Exclusive: Gong names Shane Evans chief revenue architect

Today’s revenue organization is constantly evolving, and companies are finding ways to adapt: Revenue intelligence platform Gong has announced that current CRO Shane Evans is taking on the newly established role of chief revenue architect.

The new position arrives as Gong recalibrates its customer success team; it now refers to customer success managers (CSMs) as revenue architects.

Evans says the move has been two years in the making, adding that the company noticed its customer success team was “too reactive” and “chasing problems.” He says AI is changing the way people work, and most organizations don’t have a tech stack ready for that.

“With the revenue architect role, we’re really viewing this as more of a thought leader and a consultative change management team that will help teach our customers how to think differently about what their go-to-market organization should look like,” said Evans.

Revenue architects will undergo a 12-week certification program to adapt to the new priorities of the role and develop new skills around AI usage.

The big picture: While Gong’s pivot directly impacts its customer success team, Evans says broader AI trends will lead to a “blending of the roles” in go-to-market teams. “So many companies right now are just dropping in tools and they’re not thinking about: How does this change our org structure? How should we think differently about the org chart?” said Evans.

Gong’s go-to-market shift is in line with the changing priorities of a modern CRO. According to a recent poll conducted by Revenue Brew, 58% of respondents said the top priority for a chief revenue officer should be ensuring every department feels ownership over revenue generation, while 25% said they prioritize future-proofing their business through an up-to-date tech stack.

As CRO tenures are shorter than other C-suite positions, it’s important for revenue leaders to make these kinds of decisions and act in real time to deliver quick and effective results.

“We need to be intentional about how we’re engineering growth,” Evans said. “It’s not enough just to hire people or to pump out new product, or to cut down or slice territories. We need to be more thoughtful about how we’re going to design and architect the growth that our companies will benefit from.”

This article has been edited since publication.