The New Head of Marketing’s First 100-Day Plan - B2B SaaS Edition

Sep 13, 2026

Uploaded by Quinn

A 100-day onboarding plan designed for new heads of marketing joining a B2B SaaS organization owned by an entrepreneur or private equity. The guide emphasizes rapidly establishing alignment with CEO and CFO goals, gaining access to KPI dashboards, reviewing existing marketing initiatives, understanding sales tools and product readiness, and testing website and conversion performance. It provides a structured approach from two weeks pre-start through days 1–30 to gather intelligence, secure consensus on priorities, and deliver an early high-impact win that supports measurable progress.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time4 min

AccessFree to download

14 Days Before You Start Work

Days 1-30 as the New Head of Marketing

The Marketer’s Toolbox Series THE NEW HEAD OF MARKETING’S FIRST 100-DAY PLAN: B2B SAAS EDITION A 100-DAY PLAN FOR NEW HEADS OF MARKETING THAT ENSURES THEY WILL HIT THE GROUND RUNNING AND ESTABLISHES A ROADMAP TO SUCCESS. AUSTIN LAWRENCE GROUP BUILD SOMETHING BIGGER WHEN YOU’RE BROUGHT IN AS THE NEW HEAD OF MARKETING AT A SAAS COMPANY THAT’S OWNED BY AN ENTREPRENEUR OR PRIVATE EQUITY, YOU’RE IMMEDIATELY THRUST INTO THE SPOTLIGHT. They probably didn’t hire you because all is well in marketing. They have an issue or two in mind that made the prior person or organization unacceptable. It’s almost a given that you’ll need to come up with a plan to solve these problems and demonstrate progress quickly. But how do you actually do this? Having seen our share of new marketing leaders come in, and having witnessed spectacular successes and misfires, we’ve built a basic template with some guidance that should help you set expectations with leadership, get your arms around the organization’s current state, gain agreement on the issues to be addressed by marketing and build a plan to drive to the goals you have established as being the most important. Here’s the basic architecture for a 100-day plan for the new head of marketing at a SaaS software company (actually 114 days, including the two weeks before you start work) . Take this as a good starting point and make this fit your situation and experience. The recommended plan here assumes there is no crisis as you arrive and that “business as usual” can go on without 100 percent of your time being dedicated to it. (You will have to get stuff done to keep marketing commitments, and that in and of itself is important to establish as you join a team) . 14 DAYS BEFORE YOU START WORK The mission here is to set yourself up to hit the ground running. • Sign NDA and any employment agreement. • Provide leadership with your 114-day plan outline so they will know what your process will be, and seek agreement with it in principle (begin the important psychological process of gaining agreement / generating consensus in small steps) . • Request all plans that are run by, involve or impact marketing. • Request organization chart and job descriptions for sales, marketing and customer success and any agreements in place between these peer organizations and marketing. • Request competitive information used by sales (e.g., battle cards, assessments) . • Read the entire website, top to bottom. Test conversion paths and note any friction points. Test mobile experience. • Get a demo from a high-performing member of the sales team to begin learning the sales process and product, and start building your network within the firm. • Take notes on things that appear to be working well and those that are not. First impressions matter. Trust your gut. AUSTIN Jason Myers LAWRENCE 512 779 4674 DAYS 1-30 AS THE NEW HEAD OF MARKETING The mission here is to gather more information, learn a little about the political landscape and set the stage for your future success. You’ll be making important impressions on your teammates about how you conduct yourself and do business. • Meet with your boss (likely the CEO) and ensure you have the mission understood; this almost should be like an interview … you’re on a fact-finding mission … what are the top problems? What is his/her goal for the coming year? Three years? What is the vision for marketing from his/her vantage point? (Make it clear you’re aligned with CEO and CFO goals and will build your plans to support them. ) • Gain access to the management KPI dashboard/report; it’s important to know what the team measures and how this figures into their vision of success. • Review content marketing, advertising and email marketing plans in place and results that have been achieved; meet with outside agency execs, if any, to establish a relationship and begin subjective evaluation. • Familiarize yourself with the n

FAQs

What is the goal of the 14 days before the new head of marketing starts?

The focus is to get positioned to hit the ground running: signing agreements, gathering marketing-related plans and competitive materials, reviewing the website and conversion paths, learning the sales process and product, and documenting early observations.

How should the new head of marketing set priorities during days 1–30?

By collecting additional information, learning the political landscape, conducting structured interviews across leadership and peers, reviewing customer success feedback and marketing reporting, and identifying gaps or outliers in performance and processes.

How does the plan achieve alignment with leadership?

It first ensures mission understanding with the CEO, then secures access to KPI dashboards, reviews marketing results with key stakeholders, and produces a findings summary to drive agreement on shared objectives and the order of addressing them.

Sep 13, 2026

Uploaded by Quinn