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Today’s chief revenue officer ain’t your grammy’s CRO.
Gone are the days of siloed sales teams dedicated to hitting quotas and revenue leaders following strategy instead of setting it. A 2023 LinkedIn report identified the CRO as the fastest-growing job title in the US. A McKinsey study from the same year found that Fortune 100 companies with an established CRO, or adjacent role, achieve 1.8 times higher revenue growth.
The role is evolving swiftly. Whether it’s because of the increased complexity of the customer journey, the astronomical growth of AI, or an emphasis on tightly aligned departments around the revenue drivers, CROs have become the corporate world’s Labubu doll-Dubai chocolate-matcha tea (your intern can explain the reference).
We spoke with two CROs and a leadership expert on the evolution of the role, and what could be coming next.
Emphasis on alignment
Tara Clever, CRO of restaurant management platform MarginEdge, said her role was created because alignment emerged as a necessity.
“Our revenue streams became more and more diverse in a way that it made sense to centrally align a revenue leader across all of those levers to make sure that we were looking for moments where one plus one equals three alignment,” Clever said.
Coming from a marketing background, Clever made it a point to get as close as possible to her sales teams, which has allowed the CRO role to work for her and MarginEdge.
“Sales and marketing need to be aligned, and every person in the leadership room needs to understand, in a growth company like ours, that we are aligned on the metrics and the outcomes in a way that it guides decision-making,” she said.
The new CRO playbook
According to Bridget Winston, CRO at Chief, a private network for executive women, if a CRO has been relying on a playbook, it might be time to call an audible.
“AI being such a game changer, all of those things are in flux. Our playbook is likely outdated or has flawed assumptions in it to capitalize on the exponential future growth trajectory of our companies. Now with AI, we are all learning again,” Winston told Revenue Brew in an email. This has become a regular refrain among revenue leaders: There is no one-size-fits-all playbook anymore, if there ever was. AI has changed the benchmarks that traditionally supported revenue opportunities.
According to Winston, the CRO job description can also be a moving target.
“I come from the camp that says the chief revenue officer should be responsible for marketing, sales, and customer success…There are other people who call a CRO a CRO, but they are really just a suped-up VP of sales,” she said.
Winston says the CRO is also being asked to engage much more with product or finance, as companies are trying to better identify what their ideal customer profile is and how best to target, and keep them.
“If I see that a certain type of segment of my customer base churns, I can easily work with my marketing and sales team to not proactively target or sell to that type of customer,” she said.
CRO → CEO
Irina Wolpert is a leadership and talent advisor to company boards and a CEO succession expert. She believes is adamant that the CRO position is primed to become one of the most valuable positions in the Cc-suite.
“It’s more of an evolution, rather than a shift. There’s a much greater focus on the customer,” Wolpert said. “There’s truly no better person in the organization to be in the trenches with the customer than the CRO.”
Wolpert went as far as to assert that CROs will be an increasingly popular candidate for the CEO position, explaining that CROs have moved from a more narrow sales focus to a broader strategic position.
“[CROs] need to have the ability to inspire collaboration, drive execution at scale. They’re in the trenches analyzing customer data, customer needs, and competitive trends,” Wolpert said. “They’re the ones who are much more tuned into the market realities, which help to steer the company with confidence, rigor, and discipline.”