Why can’t the best sales rep become a good CRO?
This remains a frequently asked question so let’s resolve the issue. First, the best sales reps in most companies typically have a ‘hunter’ profile. This profile can have many variations but the common ‘threads’ are they take total accountability for their performance (no excuses) and they follow an intuitive, qualifying-to-close process that best fits their profile.
As such, under our SRS 2.0 model, they have uniquely developed one of the 4 core processes of a complete Revenue System, albeit one that is totally optimized to their profile and may not be readily transferable to others.
The complete revenue system requires competence in 4 processes – not just one. That makes the CRO role requirements much different than those of an individual contributor. The CRO has to deliver coaching (5M’s Sales Process), accountability (Bankable Forecast Process), motivation (Incentive Process) and talent selection (Staffing Process).
The step up from individual contributor to CRO is a quantum leap in leadership and responsibility. Most of the time, these leadership responsibilities are not tasks that fit the true hunter profile.
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Carl Moe is the founder of CRO Success, an organization dedicated to developing and delivering the tools, processes and systems CRO’s need to succeed. Moe specializes in helping restructure revenue systems for sustainable growth and optimized performance.
