#31 Everything you always wanted to know about CROs but were afraid to ask

ABOUT THE GUEST - WARREN ZENNA, FOUNDER OF THE CRO COLLECTIVE

Warren Zenna has 20+ years of experience in the B2B sales and marketing industry as a top B2B seller, sales leader, and Executive PL buyer of B2B services.

He recently founded The CRO Collective as a resource to help ensure that CROs succeed - and that the CEOs who appoint them to do so in a way that maximizes success and mitigates the enormous risks.

Find out more about The CRO Collective on the web at www.TheCROCollective.com

Or on Warren’s LinkedIn page here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/warrenz/


ABOUT THE EPISODE:

The CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) role is relatively new. It first appeared about 8 years ago according to Warren Zenna, and has yet to be widely understood, consistently deployed, and ultimately maximized in most sales organizations. Is the CRO just a glorified VP of Sales (that’s going to be a problem), is it someone who works with the CMO to coordinate sales and marketing (nope) - so what is it?

In this episode, Warren answers some key questions about what a CRO is and isn’t, what it can be, and how to set up the role for success from multiple perspectives including that of the CRO, the CEO, and the organization as a whole.

0:40 - What is the single best piece of sales advice that Warren has ever received. It’s about shutting up

3:44 - What is some of the worst sales advice that Warren has ever received - it’s about finding your own style

5:26 - David points out that Warren is the first service provider guest on the podcast, and Warren talks a bit about his company, The CRO collective to offer some context for the episode

7:40 - Why did the CRO role emerge and what was missing or what developed that required it to do so

11:03 - What is the difference between a classically defined VP of Sales or VP of Sales & Marketing and a CRO as the role should be deployed

15:00 - What are some of the challenges that a new CRO can expect when coming into an organization that hasn’t had one in the past

19:35 - Can a CRO and a CMO coexist?

22:26 - What does it mean to be a “CRO ready” organization?

26:15 - How should someone who thinks they might want to become a CRO at some time in the future prepare themselves for that, and specifically to recognize if it is a role they really want

28:03 - Where can people find out more about Warren and The CRO Collective