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Originally Posted On: https://cowenpartners.com/what-is-a-chief-revenue-officer-why-your-company-needs-a-cro/

Growing business revenue is never easy. Even more difficult is achieving consistent revenue
growth across the lifetime of a business. To address this challenge, a growing number of
companies are restructuring their leadership framework to add a C-level position, a Chief Revenue
Officer (CRO), to their team.

What Is A Chief Revenue Officer?

As the name suggests, a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is an executive who is responsible for all
aspects of a business that generate revenue. This individual may be involved in the business’ new
sales, existing client base sales, marketing, and collaboration, and partner strategy. Usually,
when a company adds a CRO to its hierarchy, it sends out the message that ‘we are passionate to
grow and we’re doing so by adding a growth hacker to our team’.

A business may not require a CRO in its initial stages, but as it evolves to become a more robust
company, the role of CRO may become more apparent. It is important to note that like other
executive-level positions, there is no “one-size fits all” job description for a CRO; it will depend
on different factors, such as the requirements of the business, the type of industry it operates in
and so on. However, the ultimate goal is the same – driving revenue into the company while
achieving consistent revenue growth over the long run.

In large companies, the CRO is expected to not only scale the revenue to hundreds of millions,
but also build lasting relationships and lead large sales teams in the most efficient way possible.
On the other hand, small companies usually look for individuals who can deliver rapid and
sustainable revenue growth. Either way, the CRO should have basic knowledge about both sales
and marketing, including cross-channel and digital marketing as these branches of marketing
play an important role in today’s world.

Why Your Company Needs A CRO

If you are the owner or CEO of a company that has not explored the option of hiring a CRO, you
might want to give it some thought. Here are two key reasons why your company needs a CRO:
They Can Identify and Explore Multiple Sources of Growth

Be it a conglomerate or a simple business selling a single product or service, every company has
distinct sources of growth. These sources are independent of the product or services your

company sells or the industry it operates in. Rather, they are dependent on the tactics and
strategies that you use to run your company. As the leader, you need to first identify these
sources and then explore them in-depth.

There are four common sources of structural growth: retention of existing customers, increased
sales to existing customers, sales to new customers in existing markets, and lastly, sales to new
customers in new markets. Since growth does not originate from a single source only, a CRO
will identify and explore the untapped potential in these sources, thus enabling the company to
maximize its revenue.

They Achieve Growth through Cross-Functional Teamwork

Another key aspect of a CRO’s job is to enable cross-functional teamwork that will allow the
company to achieve stable growth. Successful business growth does not occur overnight; it is the
result of active participation of multiple business functions, mainly sales/business development,
marketing, direct sales, and customer service.

To maximize the potential growth from the sources identified above, it is important that these
business functions are in sync. The activities of these business functions need to be strictly
planned and coordinated, meaning that they must collaborate with each other. The CRO is
responsible for this planning and coordination. By supervising these business functions and
helping them on the way, he will ensure that the company achieves maximum growth in
minimum time.

These circumstances create a strong argument in favor of companies employing a chief revenue
officer who can manage and coordinate between different revenue-generating activities. Hiring a
CRO is one of the key steps towards optimizing revenue growth, which a business indefinitely
needs to survive in today’s world.