The CRO is responsible for all aspects of an organization’s revenue-generating activities. They work closely with the sales and marketing teams to ensure business decisions are aligned with goals and revenue growth.
We kicked off this year’s Charge: The Revenue Summit with a powerhouse of CROs in a panel titled, 3 Must-Win Revenue Moments for CROs.
During this 45-minute conversation, we heard from
- Kevin Knieriem, President, Strategic GTM at Clari
- Ashley Grech, CRO at Xero
- Matt Weil, SVP of Worldwide Sales at Highspot
These three revenue leaders shared how to remove surprises from the revenue process using a revenue operating cadence designed to win new business and avoid retention pitfalls.
What follows is a recap of the top moments from the stage.
We live our business lives in four, three-month increments
But not every 13-week period is the same, depending on your industry and the business you are in. Moreover, not every week within the 13 is the same.
“When you start to think about all of the revenue moments that happen across the 13 weeks of each quarter, it becomes easier to drive predictable revenue,” says Kevin Knieriem, CRO at Clari.
Everyone does the basics: one-on-ones, forecast calls, top-of-funnel calls, out-quarter forecast calls, slip deal reviews, etc. The key: Run your entire revenue process from one place.
Matt Weil, SVP of Worldwide Sales at Highspot, calls himself a “Mad Scientist” – he used to predict revenue with “a Google Sheet and many questions.”
But since using Clari, he has —reluctantly at first, happily now — mostly relinquished that title. His process is more sound, involves more revenue-critical employees (and Clari, of course), and he’s in it nearly every day. “It’s now a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday process. The net result? I have more predictability in my method.”
The most critical revenue moments
Not all revenue moments are created equal. Still, all are essential ... especially these:
Ashley Grech, CRO at Xero, pays really close attention to the following two key revenue moments:
- Monthly forecasting and pipeline call
“Your revenue is basically baked a couple of months before it's supposed to be recognized,” shared Ashley. She says if it's not showing up now, it won’t miraculously show up later.
However, she points out that if it does show up later, “it's probably garbage.”
We call that pipeline stuffing — “a sales practice in which salespeople add unqualified leads to the sales pipeline to make it appear that they are on track to meet their quotas.”
Reviewing the numbers monthly means Ashley is much closer to answering, “Are we doing the right things day to day?” and provides her comfort two or three months out — when revenue will be recognized.
- The lost deal conversation
Ashey and team think of an “L” not as a loss but as an opportunity to learn. “If we don't learn anything,” she says, “it is a loss.”
“The most powerful thing we can provide the product team” is the details around the deal. We do that with conversational intelligence.
Conversation intelligence provides the context and color around the impact of a missing feature.
Ashley points to an example when an ancillary product is mentioned: Do win rates go up or down? That’s a call to action for the product team to ask, “Why?”
Ashley points out, “This is a revenue moment that matters in the longer term. How are we being our product team's best partners — the MVPs — by using revenue tools?”
Matt adds a third “must-have” revenue moment:
- “No Decision” is the biggest competitor
Since changing its business model to a traditional one where (AEs also prospect), Matt is looking at the pipeline every other week — globally.
His team reviews all “closed-lost, no decision” reasons. The one that stands out the most is “No response, no need.”
Why? Per Matt, these are all “rep driven.” The salesperson could not connect to the above-the-line (VP or higher) people. “If you are not having conversations with people who have authority and not generating pipeline, you're probably having the wrong conversations.”
It’s time to take (back) control of your revenue process
Kevin closed out the session by sharing how being in control of your revenue process can accelerate your business. “If you know you’ll be hitting 25% in month one and 25% in month two, you'll probably overachieve your quarter. If you're sticking to that and if you accelerate more in earlier months, you're going to overachieve. If you're not, you're going to miss it. Being able to impact linearity in a SaaS business is huge.”
Everyone’s lives are easier when we are not trying to close deals at the last minute, which puts stress on salespeople and customers. Linear sales are the answer.
Understanding your business and creating moments across the 13 weeks necessary to drive predictable revenue are key. Download the Clari Revenue Cadence Playbook to see how your revenue cadence stacks up.