You just got the VP Marketing role. Your CEO asked you on day 3 what your plan is.
Don't answer. Audit first.
Here's the exact 30-day audit script I run with every new VP I advise. 5 artifacts. 2 hours of work per artifact. Zero strategy until it's all done.
Week 1 — Artifact 1: The Real Positioning Doc
Not the positioning doc on your Notion. The positioning doc that lives in your team's actions.
→ Copy down exactly what your homepage headline says.
→ Copy down exactly how your top rep pitches the product on a call (listen to 5 recordings).
→ Ask your top 3 customers, in their words, "how do you describe what [company] does when you recommend it to someone?"
→ Ask the CEO to describe the company in 20 words without looking at your deck.
You'll have 4–5 versions of what the company does.
The artifact: a 1-page doc listing all 4–5 versions side by side, with the 3 biggest discrepancies highlighted.
That's not a strategy doc. It's a diagnosis.
Week 1 — Artifact 2: Pipeline Velocity by Source
Pull the last 6 months of pipeline data from the CRM:
→ SQLs by channel, monthly
→ Stage-to-stage conversion (SQL → opportunity → closed-won)
→ Close rate by source
→ Average deal size by source
The artifact: one dashboard with 4 numbers. Nothing else.
The 2 patterns you're looking for:
Which source has the best close rate (not the most volume)? That's your highest-leverage channel. Double down. 2. Which source has the most volume but the worst close rate? That's your biggest leak. Either fix it or kill it.
Week 2 — Artifact 3: Top 10 Closed-Won Breakdown
Pull your last 10 closed-won deals. For each one:
→ How did they find you? (Self-reported on a form, not attribution.)
→ How long was the sales cycle?
→ What objection did they raise?
→ What made them say yes?
Look for the pattern. The pattern is your actual ICP — not the one in your pitch deck.
Most new VPs find the real ICP is 30–50% different from the one marketing was targeting.
Week 2 — Artifact 4: Top 10 Closed-Lost Breakdown
Pull your last 10 closed-lost deals. For each one:
→ Who did they pick instead?
→ What made them pass?
→ Is it price, fit, trust, or timing?
Run win-loss calls on 3 of them this week. Email:
"We're doing a 15-minute win-loss review on deals from Q1. 3 questions, no sales pitch — just trying to improve our process. Can I send you 2 time slots?"
30–50% will say yes. The ones who say yes will give you more positioning insight than 3 months of strategy work.
Week 3 — Artifact 5: Sales Team Cold Outreach Stats
If you have an SDR team or reps doing cold, pull:
→ Reply rate by rep, last 30 days
→ Meetings booked per rep, last 30 days
→ Pipeline generated from cold, last 90 days
Then ask each rep directly: "What % of the leads you're getting from marketing are actually worth calling?" Watch their face. The real answer isn't in the dashboard.
Week 4 — The 3 Patterns to Flag for the CEO:
By the end of week 4, you should be able to tell your CEO 3 things:
ICP drift — the gap between who you're pitching to and who's actually buying.
Channel concentration — which single source is responsible for most pipeline, and what the risk is. 3. Dead channel waste — where budget is being spent on a channel with <2% reply or <1% conversion.
These 3 findings give you your month-2 kill list.
The rule: No strategy in month 1. Just diagnosis.
Every new VP who tries to build strategy before diagnosing spends the next 3 months fixing the wrong thing.
Every new VP who diagnoses first spends month 2 making specific decisive cuts that the CEO respects.
By month 2, you'll have earned the trust to start building.
— Tanyo
P.S. If you want the full 30-day audit template (Google Doc with every section filled in), reply with "DAY30" and I'll send it.