As a business running on EOS®, you understand the importance of aligning each person’s role to their abilities and capacity, following the Right Person, Right Seat strategy. Despite having these guiding principles in place, many CEOs of growing organizations often find themselves entangled in revenue responsibilities that exceed their capacity.

This bottleneck highlights the need for a strategic, dedicated leader—one who will ensure the organization is positioned for sustainable and scalable growth. In this article, we explore the pivotal role of a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), how it differs from other C-suite positions, and why Fractional leadership can drive growth in businesses of various sizes.

Distinguishing Financial Leaders in an Organization

When building your C-suite, minimizing role redundancy while maximizing leadership benefits is crucial. Understanding the unique value of a CRO is key to balancing growth and profitability, as they play a vital role in navigating the “health vs. wealth” dynamic within your business. Here’s how the CRO is distinct from other roles.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

The CFO focuses on the financial health of the organization, overseeing budgeting, forecasting, and risk management. Their primary job is to ensure that the organization’s capital is utilized wisely and that long-term financial goals are attainable. In contrast, the CRO interfaces with investors and nurtures the organizational strategy outwardly.

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

The COO, often serving as the Fractional Integrator in EOS® organizations, is responsible for overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations. Their role is to ensure that all business units are working efficiently and in alignment with the company's overall strategy. The COO focuses on operational excellence, managing processes, and optimizing resources, to ensure that the company’s vision and goals are executed effectively across departments. In EOS®, the Integrator works closely with the Visionary (typically the CEO) to translate high-level strategy into actionable plans, bridging the gap between leadership and execution.

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

The CMO drives brand awareness and generates consumer demand for your products and services. They manage strategic marketing initiatives and customer engagement, directly impacting revenue by optimizing outreach and funneling leads to the sales team. While the CMO focuses on attracting and engaging customers, the CRO ensures alignment between marketing and sales, turning that demand into revenue. The CRO oversees the entire revenue process, ensuring that both marketing-generated leads and sales efforts are strategically integrated to drive overall business growth.

Chief Sales Officer (CSO)

The CSO is focused on the overall strategy and performance of the sales team. While they are deeply involved in executing sales plans, their main responsibility is ensuring that the sales team is structured and motivated to meet revenue goals. The CRO, however, oversees the entire revenue operation and is focused on alignment across functions.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

The CEO sets the strategic direction of the organization and makes high-level decisions. In most companies, the CEO typically owns the Go-To-Market strategy, but a CRO can augment or share that responsibility, providing additional focus on revenue generation and growth. A CRO reports directly to the CEO, aligning their efforts with the company’s broader vision. They also maintain dotted-line accountability to the COO or EOS® Fractional Integrator, if one exists, to promote cohesive execution across departments.

Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

The CRO's role integrates aspects of other C-suite positions, focusing on holistic revenue enablement. The CRO acts as the bridge between marketing and sales, ensuring these departments align in strategy and execution, which directly impacts the company’s ability to generate revenue and achieve financial goals.

Dave Vander Jagt, Fractional Chief Revenue Officer at GCE Strategic Consulting, often says, “the CRO owns everything that touches revenue creation, retention, and expansion."

As Jim Franklin, Fractional Chief Revenue Officer at GCE Strategic Consulting, adds: “The CRO’s role is, in some ways, a marriage of some of the other C-suite positions. With a focus on holistic revenue enablement, the CRO operates as the bridge between marketing and sales.”

And finally, in the words of Sam Jacobs, CEO of Pavilion, "a CRO is a steward of capital." The CRO’s job is to allocate that capital—whether in the form of people, time, or dollars—toward activities that enhance the company’s ability to acquire, retain, and grow its customer base.

Unlike the CFO, who monitors financial health, or the CMO, who drives awareness, the CRO focuses on all opportunities to drive revenue so your organization is both profitable and sustainable. This role requires a direct connection to the overarching strategy, which is why the CRO reports directly to the CEO, with a level of responsibility similar to that of the COO or EOS® Integrator.

The Partnership Between the CRO and the CEO

A successful partnership between the CRO and the CEO is built on communication and mutual understanding.

