Job description - Chief Revenue Officer (CRO): salary & missions

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The CRO is working on integration and coordination Of all the income-related areas of a company. It is the central pillar of Sales & Business Development jobs!

This profession has been emerging in recent years on the French market. It responds to new issues of growth and participates in the development of sales teams and the turnover of his company. It is sometimes also found on e-commerce companies within The start-up ecosystem.

This position is growing at full speed in other types of businesses.

Chief Revenue Officer - Definition

Meaning of the word and translation

Coming from English Chief Revenue Officer, it would be possible to translate the title of this post into French by”Head of revenue”. It's a bit less glamorous when English!

The name CRO is mainly used for this business, which combines operational and strategic issues. Indeed, the CRO must unite teams under the same strategy while carrying out analytical work.

What is a Chief Revenue Officer?

A Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) analyzes the various sources of digital income then suggest optimization solutions. He gives his company more ambition by bringing together sectors around common goals.

It coordinates the various areas of the business that are linked to income. Between marketing, customer relationship or vending, the CRO is very versatile and works mainly in internally. This profession is very present in The Tech since he studies the various tools put in place by the company in which he works. It is based on a great capacity for analysis and optimization.

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What is the role of a CRO?

In terms of missions, they are enough varied. The majority of his time is devoted to the analysis of financial data.

• Supervising the achievement of business goals

The CRO must ensure that the goals set by management are achieved. To do so, he will form a sales team to achieve goals. It will also set KPI (Key Performance Indicator) then carry out regular reports and data analysis.

For teams to be efficient, he can provide training on sales management and on the Account tracking. He may sometimes be required to make recruitments of collaborators for the teams that work under his responsibility.

• Track financial performance indicators

The majority of the work being from data analysis, the CRO must be able to master the software and tools and necessary for the collection and analysis of data.

He may need to improve offers and services, monitor margins and forecast results.

• Define a strategy

The CRO can either follow existing strategies and thus carry out market studies, either for develop new strategies, either for upgrade those already existing. He can therefore set the annual budget with the financial department, review the marketing strategy in terms of targeting, positioning, etc. He can also help improve and optimize the CRM.

Why become a Chief Revenue Officer?

This profession is more and more in demand with the rise of Saas tools (Software as a Service) and the need for businesses to plan their income.

Today, the position of CRO within a company can reassure potential investors. In fact, he measures and analyzes the productivity of acquisition campaigns on the market and studies the competitive advantages of his company.

The CRO is attached to the management. He works closely with the financial and marketing director. It offers a great autonomy and the possibility of having a significant impact on the development of his business.

It does not exist No typical training For this job, the skills it requires are obtained with experience. The role of financial analyst combined with the business part generates great versatility among Chief Revenue Officers.

The salary for this position recognizes experience and skills. A CRO receives a salary that is often greater than €80K per year.

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What are the qualities of a good CRO?

What is the profile of a good CRO from a good CRO?

To succeed as a CRO, the CRO must not only have excellent skills in data analysis, but also solid skills such as The leadership, Communication and Management.

We have listed the skills expected of a good CRO

• Leadership and communication

The CRO federate the teams and must be listened to by the various services for its valuable advice. His leadership must allow him to set up his acceleration programs as easily as possible.

• Extensive knowledge in all areas of the business

He coordinates services and develops processes to support sales teams throughout the sales cycle. It is therefore important that he has a background in marketing, vending, communication to understand and be understood on a daily basis.

• Be results-oriented

The main objective is to increase turnover and develop the business according to goals. It must therefore follow the KPI to make good decisions and to ensure that the objectives are well defined and above all achieved or even exceeded.

• To be innovative

This job transforms the vision and brings ambitions to the company, for example, it will open the company to new markets. It will also adopt a short and long-term development perspective, always with the aim of constantly improving results.

How do you be a good Chief Revenue Officer?

To fulfill the various responsibilities they are given to him, it is essential that a good CRO has the following qualities:

• Versatility
• Critical thinking and ability to question yourself
• Pedagogy and objectivity
• Stress resistance
• Autonomy
• Passionate about his business

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How do I become a CRO?

Skills required

As this position is highly responsible, a CRO is expected to have management skills. With a quality of leadership and communication, he will mobilize many departments of the company to report. He is the intermediary of management and other teams when it comes to the financial part.

Therefore it must have:

• Versatile skills in different sectors

This profession is very complex and requires skills in financial analysis, system modeling, marketing, business and IT.

La stress resistance can also be important since he has to manage a lot of elements at the same time.

• Mastering technological culture

The CRO will be constantly handling and analyzing the tools: CRM, PRM, dashboards... He must therefore be comfortable with technology in order to be able to adapt to different software.

