What New VPs of Marketing Get Wrong in Their First 90 Days—And How to Get It Right

You just landed the senior marketing role. Congratulations. You're here to strategize, partner with sales, build pipeline, and be the marketing brain the business has been missing. Maybe you’re the first real marketing hire. Maybe you’re inheriting a one-person team. Or maybe you’re replacing a fractional CMO. Whatever the case may be, the signal is clear: The company is ready to invest in your function.

But with that investment comes pressure. And that pressure creates a fork in the road. I’ve seen both paths, over and over again. Some VPs build trust, momentum, and long-term impact. Others come in hot, make big moves fast, and leave only confusion (and wasted budget) in their wake.

In this blog, you’ll find out what separates the two.

How Great Marketing Leaders Succeed in Their First 90 Days

Smart leaders don’t try to prove their value by day three. Instead, they treat the first few weeks like a discovery phase. Like a great consultant would.

I worked with one VP who nailed this. She spent her first month meeting with every department. She shadowed sales calls. She asked thoughtful questions. She reviewed workflows, tech, and reports without judgment.

When she discovered that MQLs were falling into a black hole because of a simple HubSpot handoff issue? She didn’t freak out. She didn’t call for a new CRM. She documented what she saw. Thoroughly. And at day 60, she shared a clear, respectful assessment of what was working, what wasn’t, and where the biggest opportunities were. Her plan landed because it was built confidently on truth, not assumptions.

She also did something subtle but powerful: She gave credit. She highlighted where team members had built creative workarounds to fill process gaps. She named what was working, and who made it happen. That kind of early recognition goes a long way in building trust.

She didn’t rush to replace anyone. Instead of looking for people to swap out, she looked for skills in the room that could be leveled up. She asked the junior marketer what they wanted to learn. She gave the agency space to explain their choices. She made people feel seen.

She met regularly with sales and product teams—not to present updates, but to listen. She asked what customers were saying. She looked at churn data and customer feedback. She wanted to understand what growth looked like from every angle.

And when she rolled out her roadmap, it was short, clear, and tied to business goals. She focused first on leads, follow-up, and conversion. She waited to rebrand until sales had the support they needed. Her early moves built credibility, so when she pushed for bigger bets later, the trust was already there.

She was an example of what good leadership looks like.

What Not to Do as a New VP of Marketing

And yet, I still see it happen: A new marketing leader walks in, cancels campaigns mid-stream, cuts vendors even before understanding why they were hired, and throws the team into a web rebuild that doesn’t solve any of the current pipeline or sales problems.

One marketing leader I worked with—a man with a strong background in enterprise—poured months of energy and team time into internal positioning slides. Every week, Thursday and Friday were blocked off to work on a PPP report for the C-suite: Progress, Plans, and Problems. That slide deck became the work. Meanwhile, campaigns stalled. Sales wasn’t getting support. And the team was stuck in internal alignment meetings instead of building anything that moved the business forward.

He wasn’t wrong to want structure. He wasn’t wrong to want clarity. But he completely missed what the business needed in the moment.

He also kicked off a complete brand refresh and a pitch deck redesign in his first 30 days. Again, those things do matter. But they weren’t the biggest pain points at the time. He never took the time to understand how the product was being sold, where leads were coming from, or what the board expected to see.

He focused on visible, executive-facing work. But not the stuff that actually drives results: pipeline, programs, performance.

He lasted six months.

Why Visible Work Isn’t Always Valuable Work

There’s a tricky tension new marketing leaders face. Make an impact fast, but don’t rush it. Show value, but don’t over-optimize. Fix the brand, fix the funnel, fix the team—just not all at once.

What often gets missed in the scramble is alignment to the board, to sales, to product, to the actual business goals. The “shiny” work (new decks, refreshed messaging, visual overhauls) gets prioritized because it’s visible. It feels like progress. Meanwhile, the foundational stuff (the reporting gaps, the lead routing issues, the lack of attribution) sits buried in Notion boards and Asana tasks, invisible to the people making decisions.

The truth? You need both.

The strongest marketing leaders show early wins that people can see and rally behind like a better nurture experience, a tightened sales sequence, a campaign that effectively delivers leads. But they also quietly build the infrastructure for scale, fixing lead flow, defining KPIs, creating documentation, tightening the connection between marketing activity and revenue.

