Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: Most CROs don’t own all revenue. They own new business and little else. And in a large ($50M+) B2B recurring revenue company, that’s a liability.

It creates a fractured revenue org where Sales, Marketing, and CS each optimize for their own outcomes, with no single person responsible for the full customer lifecycle. It means metrics are siloed, handoffs are chaotic, and the entire revenue engine becomes impossible to manage holistically.

We can’t drive real growth this way. And we definitely can’t forecast it.

If our CRO is only responsible for sales, then we don’t have a unified GTM. If we’re trying to scale to $100M, $500M, or $1B with a CRO who can’t fully control how customers are acquired, retained, or expanded—we’re setting the foundation for misalignment in GTM.

MQL Theater: The Consequence of Misaligned Metrics

Let’s look at Marketing.

Most teams are still measured—and compensated—on outdated MQL targets. That’s what shows up in the board slides. That’s what determines headcount. That’s what gets CMOs fired or promoted.

So naturally, they drive more MQLs.

But when those MQLs aren’t qualified—or don’t align with who Sales actually wants to talk to—two things happen:

1. Marketing celebrates phantom wins.
2. Sales ignores the leads entirely.

This isn’t just a process issue. It’s a structural problem. We’ve seen marketing and sales teams report different numbers for how many MQLs were generated, how many became SQLs, and how many closed. No one trusts the data, because there’s no unified system—or leader—owning the full funnel.

A CRO who owns only new business can’t solve this. Because Marketing doesn’t report to them. And CS doesn’t either. So what happens next?

Finger-pointing. Siloed dashboards. Wasted pipeline.

Who Owns Expansion? Who Owns Churn?

Let’s assume your CRO crushes their new logo target. Great. But who owns Net Revenue Retention?

If the answer is “Customer Success,” then ask yourself: do they influence what kind of customers we bring in to begin with?

Because if our sales team is incentivized to close anything with a pulse, we’ll land customers who churn early, expand never, and burn out our CS team in the process. The CRO met their number—but at what cost?

There’s no lifetime value if the customer doesn’t stay. There’s no expansion pipeline if the handoff from sales to CS is broken. There’s no accurate forecasting if sales and customer success are optimizing for different outcomes.

A real CRO owns all of it. New business. Retention. Expansion. The entire Revenue Engine. And they’re accountable for the systems and metrics that support it.

Aligning Around a Unified Revenue Model

This isn’t about giving our CRO more power—it’s about giving them the tools to actually deliver on their mandate. That starts with redefining the role itself.

If we want real alignment across sales, marketing, and CS, we need to rethink what we’re asking our CROs to do—and what authority and support we give them to do it.

• Clear ownership of every revenue number: New ARR, Expansion ARR, NRR
• Alignment of metrics and compensation across GTM functions
• Standardized definitions for MQLs, SQLs, SQOs, and Closed Won
• Unified systems that track performance from lead to renewal

Otherwise, we’re just moving the goalposts. Hoping the math adds up while Marketing optimizes for leads, Sales optimizes for logos, and CS fights to keep unhappy customers that never should have closed.

What You Should Do About It

If You’re a CRO

If this sounds like your reality, take control before the blame lands on you. Don’t wait for permission—build the case for why true revenue ownership is essential.

Here’s how to get started:

• Audit your scope of ownership: List out which revenue motions you fully own—new business, renewals, expansion—and where accountability is misaligned.
• Map accountability gaps: Identify where Sales, Marketing, and CS are operating with conflicting goals, metrics, or incentives.
• Align with your CEO: Schedule time with your CEO to walk through the current fragmentation and propose a unified revenue model under your leadership.
• Request operational levers: Push for ownership of key metrics, process design, and RevOps support across the full customer lifecycle.
• Define success criteria: Lay out the KPIs you’ll be responsible for—and the systems, processes, and alignment you need to achieve them.
• Bring in USC to help: We would be remiss not to offer our own support here. Helping CROs succeed is what we do, from project execution to strategic planning to process design. We’ll help you take on new responsibilities without taking on all the burden.

If you don’t proactively define your role, someone else will. And chances are, they’ll define you out of it.

If You’re a CEO

If your CRO doesn’t own all of GTM, then you, as the CEO, are the true CRO.

You are now the only person who can make the final call on how sales, marketing and CS should be aligned, what metrics each will be held accountable for, and how to define and execute the process across the entire customer lifecycle.

How much time are you spending on this each week? If this is your main focus, and your best skill in the business, then great. But if not, your business will suffer from this neglect and it’s time to promote someone who can devote time and do this well.

Here’s how to fix it:

• Define who owns each revenue motion—and who influences it
• Align goals and metrics across Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success
• Promote your CRO. Not just in title, but in scope and responsibility. Let them do their job
• Bring in USC to help. Not only can we help navigate this process, but we can act as a force multiplier for your CRO as they level up their scope and responsibilities

Until you do that, the responsibility of aligning GTM across sales, marketing and CS will ultimately fall on you, the CEO, and suffer if you don’t have the time or expertise to manage it effectively. Revenue may continue to grow but precious capital, resources and potential revenue will leak out of the engine due to this misalignment.