Degrees and training required

This position cannot be obtained with a degree! It requires ten years of experience in the business field, especially those in finance and sales. In general, CRO profiles are graduates ofbusiness schools Or of a Master's degree specialized in finance. Some CROs come fromEngineering school. Indeed, an important part of their work is based on data analysis. Work carried out in particular by certain branches of engineering.

Adapted conversion profiles

The people most likely to become a Chief Revenue Officer have a few years of experience in Finances or at least knowledge of business sectors and their challenges. These are considerable assets. Have worked in several sectors of the company (Sales, Marketing, Financial...) is very important since he will be required to work transversely.

What career developments are there for this position?

A Chief Revenue Officer already occupies a position of high responsibility and within management. In the long term, a CRO can evolve as a CEO (Chief Executive Officer). He may also change, wanting to deepen a field that interests him particularly, by becoming, for example: Head of Sales (sales manager) or VP Sales. Many CROs also become entrepreneurs and start their businesses.

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What is the salary of a CRO?

The CRO occupies one of the highest positions in a company's hierarchy. He therefore has many responsibilities and thus the salary that goes with it.

Junior Chief Revenue Officer

The Salary for a Chief Revenue Officer varies according to the company's structures and market. However, a Junior Chief Revenue Officer (1 to 3 years of experience) can touch between €80K and 100 K€ gross per year.

Senior Chief Revenue Officer

After 5 years of experience, a CRO can receive a salary of €150K view 200 K€ gross per year.

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The various commercial jobs in relation

The titles you need to know

• Key Account Manager (AM)
• Head Of Sales
• Sales Manager (SM)
• VP Sales
• etc.

What is a Head of Sales?

The Head of Sales or Commercial director intervenes in all commercial and strategic actions in order to increase the sales of products or services. He supervises all activities related to business development and therefore works with several teams and managers.

What is a VP Sales?

One VP Sales aims to define commercial strategy to increase the turnover of his company while supporting the Sales teams. In general, he is a member of Management Committee and works in collaboration with the CEO.

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Our tips for finding a CRO job

To find the right CRO job opportunity, start by choosing a reputable job site with pre-verified ads, like JobTeaser or Welcome To The Jungle.

This will prevent you from wasting time on offers that are unclear and do not provide enough information about the position.

To be precise, check the presentation of the offer and its content. These are sufficient to allow us to assess at a glance Relevance and the credibility of the position and of the company. The announcement should follow a logical thread, with numbers and minimal attention to presentation.

Regarding information, the main information to look for is:

• Leadership team and management style: vision, values and aspirations;
• Fields of activity:, health, agricultural products, home delivery, finance, automotive...;
• Size of the company: number of employees, possible fundraising, etc.
• Personal support: onboarding, internal training...;
• Corporate culture: after works, team building, etc.

However, these are not the only criteria to look at. You should also ensure that you get the useful information related to the position. For example, we consider:

• Professional responsibilities;

• daily tasks;

• The tools used: data analysis, growth marketing

• The sales cycle.

Having the answers to these questions will give you a better idea of what is expected of you and will ensure that you are suitable for the profile you are looking for.

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How to recruit the right CRO in France?

Recruiting the right CRO is a responsibility and a real challenge. Good profiles are rare and highly sought after since they have only recently arrived on the market. In addition, your competitors are certainly looking for the same profile as you. Note that in general this position is provided internally because the CRO must have a detailed knowledge of the company and various services.

And this profile has the skills, techniques and character that, when combined, produce more than satisfactory results that can get the business off the ground.

First, make sure you know if the candidate knows or understands your entrepreneurial sector. Does he have a good overall knowledge of the company's services? This is the minimum required since he will have to work with all these positions to help with financial optimization.

A CRO has several years of experience in previous positions in strategy since he will act on the overall strategy of the company. For example, it will create a fiscal policy consistent across sectors to obtain good optimization and data collection.

The role of the CRO must cause change and must influence mindsets. The profile of an entrepreneur or ex-entrepreneur corresponds perfectly to this job: he knows how to be efficient and novel.

Draw up a typical CRO profile that would correspond to your expectations and the challenges you face. It will be easier to tell the good profiles from the bad ones.

To help you in the recruitment process, integrate into your process the Business Game. A practical case adapted to your expectations and your sector in order to further challenge the candidate. You will have an overview of what the candidate could be in the field: application of their knowledge, sense of thinking, ability to react to a particular situation, degree of motivation, understanding of issues and risks, etc.

Do not hesitate to call on your team to gather significant opinions. Opt for the Team Fit interviews to complete the recruitment of your future collaborator. They will allow you to get to know your candidate from a different perspective. But also to form constructive opinions from other members of the team, with whom the candidate will have to discuss regularly. Also, take a few referrals from its former managers.

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