# Do CMOs Need a Build Partner?

By Dan Seyer, Founder, Build Marketing · Published 2026-06-30 · Updated 2026-10-05

> For most of my marketing career, I had a secret weapon. His name was Hector.

## Why do CMOs need a build partner?

Because the advantage has shifted from buying tools to building capabilities. For years every marketing problem produced another software subscription. APIs, and now AI and MCP, let teams connect and extend the systems they already own instead. CFOs care about that leverage. The people who make it happen go by many titles, GTM engineer, AI builder, revenue engineer, but the function is the same: they turn marketing ideas into working capabilities. Marketing became a technology function without a matching build function, and AI is forcing that gap into the open.

Long before anyone talked about AI builders, GTM engineers, revenue engineers, or agentic workflows, Hector was the person I called whenever marketing ran into a problem that software alone couldn’t solve.

Need Salesforce connected to an event platform? Hector built it. Need website engagement data written into custom Salesforce objects? Hector built it. Need sample applications to help prospects understand our APIs? Hector built those too. At one point, he even wrote AWS Lambda functions to move data between systems, because buying another enterprise integration platform felt excessive for what we needed to accomplish.

Every few months, I would call him with another idea. Not a product idea. A marketing idea. What if we could connect these systems? What if we could automate this workflow? What if we could capture this data and make it available to sales? What if we could eliminate three manual steps and turn them into one?

Looking back, I realize I wasn’t hiring a developer. I was relying on a build partner. And I suspect many successful marketing leaders have had some version of a Hector in their careers. The interesting part is that marketing never really created a formal role for this person.

## The era of buying solutions

When I started in marketing, the default answer to most problems was straightforward: buy another tool. Need lead scoring? Buy a platform. Need attribution? Buy a platform. Need event management? Buy a platform. Need analytics? Buy a platform. Every new challenge seemed to produce a new software category and a new subscription agreement.

To be fair, that approach made sense. Software vendors were packaging expertise and making sophisticated capabilities accessible to organizations that didn’t have engineering resources. The model worked. But it also shaped how marketing leaders thought about technology. Technology became something you purchased, not something you built upon.

## Then APIs changed the equation

Around fifteen years ago, something important started happening. APIs became commonplace. Software vendors began exposing data and functionality in ways that allowed systems to connect and interact with one another. For the first time, marketers had an alternative to buying another solution. They could build.

Not entire applications. Not software companies. Capabilities. Instead of purchasing a new product, you could connect two existing products. Instead of paying for another platform, you could automate a workflow. Instead of adding another layer of technology, you could extend what you already owned.

The opportunity was significant, but the mindset lagged behind. Most marketing organizations continued to operate primarily as technology buyers. When a problem emerged, the instinct remained the same: find a vendor. People like Hector saw something different. They saw opportunities hiding inside APIs. They saw systems as building blocks. They saw leverage.

Many of the capabilities that helped my teams move faster weren’t products we purchased. They were integrations, workflows, automations, and data models we built around the products we already owned. The software itself wasn’t the advantage. What we built with it often was.

## AI is accelerating a shift that was already underway

Today, it is easy to assume this conversation is about AI. I don’t think it is. AI is simply accelerating a shift that began years ago: the shift from buying solutions to building capabilities.

The technologies have changed dramatically, but the pattern feels familiar. Fifteen years ago, I would ask whether a platform had an API. Today, I ask whether it supports MCP. Yesterday, we were connecting applications. Today, we are connecting intelligence. The underlying question remains the same: can we build something unique on top of the systems we already have?

At Build Marketing, we are experimenting with integrating ChatGPT and Claude into publishing and content workflows, connecting AI capabilities directly into existing business processes rather than treating AI as a standalone destination. That mindset feels very familiar. It is the same one that led us to connect Salesforce to event systems years ago. The tools changed. The opportunity did not.

## Why CFOs are paying attention

There is another reason this shift matters: the economics have changed. For years, marketing technology spending followed a predictable path. Every new challenge resulted in another software subscription, and a larger stack became a signal of sophistication.

Today, CFOs are asking harder questions. Do we need another platform? Can we achieve the same outcome with the systems we already own? Can AI help us automate this process? Can we create this capability ourselves?

The CFO doesn’t care about APIs. The CFO doesn’t care about MCP. The CFO doesn’t care about which AI model is winning the latest benchmark. The CFO cares about leverage. The CFO cares about efficiency. The CFO cares about building an organization that scales without requiring proportional increases in spending.

That is why forward-thinking CMOs are beginning to think differently about technology. The goal is no longer simply acquiring tools. The goal is creating capabilities.

## The emerging role beside the CMO

As I look at how marketing organizations are evolving, I believe a new role is emerging. Some organizations call these people GTM Engineers. Others call them AI Builders, Revenue Engineers, or Systems Architects. The title matters less than the function.

These individuals understand technology, data, workflows, integrations, and increasingly AI. More importantly, they understand how those things connect to business objectives. They help transform ideas into operational capabilities. In many ways, they become the build partner for the CMO: the person who can see possibility where others see software limitations, who understands that competitive advantage rarely comes from buying the same tools as everyone else. It comes from what you build with them.

When I think back to all the times I called Hector with one more integration idea, I realize what made those conversations valuable. He wasn’t helping me buy solutions. He was helping me create capabilities. Marketing has always needed people like that. The difference is that today, organizations are finally starting to recognize the role.

Marketing spent twenty years becoming a technology function without developing a corresponding build function. AI is finally forcing that gap into the open. And as AI continues to lower the barriers to building, I suspect the build partner will become one of the most important seats beside the modern CMO.

_Is the build partner enough, or does everyone in marketing need to improve their maturity level?_

Want to talk this through for your company? [Get in touch](https://www.buildmarketing.ai/#Get-In-Touch) with Dan Seyer, or [check how AI reads your website with MachineReady](https://www.buildmarketing.ai/machineready/).