Veteran CRO Carlos Delatorre prioritizes opportunities with complex products requiring a sophisticated sales motion. This environment allows him to leverage his expertise in building teams that can translate technical features into business value, create demand, and navigate internal customer politics, thereby making the market bigger.

The CRO, not product marketing, is closest to the customer and knows what they will buy. The product roadmap should be a collaborative effort driven by the CRO, who can directly tie feature delivery to ICP expansion and revenue forecasts. This creates accountability and predictable growth.

The CRO's average tenure is now a mere 18 months, making them an unstable ally for RevOps. To ensure job security and drive impact, RevOps leaders should instead align with the CFO, who has a 7-year tenure, by pitching initiatives with undeniable ROI.

To transition from working 'in the business' to 'on the business,' Snowflake's CRO was told his hands-on, 'deal hound' approach wouldn't work at scale. The solution was to hire other capable 'drivers,' trust them to do their jobs, and hold them accountable. If a leader has to do their team's job, it's a problem with the team member.

Personio created 'Go-to-Market Engineer' roles within their Revenue Operations team. These individuals have a business background but are also data-driven and tech-focused. This hybrid role is crucial for successfully implementing AI solutions because they understand both business context and technical requirements.

A common failure mode for new CROs is attempting to create the sales playbook in isolation. Core pillars like ICP and value proposition are company-level decisions. The CRO's role is to be interdependent, facilitating this cross-functional creation process, not dictating it.

While assessing people and process is important, a new CRO is ultimately hired to deliver a number. Their immediate priority must be to dig into the pipeline, understand the deals, and take ownership of the sales forecast. Missing the first forecast is a critical, often unrecoverable, mistake.

An early-stage sales leader's greatest strength—being the superstar individual contributor involved in every deal—becomes their biggest liability at scale. A hands-on leader must be forced to evolve into a true manager who trusts and enables their team, even if it feels unnatural.

By 2028, the top CROs will be systems-first thinkers, not just human-capacity managers. They will likely come from technical backgrounds like growth, RevOps, or GTM engineering, not traditional sales paths. Their core skill will be designing an integrated GTM system that blends AI-native approaches with classic enterprise sales.