The Evolving Role of the CRO

Sales is hard!

• Many Sales leaders set new stretch goals year over year, sometimes without any shift in business fundamentals – increasingly relying on upselling and cross-selling to drive higher revenues.
• Turnover is high among salespeople due to these increasing demands, with a lack of knowledge transfer, and customers are increasingly demanding with ever-increasing expectations.
• And it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to differentiate as GenAI levels the playing field.

In the last few years, we’ve seen traditional roles in “client service”, “account management” and even “support” increasingly fall under the banner of “Customer Success” – led by the CCO; while the CMO role continues to evolve with the advent of new marketing automation tools, business intelligence, big data, and the solution to everyone’s problems (not), GenAI. The CMO role has changed massively in the past few years.

So, is it time that the traditional CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) got a makeover too? I can only begin to imagine how tough it is for a CRO to be sitting in a client meeting, and introductions are made. The title itself implies you’re “here for the money” when the best CRO’s are more focused on listening, learning, and leading their clients, based on their desired business outcomes. All too often, their number one strength is relationship-building.

So, shouldn’t CRO stand for Chief RELATIONSHIP Officer?

Over the past 15 years, we’ve had the privilege of working with some great CRO’s on win/loss, churned account, and cross-sell research studies. The best are those that can take client feedback and actionable insights and translate them into action plans that strengthen client relationships and help lead clients to their desired goals and outcomes. The bottom line is that tracks back to revenue if done right, so why not focus on the relationship first, confident that if you do the right thing by your client, your business will benefit.

Interested to hear if others share this sentiment, especially any CRO’s reading this Blog.

Feel free to drop me a line at davids@idebamarketing.com

David Sly – President