and insights.

If this conversation resonated with you and you’re a marketing leader looking to boost your strategic impact and board-level influence, Emma runs a practical programme for CMOs and future leaders. It’s designed to help you lead cross-functionally, defend brand investment, and become a trusted strategic partner.

To learn more or join the next cohort, visit marketingleadermastery.com/IMLA or contact Emma directly to explore tailored