Revenue teams are working hard- but many are falling short.
In Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report, we surveyed 420 revenue professionals across technology, retail, financial services, and more — many of them senior leaders. And the data was eye-opening.
61% of teams missed their 2023 revenue target.
Revenue Leak is dragging them down. Inconsistent workflows are slowing them down. The complexities of AI and the threat of increased competition are weighing them down.
But there’s good news:
The gap between “miss” and “meet” can be crossed. Revenue teams can work smarter – not harder – to lock down key accounts and turn 2024 into a target-conquering year.
In a recent webinar, Ben Fiechtner (former CRO, Clari), Kevin Knieriem (President of Strategic GTM, Clari), Joe Vitalone (Strategic Advisor, Extreme Networks), and Kevin McKeown (CRO, Beekeeper) sat down to discuss the role of leadership and how Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) can optimize to drive conversions and boost sales.
Here are five key takeaways from that CRO discussion you can use to make sure you meet - or beat - your 2024 revenue target.
1. Align revenue objectives across the organization
Standout results come from standout objectives.
When every member of your organization knows their top two or three revenue objectives, you create a common framework that drives growth. As CRO, establishing the right objectives is mission-critical to unifying your team and hitting your revenue targets.
Where do Chief Revenue Officers most often get stumped?
Visibility.
Without clear visibility into the revenue organization, it’s almost impossible to set optimal objectives. CROs get diverted by one-off situations and confusing pipeline reports. Or else, they waste valuable time trying to patch together the insights they need.
As Extreme Networks’ Joe Vitalone explains in the webinar, “Visibility is the key to all of this. Lack of visibility is the enemy of revenue.”
Nomenclature.
Without a common nomenclature, revenue-facing teams struggle to coordinate efforts. Sure, your sales team may know what “funnel” and “weighted pipeline” refer to – but what about marketing and customer success? Here’s what Joe has to say:
“Everyone should be singing from the same sheet of music: if an organization is not sharing the same nomenclature, it leads to disconnects between departments.”
Together, these two barriers hold CROs back from setting and communicating important revenue objectives. And, as a result, their team rows in different directions.
2. Identify and address Revenue Leak
Imagine adding 26% back to your bottom line.
That’s the number organizations reported losing every year to Revenue Leak – aka breakdowns in the revenue process that lead to lost deals - according to Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report. Revenue Leak is a pervasive problem, draining dollars from even the most sophisticated teams.
To stop Revenue Leak, you need a proactive approach.
Start by analyzing the end-to-end sales funnel and customer journey for potential leaks. Look for signs of inefficient business processes, errant forecasts, and misaligned teams.
Once you’ve identified leaks, it’s time to prioritize. You may uncover a dozen or more leaks, but your team only has capacity to tackle a few. This prioritization exercise ensures you’re dealing with the most dramatic source of revenue loss and sets your team up for success.
For more on Revenue Leak, check out Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak report.
3. Operationalize with Revenue Cadences
You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your team doesn’t execute it, you’ll never meet - let alone beat- your 2024 target.
That’s where Revenue Cadences come in. Revenue Cadences drive consistency across every touchpoint of your revenue process, ensuring your strategy converts into high-powered execution.
How are business-winning CROs improving their Revenue Cadences?
It starts with establishing a blueprint for every revenue-critical meeting. Across many orgs, meetings are inconsistent. They differ from week to week and team to team. Our own Kevin Knieriem describes encountering that exact situation when he joined Clari six years ago.
Kevin’s advice to CROs starting to figure out just how, when and were their revenue teams are running things starts with three simple steps:
“Have the meetings that are important. Know that they are happening. Get feedback that they’re being done well, so you can drive a repeatable revenue process.”
The most successful CROs are also leaning into advanced revenue technology to install governance across the entire revenue process. From recording meetings to forecasting with pinpoint accuracy, the right RevTech enables CROs to monitor cadences in real-time.
Need a head start on shoring up your meeting routines with well-designed playbooks and top-down reinforcement? Grab our Revenue Cadence Playbook.
4. Forecast with pinpoint accuracy
Revenue Leak lives in the shadows.
In fact, Clari’s 2024 Revenue Leak Report found 71% of RevOps leaders report their forecasts and pipeline details are hidden - or incorrect.
But with precise forecasting, Chief Revenue Officers are able to shine a light on the most vulnerable parts of the organization. This helps the team rally around a data-driven target and drive toward end of quarter outcomes.
How can CROs improve their revenue forecasting?
Begin by implementing a consistent approach to deal health. This covers both new business and renewals. For every dollar in play, revenue leaders need to track weekly stage movement and minimum pipeline velocity targets.
Then, align the team around a common forecast. This is a must-have - even for consumption-based models.
The biggest improvement Beekeeper CRO Kevin McKeown says he’s made to how he runs revenue? Developing a common forecasting approach for all opportunities. A disciplined week-to-week cadence isn’t just for new logos at Beekeeper. They apply the same rigor to expansion and renewal deals, too, as Kevin explains in the webinar.
You can build a common forecast by setting minimum weekly targets for pipeline progression, and holding team members accountable for their forecasting accuracy and pipeline management.
Lastly, it’s essential to provide visibility and transparency. Share dashboards and reports that give everyone visibility into the health of the pipeline and potential areas of leakage. Together, your team can use an accurate forecast to drive business outcomes.
5. Elevate executive engagement
Deal dynamics have changed.
In a tighter market, it takes more to build coalitions and close business. Customer churn can be a major source of Revenue Leak. And churn may be hiding in plain sight. As Beekeeper’s Kevin McKeown points out in the webinar, a customer may have great usage rates but be experiencing internal budget pressure - and you have a surprise failure to renew.
That’s why CROs are empowering their teams – from the top down – to take a more proactive, strategic role in driving deals forward and addressing potential roadblocks.
Critically, recognize that you need a broader set of stakeholders to get a deal across the finish line. Get tight alignment between your customer success and account teams. Ensure your revenue-facing teams are equipped to both navigate expanded buying committees and secure executive-level buy-in. And make sure those teams understand customers’ pains - and where they are in a buying journey.
Remember: What was good enough in 2023 may not be good enough to win 2024.
How Top CROs Create, Convert and Close More Revenue with Cadences: Watch Webinar
These are five key takeaways from the conversation between four winning revenue leaders. Watch the webinar on demand for more of their advice to help you meet - or even beat - your 2024 revenue target.