Why More Companies Are Letting Their CMO Absorb the CRO Role

The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) role emerged in the 2010s as companies sought to unify sales, marketing, and customer success under one leader. The idea was that a single revenue owner would fix the alignment problem between marketing and sales.

But a decade later, many companies are rethinking this structure. Instead of hiring a CRO, they are expanding the CMO's mandate to include revenue ownership.

Why? Three reasons:

1. RevOps Has Absorbed the CRO's Technical Work

Revenue Operations teams have absorbed the CRO's traditional responsibilities: pipeline visibility, deal tracking, and revenue forecasting. These functions are now managed by specialized ops teams with sophisticated tools. This leaves the CRO role focused on strategy and execution, areas where the CMO often has more expertise.

The CRO role was originally designed to own forecasting, pipeline management, and revenue analytics. But today, Revenue Operations (RevOps) teams handle these functions with sophisticated tools and automation.

RevOps owns the systems, data, and processes that drive predictable revenue. The CRO's traditional responsibilities (pipeline visibility, deal tracking, revenue forecasting) are now table stakes, managed by specialized ops teams.

This leaves the CRO role focused on strategy and execution. Areas where the CMO often has more expertise.

2. Marketing Drives the Majority of Revenue

In modern B2B companies, marketing generates 60-80% of pipeline. Product marketing defines positioning. Demand generation fills the funnel. Content marketing educates buyers. When the CMO already owns the majority of revenue-generating activities, giving them full accountability is the logical next step.

In modern B2B companies, marketing generates 60-80% of pipeline. Product marketing defines positioning. A strong content strategy educates buyers. Customer marketing drives expansion.

Sales executes, but marketing creates the conditions for revenue. When the CMO already owns the majority of revenue-generating activities, it makes sense to give them full accountability.

3. One Leader, One Strategy, One Team

Consolidating GTM under the CMO eliminates the biggest challenge in go-to-market: misalignment. When marketing and sales report to different leaders, you get competing priorities and finger-pointing. One leader creates unified strategy, shared goals, and shared metrics.

The biggest challenge in GTM is alignment. When marketing and sales report to different leaders, you get competing priorities, misaligned incentives, and finger-pointing when targets are missed.

By consolidating GTM under the CMO, companies create a unified strategy. Marketing and sales become one team, working toward the same goals, measured by the same metrics.

What This Means for CMOs

CMOs expanding into revenue ownership must shift from brand and demand to full revenue accountability. This means owning pipeline targets, managing sales teams, forecasting revenue, and building systems for predictable growth. The CMOs who succeed embrace systems thinking and cross-functional leadership.

If you are a CMO, this shift is an opportunity. But it requires a mindset change. You are no longer just responsible for brand, demand, and content. You are accountable for revenue.

This means:

• Owning pipeline targets, not just MQLs
• Managing sales teams, not just marketing teams
• Forecasting revenue, not just campaign performance
• Building systems for predictable growth, not just creative campaigns

The CMOs who succeed in this expanded role are those who embrace systems thinking, data-driven decision-making, and cross-functional leadership.

The Bottom Line

The CRO role is not disappearing. It is evolving into the CMO in many companies. The CMO is the natural owner of revenue because they already control the levers that drive growth. The question is whether your CMO is ready to lead it.

The CRO role is evolving. In many companies, the CMO is the natural owner of revenue because they already control the levers that drive growth.

Marketing should own revenue. The real question: is your CMO ready to lead it?