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A Chief Revenue Officer is an executive leader accountable generating net new revenue predictably, and profitably. They build, oversee, and harmonize the sales and marketing departments.
Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) take charge of creating innovative marketing and sales strategies, overseeing their execution, and holding both teams accountable for results. This includes setting measurable objectives, defining key performance indicators, and ensuring all efforts align with the company’s overarching goals.
By serving as a key member of the leadership team, the Chief Revenue Officer collaborates closely with the CEO and COO to maintain a unified vision for the company’s growth.
In this role, they are not only responsible for delivering consistent revenue outcomes but also for driving a culture of collaboration and accountability across the marketing and sales functions.
What Does a Chief Revenue Officer Do?
A Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is the person responsible for making sure a company’s marketing and sales efforts work together to drive consistent and profitable growth. They’re often the ones answering tough questions about these areas during leadership meetings or with the board of directors
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A Chief Revenue Officer builds a system, called a “revenue engine” that keeps the company growing. Their job is to ensure marketing and sales teams aren’t working in silos but are instead aligned, focused, and delivering results. They set strategies, oversee execution, and hold teams accountable for hitting goals.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what a Chief Revenue Officer does:
Creates Winning Strategies: They plan how marketing and sales will bring in new customers and grow revenue.
Brings Teams Together: They make sure marketing and sales work as a single team with shared goals.
Ensures Predictable Growth: They put systems in place to drive steady, reliable revenue over time.
A Chief Revenue Officer’s role is all about making sure the company has the right tools, people, and strategies to achieve success and keep growing.
Chief Revenue Officers answer the tough questions about marketing and sales at the leadership team and board of directors level. They build a marketing and sales engine that can drive predictable and profitable revenue growth.
How Do Chief Revenue Officers Generate New Revenue?
The top echelon of Chief Revenue Officers have 4 common attributes:
They treat marketing and sales holistically
They have an attribution and data modeling methodology
They have a high EQ and are gifted communicators
They learn and adjust quickly
They set the strategic direction for driving net new revenue profitably and predictably.
Want more specifics about how they impact businesses? Here's a terrific guide specifically for client service and monthly recurring revenue business growth.
Want to Learn more About Chief Revenue Officer Responsibilities?
What's a Fractional Chief Revenue Officer vs. Traditional Chief Revenue Officer?
The traditional Chief Revenue Officer is a full-time executive. Usually being paid $300-500k in salary per year + other benefits. They are focused on turning mid size businesses into more complete enterprise oriented businesses. Stratifying the sales team, building out a revenue operations program, and focusing on market share.
A Fractional Chief Revenue Officer designed for small business focuses on helping small businesses that can't afford a traditional Chief Revenue Officer build functional sales and marketing departments. Most small businesses try to fix sales or marketing.
And the problem is that you need both functioning well to truly build predictable and profitable revenue. So a small business Fractional Chief Revenue Officer costs less than a fractional CMO, Fractional CSO, and a full-time in house leader.
When Do You Need a Chief Revenue Officer?
Most businesses in the $1m to $10m in revenues range will hit a plateau in their revenue and/or profit. Generally, they've had success because they say yes to a lot of things, and their customers get direct access to the subject matter experts that made the core product so successful. That creates referrals to help you grow.
However, that system breaks down once you add layers of management to support the new growth. That plus an underdeveloped marketing and sales program leads to stagnation. You need executive Marketing and Sales leadership to build a predictable new client generation.
However, that system breaks down once you add layers of management to support the new growth. That plus an underdeveloped sales and marketing program leads to stagnation. You need executive Marketing and Sales leadership to build predictable new client generation.
Other Symptoms:
You have strong Sales or Marketing leadership, but not both at the same time.
Your home-grown Sales and/or Marketing leader doesn't have the experience or expertise to help you get to the Next Level.
You have plenty of marketing & sales activity, with no growth or strategy.
Your CEO owns the sales seat and can't escape the seat.
You've tried to hire a salesperson and it doesn't go well.
You have a sales team that you feel is underperforming.
Your new business comes in primarily from referrals.
Your revenue grows by 10% or less per year and your profit has stagnated.
What are the Different Kinds of Chief Revenue Officers (CRO)?
There are two different types of Chief revenue officers: sales-oriented and marketing-oriented.
Sales Oriented: These types of CROs tend to be more internally focused and are closer to the sales and customer service side of business. They naturally lean more heavily into improving sales processes, upsells, and referral generation efforts.
Marketing Oriented: These CROs think outside-in and strategically launch new initiatives to increase visibility and expand market share. They’re drawn towards developing customer centric messaging and then aligning that messaging from Marketing into Sales into Operations. They bring a data-driven marketing methodology.
What is a Chief Revenue Officer's Focused On Improving?
1. Data:
They develop measurement and tracking methods that increase visibility to the marketing funnel and sales pipeline. Restoring (or establishing) the executive leadership’s team trust in the marketing and sales data.
2. Messaging:
In most cases, the Chief Revenue Officer needs to simplify the marketing message. Addition through subtraction. Instead of being everything to everyone, intentionally curate messaging at each stage of the buyer journey and focus on serving a specific audience from interest to sale.
3. Process:
If you want to win once, set a goal. If you want to win over and over again (and increase your business's valuation at sale), you need systems. A high-powered CRO will build marketing and sales processes, that allow a business to build a scalable (or sellable) business.
4. Implementation:
Chief Revenue Officers will be the conductor of the marketing and sales orchestra. Launching the right sequence of marketing campaigns, sales programs, referral systems, and other revenue tactics to drive net new revenue growth. No implementation is ever perfect, so the best ones will learn quickly and adjust even faster!
5. Strategy:
Your Chief Revenue Officer will bring a clear strategy outline to the table. They're job is to get alignment from the Leadership Level on that strategy. Then communicate it clearly to the team, and anchor actions and measurables to turn the strategy into reality.
What’s the Top Line & Bottom Line of What is a Chief Revenue Officer?
A Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) has one main mission: to grow your company’s revenue while keeping it profitable. They focus on boosting your top-line revenue (the total money your company brings in) while ensuring those gains translate into improvements on the bottom line (your net profit).
Here’s how they make it happen:
They make your revenue and profits more predictable. A Chief Revenue Officer creates systems and processes that help your company consistently hit sales and revenue targets, so you’re not guessing where your next dollar will come from.
They help you scale your marketing and sales teams. Whether it’s hiring the right people, streamlining workflows, or introducing new tools, a Chief Revenue Officer ensures these teams can handle growth without breaking down.
They turn your revenue into a money machine. Think of it like this: the Chief Revenue Officer fine-tunes your business so every dollar you put into marketing and sales brings back even more. It’s about creating a repeatable, scalable process that drives steady profits.
Conclusion
A Chief Revenue Officer isn’t just a leader, they’re a game-changer for businesses looking to grow their revenue and profitability. By aligning your marketing and sales teams, creating predictable processes, and building a scalable revenue engine, a CRO ensures your business thrives both today and in the future.
Ready to unlock the next level of revenue for your business? Let’s build a system that works, grows, and delivers consistent results.
Contact us today to learn how a Fractional Chief Revenue Officer can transform your company’s growth strategy and turn your revenue goals into reality.
A true profit oriented CRO revenue officer is a dynamic duo with a CFO. Small businesses trying to get clear next steps in marketing and sales need to talk with a Fractional Chief Revenue Officer.
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