If you ask this Chicago CEO to tell you what transformed his business from unpredictable and lower-profit revenue growth in 2014 (call it $4M in revenue and $200k – 5% – in profit) to predictable, repeatable higher-profit revenue growth in 2018 (now approx. $7.5M in revenue and $940M – 13%), he would start with one simple answer. He would not lead with changes made to marketing, or CRM systems, training, messaging, or hiring. Yes, those and other factors were necessary and contributed to deliver success. What this CEO would tell you is that it all started with the realization that  revenue growth was not going to happen without a personal commitment to lead this growth and be accountable for this growth. 

You are the CRO

Embrace the fact that you, as the owner – founder – CEO, must be the CRO (Chief Revenue Officer). Even if you have another key person responsible for sales or business development, you cannot abdicate the ultimate responsibility and accountability to grow your business. No one else has as much to gain or lose as you do. No one else took the risks to launch the company. While you will certainly work with others to make this happen, but you must

  • provide the focused leadership,
  • translate your customer and solution insights into sales messaging,
  • initially train and mentor sales professionals to build up their industry/customer knowledge and confidence,
  • assist in closing the big deals, and
  • set goals, define sales activities, and hold your team accountable.

Eliminate the Clutter that Distracts You

Many CEOs have looked back with regret for allowing too many distractions to get in the way of focused leadership on growth. When they should have been creating the sales tools required, or should have been coaching, or should have been talking to more customers and prospects, they instead got bogged down in non-urgent or non-CEO-related type tasks.

Take out a blank sheet of paper and write down the types of things you, as the CEO today, do on a regular day-to-day basis. Don’t think it through a lot, just start listing all the things that occupy your time.

Once you have finished, go down the list one by one and circle only the items that you only, uniquely as the CEO, can do (meaning, there is something unique about the task that would eliminate you delegating that – the reason can’t be that you don’t have someone – it has to be that truly someone else cannot do that task). Now, for everything else on the list, delegate those tasks. If you need to train someone, do it. If this requires hiring someone, strongly consider doing that.

The items left, along with a new focus on the tasks required to grow revenues, should be your job. Don’t let the growth priority just kept getting beat out by tasks that others should have been doing.

The Lead-to-GROW CEO role in summary

The best advice I can give you is that if you are seeking to grow your business, the optimal CEO role would include:

  • Serving diligently as the CRO and ensuring every resource is provided to create successful sales growth
  • Reviewing key financial indicators and monitoring cash flow (let others do the detail financial work)
  • Hiring the right people and keeping the right people (being involved in ensuring you have great people and an engaging culture)
  • Meeting with key team leaders to review progress, coach, answer questions, and provide support and inspiration.