With U.S. tariffs rising sharply, companies face pricing volatility, supply disruptions, and urgent pivots in go-to-market strategy. While your strategy may evolve gradually, your ability to execute must move faster.

That’s the mandate for today’s CMO: deliver cost-efficient impact at scale. That means defending brand investments with business outcomes, rethinking spend through a CFO lens, and building an operating model that’s built for disruption.

We sat down with four seasoned revenue leaders to unpack what CMOs should do to navigate budget strain, prove marketing value, and strengthen partnerships with finance when faced with uncertainty. 

Key takeaways:

CFO fluency
CFO fluency
Frame marketing investments in terms finance understands
Brand accountability
Brand accountability
Prove real impact beyond awareness metrics
AI realism
AI realism
Automate smartly without removing the human loop
Scenario thinking
Scenario thinking
Use zero-based budgeting and downside modeling
Model agility
Model agility
Shift from fixed costs to flexible execution 

Real decisions, real impact

From CMO playbooks to CFO expectations, these leaders have navigated the same pressures you're facing now. Here's how they’re reframing budget conversations, defending critical investments, and building operating models that stay flexible when it matters most.

Don’t just jump to, 'I’ve gotta cut here, I’ve gotta cut here.' Start first with thinking about your investments and reallocating your investment. One of the quickest ways to savings is shifting from, for example, a fixed cost headcount model to a scalable execution model.

Jennifer Ross, Executive Director, Marketing Strategy, 2X

We call it zero based budgeting. Build from a zero-base with the end result in mind. If you're a CMO: you've got no org chart, no program spend, no tools, and you're building up from there to try to get the highest impact to hit that goal while I’ve taken 20% of your available dollars away.

Brandon Sullivan, CFO, 2X

It's important for us marketers to actually start talking about and measuring the brand investments that you're making. We should start thinking about the measure of those investments, about growth and engagement. I should be able to be held accountable against genuine engagement and growth within that audience size, and then be able to articulate it to a non-marketer.

Lisa Cole, CMO and AI Advisor, 2X

Even if your CFO comes to you and says, 'You've got to slash your ad budget by 50%', you can still double the per account budget towards those Tier 1 20% if you adjust your strategy.

Aaron Owens, Head of Growth Consulting, Intelligent Demand

I've never implemented a cost cut and also served up a reduction in goals as a counter to that.

Brandon Sullivan, CFO, 2X

Insights from the front lines of budget pressure

Watch the full conversation

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Scale your growth with the right plays

Align your teams. Accelerate your pipeline.

Tariffs and global uncertainty are reshaping buying behaviors, requiring CMOs to deliver qualified, efficient pipeline despite reduced resources. In your personalized 1-on-1 Growth Play Workshop, industry experts from Intelligent Demand and 2X collaborate directly with your team to:

  • Clearly define a high-impact, CFO-approved growth play targeted at your key decision-makers. 
  • Develop a precise, actionable roadmap tailored for immediate implementation. 
  • Establish transparent accountability with clearly assigned roles, measurable objectives, and expected ROI. 

Leave with a proven strategy designed to generate real, measurable, and predictable pipeline growth.

Apply for your Growth Play Workshop