As David VanderJagt aptly states, "The CRO must have a direct line to the CEO."

But why is this connection essential? One of the primary ways the CRO supports the CEO is by keeping them out of the sales trenches. In founder-led sales organizations, CEOs often feel the urge to step in and close deals, especially in times of stagnation, but this takes them away from their visionary role. The CRO ensures that sales processes are functioning smoothly, allowing the CEO to focus on big-picture strategies and leading their company to accomplish the vision laid out in the V/TO.

The Distinct Value of the CRO

The CRO’s value is in their ability to align different departmental strategies to support a business’s revenue stream. Through an alignment of sales and marketing, they maintain a strong pipeline and convert leads into long-term customers.

Responsibilities of the CRO

A CRO must approach revenue generation from several different angles.

Aligning Sales and Marketing: Ensuring the sales team is following up on marketing-generated leads effectively, and that marketing is targeting the right ideal customer profiles (ICPs) with the right messaging, aligned with an understanding of the prospect's pain points and leading them along the appropriate path to purchase (buyer journey). A CMO or CSO wouldn’t have the same perspective as to how these departments can collaborate.
Sales Strategy: Developing data-driven sales strategies that focus on driving revenue growth. The CRO should be involved in analyzing the performance of customer experience (CX) teams, working to streamline processes, integrate sales and marketing technologies, and systematically scale revenue operations.
Revenue Forecasting: The CRO delivers accurate revenue forecasts to support the company’s revenue targets, constantly validating, evolving and refining customer acquisition and growth strategies based on learnings.

Customer Retention: Fostering long-term customer relationships that drive recurring revenue and reduce churn. The CRO develops processes for sharing product feedback and customer sentiment with his/her appropriate counterparts in the organization to maximize revenue (customer) retention.

Impact of the CRO

With the CRO in place, businesses experience a marked increase in the efficacy of their GTM strategy, represented by more efficient and effective sales and marketing teams, processes, and activities. In most organizations, sales cycles shorten, and customer acquisition costs lower as teams work in tandem, driving revenue through a streamlined approach. The CRO’s impact extends beyond sales enablement; they drive revenue growth holistically across the customer journey.

“As a Fractional CRO, my mantra is this: Repeatable, predictable, scalable, profitable revenue,” says Jim Franklin.

For EOS® businesses, the CRO’s role is particularly impactful as they bridge the gap between a company’s long-term financial goals and the day-to-day actions necessary for progress. By driving initiatives aligned with the company’s Rocks and annual goals, the CRO lays the foundation for sustainable growth that aligns with the Visionary’s broader plans.

Space for Nuance: The Potential for Fractional Leadership

Not every business can support a full-time CRO, but that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from high-level revenue leadership.

“A Fractional CRO brings high-level expertise without the cost of a full-time executive,” explains Jim Franklin.

Fractional CROs can provide immediate impact by assessing sales strategies, identifying gaps, and aligning sales processes with long-term company goals.

Signs Your Business Needs a Fractional CRO:

Stagnant or declining sales
Misalignment between sales and marketing
Inconsistent or inefficient sales processes
Ineffective sales resources or difficulty applying the Right Person, Right Seat (RPRS) strategy
Stagnant lead flow or underperforming lead generation programs
Lack of strategic sales leadership

A Fractional CRO can rapidly assess these issues and implement strategies for sustainable revenue growth, offering an agile and cost-effective solution for companies needing Revenue Enablement leadership.

Tailored Fractional CRO Matching with GCE

At GCE, we understand that every business is unique. That’s why we offer tailored matching for Fractional CROs to meet your specific needs. Whether you’re facing rapid growth or need to refocus your sales strategy, our team will work with you to make sure you have the right Fractional leader in place as you plan for 2025.

With the right CRO guiding your revenue strategies, your business can achieve scalable, predictable growth that aligns with your long-term vision. A Fractional CRO is more than a temporary solution—they’re a strategic partner in your revenue journey. Let GCE help you find the perfect fit today.

Article authored by James A. Franklin and Dave VanderJagt, Fractional CROs at GCE Strategic Consulting

The Role of the CRO: The Keystone Piece to Revenue Enablement