Selling to a chief digital officer

A chief digital officer is paid to change how customers buy, and to prove that change made money. If your message doesn't connect to both, it won't land.

CDOs get pitched constantly. The ones who reply are the ones who hear something specific about their numbers.

What they own

The chief digital officer usually owns the customer-facing digital experience. The website, the app, digital sales, sometimes marketing technology and data about customers.

In some companies, they run a big team and a big budget. In others, they lead a small group that has to influence IT, marketing and the business lines without owning them. Find out which one you're dealing with early. It changes who signs.

The CDO role tends to exist in companies where digital is still a change program, not just how things are done. Retailers, insurers, banks, consumer brands, manufacturers trying to sell direct. That tells you something. They were hired to drive a shift the rest of the company may be slow to accept.

What they're measured on

Digital revenue first. Share of sales through digital channels, online conversion, app usage.

Then customer experience. Satisfaction scores, retention, how quickly things get fixed when they break.

Then speed. Can the team ship changes quickly, or does every update wait on a release cycle owned by someone else?

And more and more, cost. As digital matures, boards stop funding it as an experiment and start asking about return on the spend.

They tune out anything generic about "digital transformation". They've heard it from every firm.

Pitches about what's possible with no connection to their business. They don't need a trend report. They need their roadmap delivered.

And they tune out sellers who only talk to them. A CDO knows their success depends on IT, marketing and the business. A partner who ignores those relationships will create friction they'll have to clean up.

Signals that matter for this seat

A new CDO is strong. They'll review the roadmap, the agencies and the platform choices in the first 90 days, and the first big moves set their reputation.

Business pressure matters. An earnings release that mentions weak digital sales, a push into direct-to-consumer or a plan to cut customer service costs by moving people online is a direct line to this seat.

Hiring is useful. Job posts for product managers, digital experience leads or a named commerce platform tell you what they're building and on what.

Tech stack signals are strong here. A job post asking for experience migrating to a new commerce or content platform tells you a program is coming. The buying signals guide covers how these combine.

What to send

Make it about a number they care about and a pressure they can't ignore.

Say a mid-sized specialty retailer's earnings release says digital sales were flat and store traffic fell, and the company has posted roles for a new commerce platform.

Your latest earnings release says digital sales were flat and store traffic dropped, and the new commerce platform roles suggest a replatform is coming. That puts the CDO on the hook for growth and a migration at the same time. My guess is the team is holding off on conversion work until the new platform lands, and the flat quarter is the cost. Is that accurate, or is the bigger issue something else?

That note names something real and public. It speaks to the seat. And it gives the CDO an easy way to correct you, which is where the real problem comes out.

Who else to reach

The CDO may be the economic buyer, or they may need the CIO and CFO to fund the work. Find out who signs.

The champion is often a head of ecommerce or a digital product director who runs the day-to-day. The technical lead is usually in IT, and they'll want to know how your work fits the systems they support. The selling to a CIO post covers that seat.

Write each their own version. Then help the CDO bring the others along. That's what they'll remember you for.