VP Sales / CRO

The VP Sales (Vice President Sales) leads the sales strategy and sales teams. The CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) coordinates a broader range of revenue-generating activities. The responsibilities associated with these two titles vary between companies.

VP Sales, CRO and salesperson: who does what?

• The VP Sales translates commercial priorities into objectives and a structure for the sales teams.
• The CRO's remit may bring together marketing, sales, retention, pricing and revenue operations. They connect these departments' decisions through a shared strategy and examine forecasts and revenue at risk beyond sales results alone. This coordination does not mean that all the departments concerned report directly to them. Accounting and the company's general operations remain outside the CRO's remit.
• A salesperson, such as an Account Executive, has individual sales responsibilities. The leadership remit covers the organisation and results of the teams.

For both a VP Sales and a CRO, the company must distinguish delegated decisions from those that remain subject to senior management approval. The title alone does not establish this autonomy or a universal hierarchy between the two roles.

Revenue leadership should turn commercial ambition into coherent decisions. Which markets should take priority? How should objectives be allocated across teams? What adjustments should be made when results diverge from the plan? These choices require a connection between strategy, budget and the teams' ability to deliver the chosen priorities.

Forecast quality is a separate issue from sales performance. A forecast should help explain opportunities and revenue at risk. Its underlying assumptions help determine the adjustments needed when those assumptions change. A strong sales result is not enough to show that difficulties were anticipated.

The choice of indicators deserves the same attention. Recurring revenue, customer churn and acquisition costs can shed light on certain business models. They do not form a universal dashboard. Select the measures that help explain variances in your business, then specify who should act on each one.

Cooperation between departments becomes particularly important when the remit covers acquisition, sales and retention. A shared objective has limited value if those responsible do not know which decisions fall to them. To define how the role works with Sales Ops / RevOps, distinguish leadership decisions from the work needed to track them through data and tools. Specify what each manager must provide and who resolves disagreements.

Choosing the wrong candidate can stem from a mismatch in responsibilities. An excellent negotiator has not necessarily demonstrated the ability to develop managers. Similarly, a successful sales career does not, on its own, prove the ability to coordinate several departments.

• Define priority markets and translate the sales strategy into objectives for the teams.
• Prepare the sales budget with senior management and finance.
• Support managers and develop salespeople's skills.
• Assess sales results and decide on adjustments to the plan.
• Take part in complex negotiations that require leadership support.
• Review forecasts and identify revenue at risk within the assigned remit.
• For a CRO remit, coordinate acquisition, sales and retention activities around a shared strategy.

Relevant career paths combine knowledge of sales with experience of leading teams. Individual selling, supporting salespeople and managing sales managers each provide different skills and experience. A qualification indicates initial learning, but does not describe the responsibilities actually held.

Apec lists master's degrees in sales-related subjects, business or engineering school qualifications and MBAs among the preferred educational backgrounds for sales leadership. None of these qualifications is mandatory for every VP Sales or CRO. In its example of a regional VP role, GitLab mentions a bachelor's degree and evidence of management and recruitment experience. These expectations remain specific to the context of the role described.

Useful skills are concrete: understanding a market, negotiating, building a sales plan, using results and developing a team's skills. For a CRO remit, experience of working with other departments also helps connect sales decisions with acquisition and retention.

English and proficiency with sales tools matter according to the communication required for the role and the data to be used. These capabilities cannot be reduced to a minimum number of years' experience that applies to every organisation.

GetPro structures assessment around a set of prioritised criteria. Each criterion is matched to an assessment method, distinguishing what can be verified in the candidate's career history from what needs to be explored in an interview. Open-ended questions are accompanied by a request for a concrete example. Reference checks allow assessors to revisit skills and points requiring clarification, placing examples in the context of the working relationship.

This foundation forms GetPro's general method. The suggestions below are advice on applying it when recruiting a VP Sales or CRO. Adapt the criteria and fictional case to the responsibilities of the role.

1. Define the criteria for the role

Establish a shared assessment framework before the interviews. Separate sales strategy, management, forecasting and coordination of revenue-related departments. Specify the decisions the future role holder will need to make independently and those they will prepare with senior management.

Distinguish the capabilities that are essential from the start from those that can be developed. For a sales leadership role, give weight to team leadership. For a CRO role, add the relationships between acquisition, sales and retention.

A candidate who asks to understand these responsibilities provides an initial useful indication. Be cautious if they infer all their authority from the proposed title.

2. Review past achievements

Ask the candidate to present a sales plan they led. Have them specify the market, objectives, teams involved and decisions that were theirs to make. Then examine the gaps between the plan and the results.

Distinguish their contribution from market changes or decisions made by other managers. Ask which assumptions were revised and why. A precise account of adjustments reveals more about their reasoning than an isolated result.

Ask for concrete achievements in recruiting and developing teams.

3. Set a case exercise relevant to the role

Fictional example: give the candidate a simplified brief presenting sales objectives, current opportunities and customer churn. Ask them to diagnose the situation and choose which information to explore further.

Invite them to explain the adjustments they would propose and the managers they would involve. Change one assumption to observe how they revise their decisions. Adapt the indicators to your company's business model.

Look for reasoning that distinguishes available facts from assumptions. A firm recommendation whose underlying assumptions the candidate cannot explain would be a warning sign. Do not expect a precise forecast from an incomplete brief.

4. Examine management and communication

Ask how the candidate supported a manager who was struggling. Have them describe the objectives discussed, the decisions made and the changes observed. Also examine a disagreement with another department.

Observe their ability to explain the constraints faced by the people they work with and their own responsibility. A response that consistently attributes difficulties to other teams deserves further exploration. Ask what they would change in their approach today.

For an international role, adapt part of the discussion to situations that require English. Focus the assessment on the communication needed for the role.

5. Compare perspectives and references

Allocate interviews according to the skills to be assessed. Senior management can examine delegated decisions, while finance can explore the assumptions behind the sales plan in greater depth.

If your company lacks experience in revenue leadership, involve a professional who has held comparable responsibilities. Give them the same assessment framework and context as the other assessors.

During reference checks, with the candidate's prior agreement, ask which teams and decisions were actually their responsibility. Seek to clarify the achievements already discussed, their cooperation with other managers and their support for managers. Compare this information before reaching a conclusion.