Chief Revenue Officer search
We run retained Chief Revenue Officer searches for companies that want one executive accountable for new business, renewals and expansion. You meet revenue leaders who have built a number in a sales motion and deal size close to yours.
The Chief Revenue Officer role and its market
A CRO puts every team that touches revenue under one owner. That normally means new business sales, account management, customer success and renewals, with marketing and revenue operations included in many companies. The CRO owns the forecast the CEO takes to the board, the pipeline behind it, sales compensation plans, territory design and the CRM, usually Salesforce or HubSpot. They also feed pricing and packaging decisions with what the field is hearing. The title is most common in B2B software and services. In a founder-led company the CRO may be the first executive to take selling off the founder's plate, while in a private equity-backed business the role is often tied directly to the growth targets in the value creation plan.
There is no shortage of revenue leaders on the market. Many candidates interview well, and the résumés all describe growth. What separates them is whether that growth came from a motion like yours. A CRO who scaled a high-velocity inside sales team selling monthly subscriptions will struggle with six-month enterprise cycles and procurement committees, and the reverse is just as true. Searches also go wrong when the company has not decided whether customer success and marketing sit under the role, which leaves candidates guessing and makes their plans hard to compare. When the fit is wrong, the board usually sees it within a couple of missed quarters.
What sets a strong Chief Revenue Officer apart
Each of these can be tested in interview or through references before an offer.
- Comparable motion and deal size
- Has carried a number selling at a price point and cycle length close to yours. Ask for the average deal size and sales cycle they managed.
- Forecast accuracy
- Can show how close their quarterly forecasts landed to actual bookings, and the CFO or CEO they reported to confirms it.
- Hiring sales leaders
- Built a bench of front-line and second-line sales managers, several of whom moved with them or were promoted.
- Retention as well as bookings
- Understands gross and net revenue retention and can describe changes they made to customer success that reduced churn.
How we assess Chief Revenue Officer candidates
Each finalist sits structured interviews with your CEO, CFO and any board member or operating partner involved, covering the same set of revenue, team and process questions. We then run a scenario session: the candidate reviews a summary of your pipeline, win rates and churn and talks the committee through what they would change in the first two quarters. Experienced operators usually ask pointed questions about the data before they answer. References focus on numbers and behavior, so we speak with CEOs and CFOs they reported to, sales leaders they hired and, where possible, a customer or channel partner. Claims about bookings and quota attainment are checked with former employers wherever we can.
What shapes Chief Revenue Officer compensation
CRO packages are built around variable pay more than most C-suite roles. A base salary is combined with on-target commission or bonus tied to bookings, revenue or net retention, usually paid quarterly or annually, plus long-term incentives: stock options or RSUs at venture-backed and public companies, management equity at private equity-backed ones. Company size, the revenue the CRO will carry, whether customer success and marketing report in, and location all move the numbers. Accelerators above plan and the treatment of unvested equity from a current employer often come up in negotiation. We agree the structure and range with you or your compensation committee before the search starts.
Other revenue and marketing searches
Hiring a Chief Revenue Officer: common questions
Do we need a CRO or a VP of Sales?
A VP of Sales manages sellers and their managers. A CRO owns the whole revenue line, including renewals and expansion, and usually sits on the executive team. If churn, expansion and new business all need one owner, the CRO title fits better.
How long does a CRO search take?
Retained CRO searches commonly take a few months from brief to accepted offer. It depends on how specific your sales motion is, how competitive the market is for that profile and whether the search must be confidential. Revenue leaders often time a move around quarter-end or commission payouts, which can affect start dates.
Should marketing report to the CRO?
In companies where marketing's main job is pipeline, putting it under the CRO can tighten alignment. Brand-led and consumer businesses usually keep a separate CMO. We discuss the options with you before the brief is finalized.
How do you check a CRO's revenue claims?
We ask for specific figures on bookings, quota attainment and retention, then test them with former CEOs, CFOs and board members. Where a company was public or acquired, we also cross-check against what was disclosed.
Discuss your Chief Revenue Officer search
Send the title, the reporting line, the ownership of the business and when you need the person in place. We will reply to set up a call about the brief.
Prefer email? Write to info@executivesearchfirms.org.
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