Sunrise: First Light for What's Next in B2B Revenue.
Sunrise is your 5-minute daily reset for B2B go-to-market leaders. Designed for Courageous Revenue Leaders navigating chaos and change, each episode delivers one clear signal to help you lead with focus, momentum, and clarity.
Sunrise: First Light for What's Next in B2B Revenue.
Episode 22: Moving Beyond the CGO Blame Game: How to Align Expectations Around this Critical Role.
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The Bears got smoked by the Lions last weekend. Again.
They’re now 0–2 under highly respected and much anticipated head coach Ben Johnson. Year 4 under Ryan Poles. And already, fans are talking about starting over. Again. If it feels like déjà vu, it’s because it is.
Since 2019, 26 of 32 NFL teams have changed head coaches. That’s 35 new hires in five years, about 7 per season.
The average NFL head coach lasts just 3.2 years. And the Bears? They’ve had six head coaches in the last 12.
The coach is the easiest scapegoat, but is it merely
Which brings us to the B2B world, where the Chief Revenue Officer has quietly become the head coach of growth in the C-suite.
When a company completes a big raise or, conversely, growth slows, the CRO is often the first person hired.
They arrive with fanfare, bold announcements, heightened visibility, and sky-high expectations. And when those expectations aren’t met? They’re often the first to go.
We analyzed research from LinkedIn, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, Clari, and Revenue Operations Alliance to understand the current state of this key role.
And here’s what the data tells us:
- There are currently 1,700 to 2,000 open CRO/CGO roles across the U.S.
- LinkedIn ranks it among the fastest-growing senior roles in the country over the past five years.
- But the average tenure is just 25 months, barely two sales cycles.
And when a CRO exits? According to HBR, 62% of companies see growth stall or decline in the year that follows. The median drop? A full four percentage points.
It’s like firing the head coach after two rough seasons, and then wondering why the franchise keeps losing (we're looking at you, Bears).
Welcome to the modern CRO dilemma: The most in-demand, most highly visible seat in the C-Suite right now, and one that's the shortest-lived. In a surprising twist, they are even now making the CMO look highly tenured.
So today we’re asking better questions to get at better answers: How do we set the CRO up to win?
And more importantly: What must they accomplish in their first 24 months to set the company, their team, and themselves up for long-term success?