A chief revenue officer (CRO) is a

corporate officer Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit ...

(

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive di ...

) responsible for all

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive rev ...

generation processes in an

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived f ...

. In this role, a CRO is accountable for driving better integration and alignment between all revenue-related functions, including

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

customer support Customer support is a range of services to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, troubleshooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product. Reg ...

pricing Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business's marketing plan. In setting prices, the business will take into account the price at which it could acq ...

, and

revenue management Revenue management is the application of disciplined analytics that predict consumer behaviour at the micro-market levels and optimize product availability, leveraging price elasticity to maximize revenue growth and thereby, profit. The primary ...

.Cross, R. (1997) Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination. New York, NY: Broadway Books.

Roles and functions

In short, a CRO is responsible for all activities that generate revenue. In most companies, the CRO is tasked with primary or shared responsibility for operations, sales, corporate development, marketing, pricing, and revenue management. Since these functions extend across multiple teams in most companies, a good CRO must maintain an excellent communication framework across the various organizational functions and share best practices among the revenue stream managers in order to maximize revenue production. Like with any corporate officer, the performance of a CRO must be evaluated to ensure maximum return to the company and its shareholders.

Performance metrics A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives) in which it en ...

should focus on the following areas: * Sales performance: Sales strategies and tactics should aim to sell each product to the most valuable segment with a focus on generating the most revenue possible * Product creation: Micro-markets should be properly identified and segmented, with products created or defined for each * Pricing strategies: Prices for each product should correlate with each micro-market’s perceived value of that product and ensure product availability is restricted to the micro-market that generates the highest return * Pricing execution: A firm must have tools and processes for determining optimal prices that align product value with specific market segments * Advertising and promotion effectiveness: Expenditures on marketing and advertising activities must generate revenue and be analyzed and refined to isolate the activities generate the greatest ROI * Distribution effectiveness: All possible channels must be evaluated to identify the channels that provide the most effective and profitable means of distribution * Delivery: The quality of revenue generation activities should positively affect the ability of the company to maximize revenue * Customer satisfaction: Corporate communication processes should maintain a complete customer

feedback loop Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled c ...

to ensure customer satisfaction

The CRO profile

There are a few key personal and professional attributes that define a successful Chief Revenue Officer: * Results-oriented: A CRO assumes a long-term, integrated perspective while also striving to drive quarterly revenue results – he or she commits to short-term results, forecasts future revenue, and takes accountability for both short-term success and longer-term strategyAlbright, Paul (13 March 2012). "The CEO's New Secret Weapon: The Chief Revenue Officer". Forbes. Retrieved 22 May2013. * Market maker: A CRO works closely with the executive team and others to craft and communicate the company’s vision and then transform that vision into a long-term strategy for pioneering new markets and opportunities * Leading from the front: A CRO must be able to see and clearly communicate the company vision and the revenue strategy across all relevant functions and ensure the right goals are defined and met * Business acumen: As a business leader first, a CRO must regularly measure and analyze productivity and effectiveness, form strategic product road maps, create market positioning and competitive advantages, and determine budget trade-offs with a goal of continually improving and developing sustainable results * Data-driven / metrics-driven: The right CRO creates a culture of accountability by setting the right metrics and tying company performance, compensation and promotions to tangible results * Wise arbiter: The best CROs understand and embrace the differences between marketing and sales, while at the same time establishing processes to ensure their coordination across the full revenue cycle to ensure the greatest revenue growth possible

References

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