aka How Valuable is a CRO?

Unlike a more narrowly focused Chief Sales Officer or Chief Marketing Officer, a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is responsible for the entire array of revenue-driving activities – scaling revenue, overseeing sales and marketing teams, managing partner relationships, ensuring client success throughout the buyer’s journey, and maintaining brand integrity. As an organization grows, the need for a CRO often becomes more evident.

Some companies decide to onboard a CRO to better align burgeoning sales and marketing teams around a singular business goal, while others choose to bring in a CRO to bolster channel expansion efforts. Either way, a CRO will oversee the business processes and staff that accompany the end-to-end revenue value chain.

Sitting through a tense meeting where finance and sales are positioned on opposite side of the table engaged in conflict is as iconic in corporate America as a row of cubicles. In fact, for all levels of managers and executives, serving time in battle during these situations for their respective teams is essentially a rite of passage.

In these all too common scenarios, both sides often emerge worse for the wear instead of uniting to drive business growth. The result is a corporate landscape where revenue potential remains unfulfilled and employee satisfaction suffers. Organizational stagnation and, ultimately, demise can quickly follow when conflict breeds.

To attain sustainable business profitability, the issue of clashing CFO and CRO perspectives needs to be addressed and the entire premise of assigning roles needs to be examined.

“The goal of forecasting is not to predict the future but to tell you what you need to know to take meaningful action in the present.” - Paul Saffo

Market volatility and economic disruption are once again becoming the norm, making it more vital than ever that businesses have a strong grip on their revenue forecasts. Not only does strong revenue predictability provide a solid platform for critical decision-making, but it has also proven to be a winning business practice.

The upcoming CAMPS Manufacturing Conference on June 7th is expected to be one of the best yet. With over 200 expected to attend, the conference will present practical applications to use current technology now, not ‘someday’ in the future. I am especially interested in the keynote where Bill Hill will give an overview of IoT used in manufacturing. Of course, the robot demonstration will raise some eyebrows, but don’t be expecting a “Lost in Space” robot.

I recently attended a great CAMPS event, the Leadership Forum at The Bellevue Club. Carey Suto, Director of Supply Chain for Western Integrated Technologies (WIT), presented insights about Manufacturing Supply Chain Cost Management. 

Have you ever been presented with a product or service that made you think the person who created it was reading your mind? It was almost as if they had followed you around, understood what made you tick, and knew exactly what buttons to push to get the desired reaction.

While they probably didn't trail you through rush hour traffic or tap your phone, this isn't far from the truth. The most successful marketers have developed the ability to find out what their target audience is thinking and then provide them with solutions to their biggest issues at just the right moment.

Aka: Revenue Strategies - the Foundation for CRO Success 

In a recent confidential interview, a CEO shared his thoughts about the next 12 months:  "We believe we will achieve our revenue and profit goals over the next 12 months with our current resources. We have the right team, the latest software and tools, effective processes, remarkable products & services, strong branding and a unique value proposition." He went on to admit “… but we are not achieving our revenue and profit goals and we are still unsure why.”

The proper revenue strategy aligns marketing, sales, and customer experience teams around a singular goal: drive profitability. Without a strategic roadmap, healthy and sustained growth simply cannot flourish, which is why organizations put so much emphasis on the planning process. In fact, studies reveal that tightly-aligned sales and marketing functions result in an average of 36% higher customer retention rates and 38% higher sales closing rates, than their more loosely aligned counterparts.

Unraveling such a puzzle to understand what is ‘broken’ has us first visiting the revenue strategy. Choosing a revenue strategy impacts all other aspects of planning and whether goals are achieved.

On February 23^rd, many attended a SCORE class: “Starting and Growing a Consulting Business” at Greater Seattle SCORE in Seattle, led by John Martinka. I was honored to be a panelist along with Dave Shapiro.