Growth targets keep climbing while cost lines tighten, and planning season starts to feel very personal for CMOs. AI threads through every conversation, zero-based thinking pulls against last year's baseline, and the goalposts never seem to hold still.

So the job becomes building a budget you can walk into the room with, own, and defend with conviction.

To get there, Drew brings together Andrew Cox (Forrester), Lisa Cole (2X), and Alan Gonsenhauser (Demand Revenue). The conversation centers on tying spend to strategy, translating marketing into CFO-ready terms, and giving AI a role in the plan that the numbers can support.

In this episode:

• Andrew shares Forrester's view on moving past "last year plus X," building budgets around corporate objectives and campaigns, and forcing prioritization.

• Lisa applies a zero-based mindset to business priorities, uses a 70-20-10 program mix for core, flex, and test, and frames marketing as an ATM of Audience, Trust, and Monetization.

• Alan outlines the signals of strong and weak budgets, tying the majority of spend to growth campaigns and long-term value plans, and maintaining a year-round working relationship with the CFO.

Plus:

• Keeping tech spend in check, including guidelines for MarTech mix and contract flexibility

• Positioning brand and PR in financial terms like pipeline influence, win rates, and pricing power

• Responding to AI efficiency pressure by fixing workflows first and framing value in utilization, speed, and scalability

• Why the budget should be the numerical expression of strategy, not a defense of legacy spend

If you want to walk into your next budget review with a clear story, solid numbers, and conviction, this conversation will help you get there.

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/