I define who you are for, who you are not for, and the one claim the company makes. Then I write the messaging framework everything else runs off: one claim, three pillars, a proof point behind each, and the objections answered before sales has to.
Virtual CMO · Eric Brynaert
Marketing leadership, without the full-time hire.
Most companies under $20M do not need a CMO five days a week. They need someone senior enough to decide what the product is, who it is for, and what the team should stop doing. That is the job I take on: I set the strategy, build the systems, and stay close enough to execution that the work actually ships.
10+Years in marketing
130+Businesses marketed for
6Countries worked in
3Languages sold in
The problem
You do not have a marketing problem. You have a decision problem.
Almost every stuck marketing function I have seen was busy. The campaigns ran, the site got redesigned, the deck got rebuilt. What was missing was a single person accountable for the answers underneath all of it.
Symptom
Everyone describes the product differently
Sales says one thing, the website says another, the founder says a third. Buyers notice, and it costs you deals you never hear about.
Symptom
Launches are announcements, not campaigns
The feature ships, a post goes up, and nothing changes in pipeline. There was no narrative, no enablement, and no plan for the second month.
Symptom
Sales builds its own materials
When the deck marketing made goes unused, reps improvise. Every rep then sells a slightly different company.
Symptom
Nobody can say whether marketing worked
Impressions and traffic are up, and the pipeline question gets answered with a shrug. The CRM was never set up to answer it.
Symptom
You are paying agencies to make strategy decisions
Agencies execute well against a brief. Without one, they invent it, and you fund the guess.
Symptom
Your junior marketer is being asked to be senior
A capable coordinator with no one to report to will default to activity. That is a management gap, not a talent gap.
What I run
Four things, in this order.
The sequence matters more than the list. Positioning before campaigns, enablement before spend, measurement before scale.
Positioning that lives in a document is worth nothing. I build the library sales reaches for: battlecards, positioning decks, case studies, technical datasheets, objection handling. Built with reps, not handed to them, which is the difference between materials that get used and materials that get ignored.
I run launches as cross-functional programs with a narrative, a channel plan and a definition of done, and I run the demand engine behind them. Paid search, SEO and content, email, events and trade shows, all pointed at the same claim. I have managed six-figure monthly ad budgets and a 12-event annual calendar, and I know when to pause spend rather than hand sales more leads than it can work.
I pick and roll out the stack, CRM, sales intelligence, sequencing, tracking, then build the reporting that tells you honestly what worked. Cost per qualified lead, not impressions. I also manage the people doing the work: I have led teams of up to seven and written the documentation that kept quality steady through constant onboarding.
Who this is for
Good fit, and honestly bad fit.
I would rather tell you now than three months in. My background is B2B: technical products, considered purchases, a real sales team on the other end.
A good fit
- B2B SaaS, cybersecurity, infrastructure or technical services
- A sales team that needs better ammunition, not more leads
- A junior marketer or agency doing good work without direction
- A product about to launch, or one that launched and went quiet
- Expansion into Canada, France, or Spanish-speaking Latin America
Not a fit
- Consumer brands and retail
- Pure execution work with the strategy already fixed
- Anyone looking to buy leads by the hundred
Engagements
Three ways in.
Diagnostic
Positioning sprint
A short, fixed-scope engagement. I interview your sales team and customers, audit what you are saying today, and deliver the messaging framework, ICP definition and a prioritized list of what to fix first.
You getMessaging framework, ICP, 90-day plan
Ongoing
Virtual CMO retainer
A set number of days a month as your marketing leader. I own the plan, manage the team and agencies, sit in your leadership meetings, and report on pipeline the same way a full-time CMO would.
You getStrategy, team management, reporting
Project
Launch lead
You have a product coming and no one to run the go-to-market. I take the launch end to end: narrative, enablement, channel plan, execution and the post-launch read on whether it moved anything.
You getA launch that ships, and its numbers
Scope, day rate and term are set per engagement. Tell me the problem first and I will tell you which of the three fits.
Get started
Thirty minutes, no deck.
Tell me what you are trying to sell and who is not buying it yet. I will come with questions, and by the end of the call you will have my honest read on whether you need me at all.
ericbrynaert@gmail.com
How the first month goes
Week 1I talk to your sales team and your last five lost deals
Week 2You get the audit: what is said today, and where it contradicts itself
Week 3We agree the claim, the ICP and what the team stops doing
Week 4The framework ships into the site, the deck and the sales process