Neither side can carry the weight alone. A fancy campaign won’t save a broken funnel. And a perfect process doesn’t matter if no one knows it exists.

This is the real work, balancing visibility with impact. Building trust through momentum while laying the foundation that makes marketing sustainable, not just splashy.

How to Build Credibility Fast as a New Marketing Leader

You start by slowing down. You remind yourself that your first job isn’t to prove how much you know, it’s to learn how things actually work here. Even if the company says, "We need change," that doesn’t mean you need to change everything on day one.

Get clear on the business goals. Are you optimizing for growth? Profitability? A new market segment? Understand what’s driving those goals—investor pressure, product maturity, churn, competition—so your decisions reflect the broader context, not just your preferences.

Then, layer in your observations. What are customers saying? Where is sales struggling? Are there quick optimization wins in how you’re capturing or converting leads?

And yes, ask the right questions:

• What have we already tried that didn’t work, and why?

• What’s one thing that’s working, even if it looks messy?

• What programs are in flight or close to launching?

• Where are marketing and sales teams misaligned?

• Were past decisions made because of limitations, not strategy?

• What does success actually look like for marketing here?

The best marketing leaders build momentum by aligning deeply with product and sales teams, delivering quick value, and showing they understand the business first. Then they move into brand, into frameworks, into infrastructure.

They know how to move fast and build trust across the executive team. That means showing the CEO how marketing is connected to revenue. And earning credibility with sales early. In other words, they act like owners, not visitors.

Why New Marketing Leaders Shouldn't Rebuild the Team Immediately

When you walk in, the team might already be nervous. Maybe they’ve seen three leaders in two years. Maybe they’ve been understaffed, overextended, or operating without strategy for months. Or maybe they’ve just survived a round of layoffs.

I worked at a company where a new CMO came in, brought in their former VP, who then brought in their former director. Within 90 days, every single person on the marketing team was replaced. Every. Single. One. It felt calculated, impersonal, and destabilizing.

If you walk in and immediately start replacing people—the agency, the intern, the existing team—it doesn’t send the message you think it does. It tells the org, "Whatever came before me doesn’t matter." And it confirms every fear people already have. You might have trusted people from previous roles that you’d like to bring in. That’s fine. But timing matters. Culture matters. Respect matters.

Your behavior either builds psychological safety or destroys it. And if you want performance? Safety has to come first.

Instead of acting quickly, give yourself (and the team) time to breathe. Observe the dynamics. Understand why decisions were made. Create clarity around what the business needs moving forward.

The most effective leaders take the time to understand the humans behind the org chart. They seek to understand:

• What strengths are already here?

• Who's been carrying more than their share?

• Who’s never had a chance to shine?

Unless someone is actively harming the culture, use your first 90 days to lead with empathy and curiosity. The team will remember how you made them feel long after they forget what you said.

What Great VPs Actually Do in Their First 90 Days

If you’re wondering what to actually do in those first few months, here’s a simple, clear 30-60-90 that aligns with the approach above. It’s not flashy, but it works.

Days 1–30: Learn

• Meet every stakeholder

• Sit in on sales and customer calls

• Audit campaigns, technology, and reporting

• Identify what’s working and what’s duct-taped

• Avoid shiny fixes and fast judgments

Days 31–60: Analyze

• Map the funnel from first touch to closed deal

• Review program performance and team capacity

• Check for misalignment across departments

• Start building your plan

• Test your thinking with peers

Days 61–90: Execute (lightly)

• Present a clear, focused roadmap

• Fix small, high-impact issues

• Communicate early and often

• Get feedback, not just buy-in

• Prioritize traction over transformation

How to Succeed as a New VP of Marketing

If you were hired to bring vision and structure, do that. Just don’t confuse movement with progress. Real leadership in a new role doesn’t start with changing the homepage or launching a vanity campaign. It starts with curiosity, clarity, and context. Learn first. Move second. And whatever you do, don’t start by deprioritizing work on the thing you were hired to grow.

If you’re reading this because you’re stepping into a new role—or you’re thinking about bringing in senior marketing leadership—this moment matters.

The team here at Wheels Up has worked alongside companies before, during, and after those transitions. We’ve been the marketing team when there wasn’t one. We’ve partnered with new VPs who needed a strong foundation. And we’ve helped keep things on course when turbulence hit.

Whether you need a strategic partner to build with, or a trusted extension of your team while you hire, we’re here. Let’s get to work—when you’re ready.