Dave VanderJagt is a proven Fractional CRO. Dave is experienced at structuring, developing and managing high-performing B2B and B2C revenue teams capable of scaled and sustained growth
In today's dynamic business environment, Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) play a critical role in driving sustainable growth and profitability for their organizations. At the heart of this challenge lies the critical utilization of data.
A CRO's first task is to gain a deep understanding of the organization's baseline revenue health. This involves insights into the current Go-To-Market model, financial state, revenue streams, customer data, and revenue reporting. The CRO must analyze historical revenue data to identify patterns, trends, and potential areas for improvement, while understanding data hygiene and areas that require clean-up so that the organization's data can become insightful and actionable. As the saying goes: “garbage in, garbage out,” and a major failure point of many CROs is trying to make major strategic decisions with poor quality or little (or no) data.
A comprehensive view of baseline revenue health provides the foundation for strategic decision-making and enables CROs to set realistic and achievable revenue targets.
Omit this step at your own peril. As a junior fractional CRO I once built and executed a Go-To-Market Strategy on a flawed financial model, largely due to poor CFO leadership, but it was also my fault for not probing deeper as an astute CRO would. After nearly six months of execution we learned that the company was actually hemorrhaging cash, to the point where the business was on-track to become insolvent. Learning: the perfect GTM doesn’t matter if the business is on life support and nearing flatline.
Metrics are essential navigational tools for CROs, providing real-time feedback on the performance of various revenue-generating functions, and evaluating the efficacy of the people, processes and technology deployed. Every aspect of the revenue engine, from lead generation to customer retention, must be measured and compared against benchmarks–either industry standards or the company’s own. Data serves as the lifeblood of these metrics.
By establishing and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), CROs can track progress, identify trends, and make informed decisions. These metrics create a comprehensive view of the organization's revenue landscape, enabling CROs to identify growth opportunities and address challenges promptly.
Marketing functions are notorious for focusing on “vanity” performance metrics–these are metrics which (typically) are easy to track and almost always look great, however do not have any meaningful direct impact on the business, such as: impressions, CPM, views, clicks, etc.
More meaningful marketing metrics are prospect behavioral and true demanddeman generation measurements, such as: engagement (sessions, duration, replies, meetings booked) and pipeline generation (form submissions, MQLs, opportunities attributed to marketing).
Speed matters in business. There is no such thing as the “perfect” GTM strategy, regardless of how well it aligns with the customer and revenue economics of the business. Frameworks as 100% solutions also do not exist. Agility and adaptability through quick build, test, learn cycles are crucial for CROs to iterate and modify their GTM accordingly.
Implementing an experimentation framework allows for testing and optimization of tactical revenue creation, growth and retention across the marketing, sales, and customer success functions. When the testing framework is backed by clear outcome visibility through data, CROs become empowered to make decisions based on real evidence, not theories and opinions.
By analyzing customer feedback, monitoring user behavior, and conducting A/B testing, CROs must fine-tune the effectiveness of their GTM strategies, optimize processes, and identify the highest ROI-potential revenue impacts.
For example, during the execution of a campaign for one of my client’s initial Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) focus with a client in the telecommunications industry, we quickly learned that while the lists and messaging were effective, we were outside the standard buying cycle window for that market segment, and our leading indicator quantitative and qualitative engagement metrics signaled that postponing this campaign and re-prioritizing another ICP was the correct path forward toward results.
The ability of knowing when to iterate on a go-to-market strategy is a hallmark of successful revenue leadership. Data serves as a feedback loop, informing CROs about what's working and what needs adjustment. Regular updates and accurate data enable strategic decisions regarding resource allocation, investment priorities, and market targeting–some of the core fundamental responsibilities of the Chief Revenue Officer role.
By identifying and monitoring patterns and trends in customer behavior and market dynamics, CROs can proactively adapt their go-to-market strategy to align with the evolving business landscape—”skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been” as the great Wayne Gretsky once said.
One of the most productive activities any revenue team can routinely perform is re-validating assumptions and learnings throughrecurring Voice of the Customer interviews. I suggest going deeper than Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys with actual direct interviews, and doing this with a cohort group twice per year.
Ultimately, the success or failure of a GTM strategy hinges on its validation through the right data. Comparing projected outcomes with actual results allows CROs to assess the effectiveness of the implemented strategies over time. This validation process is crucial for refining future approaches and optimizing the allocation of limited capital resources.
Data hygiene and clean-up are foundational elements of this validation process. Inaccurate or incomplete data can lead to misguided conclusions, potentially jeopardizing the effectiveness of revenue strategies, or worse! CROs must prioritize data quality to ensure the accuracy and reliability of their decision-making.
In a real-world example, a bootstrapped company with 12 month lead-to-cash cycles was measuring the health of their business largely based on the (lagging) metric of free cashflow, while ignoring other upstream metrics like booked revenue. When their revenue organization turned over one year through employee attrition, their cash position still presented as “healthy” for several quarters, however they didn’t realize the company was spiraling until it was nearly too late.
The urgency to rebuild their revenue organization became real once they understood the pipeline had dried up and there was virtually no lead generation activity happening within marketing or sales. The business nearly red-lined as investments were required to rebuild those functions, also requiring the CEO to get back into a direct sales role. It took nearly a full year of restructuring by grinding out long days, weeks, months, and quarters to right the ship and get the business back on a path to profitability and healthier cash position.
Summary: if the correct data measuring the leading indicators around revenue health were shared and understood at the executive level, the alarm bells would have gone off much earlier, and prompted changes to address the root cause issues.
Data is the linchpin that holds together the various facets of GTM strategy and revenue health. From understanding the baseline to validating the success or failure of a GTM motion, data empowers CROs to navigate the ever-evolving complexities in their respective market. Start with prioritizing data hygiene and clean-up, establish clear metrics and accountability, validate assumptions through experimentation frameworks, make informed adjustments, and validate whether you’re truly moving the business toward its short and long-term goals through the chess game of capital resource allocations. Data gives you the edge needed to beat the house, and that is the responsibility of every CRO.