CROsCMOs

CROsCMOs refers to the collaborative relationship and alignment between Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) within modern go-to-market organizations. The term emphasizes a coordinated approach to revenue generation that spans marketing, sales, and customer success, aiming to optimize the entire customer lifecycle from awareness to renewal.

CROs are typically responsible for the end-to-end revenue engine, including sales, marketing, and customer success, with a focus on forecasting, pipeline velocity, and revenue growth. CMOs lead marketing strategy, demand generation, branding, product messaging, market research, and marketing operations. While their roles have distinct domains, the two positions increasingly overlap on shared goals such as pipeline quality, lead conversion, customer acquisition, and retention. Effective CRO–CMO collaboration relies on data-driven decision-making, common metrics, and a unified go-to-market plan.

Common governance practices support their collaboration, often through revenue operations (RevOps) or a joint planning cadence. This includes aligning KPIs, sharing dashboards, and establishing service level agreements between marketing and sales, as well as integrated budgeting and incentive structures. Regular cross-functional reviews, standardized data definitions, and seamless technology platforms help ensure consistent forecasting and decision-making. Challenges can include misaligned incentives, inconsistent data, and competing priorities, which are mitigated by clear roles, executive sponsorship, and a culture of shared accountability. When well executed, CROsCMOs partnerships can shorten the sales cycle, improve forecast accuracy, enhance customer experience, and drive sustainable revenue growth.