The purpose of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is to drive organic revenue growth by leveraging each revenue-generating function and department within your organization.

This is a position that was born in the Silicon Valley SaaS sector, but it's no longer isolated to the tech space. More companies are finding value in adding the CRO position to their C-suite, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Whether you're a company like Continental Airlines, which has had a CRO for nearly two decades, or a business that is just realizing the value of this position, it's a specialized role. Here is what a CRO can bring to the table and what you need to know to find your company's next CRO.

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 CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) is expected to be paid well because it is more demanding, complex and challenging than either a Sales VP or a Marketing VP role.  As we review compensation, it is helpful to remember that titles are not always a representation of responsibility. CROs who finds themselves closing the initial sale, then outsourcing the upsell, cross-sell and renewal processes to functional peers, might find 'VP of Sales' to be a better title.

The most successful Chief Revenue Officers are not afraid to think outside of the box. To have big, out-of-the-box ideas, a company must have employees who are not intimidated by creativity, innovation, and inventiveness.

How things have changed: The competitive marketplace has been disrupted with key trends over the last several years. The disruptions and new trends require companies to create repeatable and predictable revenue that scales:

• Digital products and services now offer unprecedented insight into buyers’ behavior.
• New sales processes and KPIs are needed with responsibilities that transcend traditional sales roles.
• Omni-channel sales and increasing role of mobile and self-service in both B2C and B2B business environments challenge the traditional sales processes.
• New models are needed to maximize revenue by making a serious commitment to engage customers and deliver a multi-touchpoint experience that is personalized and value-focused.

Who has their finger on the pulse of revenue growth (for both marketing and sales) across the entire revenue process – from prospects to leads to pipeline to revenue?

The person who can lead the way with a new kind of analysis and execution crucial to the business in today's business world is the Chief Revenue Officer, or CRO.

Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) share a common goal: to improve a company’s brand architecture and positioning, thereby driving leads, sales, and profits. For companies that already have a solid marketing platform - and even for those that do not - understanding how to provide strategic leadership to accomplish this goal can be difficult. The following considers how to leverage customer research in order to improve your position as a leader and enhance brand architecture:

The chief revenue officer is a pivotal role directly influencing the future of a company, and covers new business sales, installed client base sales, marketing, and partner strategy. Adding a new CRO to an organization sends the message: “our company wants a growth hacker” with a passion for growing business.

As a company evolves, it may become apparent that a chief revenue officer is needed, and that person will lead the charge as they take on the responsibility for all aspects of driving revenue to the company. As with most CXO positions, each company will require a CRO to play different roles. There is no “one-size fits all” job description.