Chapter 4: Ronnie, The Chief Revenue Officer.
Known to others as “The Power Grabber”
Place: The Boardroom, 2025. The Interrogation Continues
The room had grown colder.
Ivor had already built cases against The Venture Capitalist, who pushed Mary Marketing to exhaustion in the name of hypergrowth, and The CFO, who had suffocated her under the weight of budget cuts and quarterly ROI demands.
But now, Ivor turned his attention to Ronnie, the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), a new player in the corporate hierarchy. One who had once been Mary Marketing’s ally but had since seized power and rewritten the rules of engagement.
Ronnie sat back, arms crossed, an air of quiet confidence surrounding them.
“Why am I here?” he asked. “Revenue is growing. Isn’t that what matters?”
Ivor pulled out his next file. The case against Ronnie was undeniable.
Exhibit A: The Rise of the CRO And the Fall of the CMO
Once upon a time, the CMO was the most powerful voice in growth strategy. They led brand development, market positioning, and customer acquisition.
Then, Ronnie, the CRO, arrived.
In the last five years, the CRO role has grown 10x faster than the CMO role.
In many companies, the CMO no longer reports to the CEO but to the CRO instead.
Over 60% of B2B SaaS companies now have a CRO, with many absorbing marketing under their control.
Case Study: The CMO’s Vanishing Influence
Ronnie folded his arms. “Mary Marketing existed to drive revenue. She works for me now. What’s wrong with that?”
Ivor reviewed his case files.
The shift hadn’t been solely around leadership titles. It had also brought a change in mindset.
Whereas Mary Marketing had once been about understanding her customers, building trust, and shaping demand, under Ronnie’s rule, everything became about immediate revenue contribution.
Instead of the 4Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), it was now about a new P: Pipeline.
Demand generation became the sole KPI. Brand-building was sidelined as “creative fluff.”
Marketing was measured on MQLs, SQLs, and pipeline contribution, not market positioning, brand equity, or customer lifetime value.
Creativity was replaced with conversion metrics. If it didn’t drive a direct sale, it was seen as useless.
Exhibit B: The Sales-ification of Marketing - Quote from Mary’s diary:
Many Go-To-Market (GTM) communities have further fueled this trend, advocating (and sometimes grooming) marketers to be fully revenue-aligned and focused, which, in reality, means fully sales-aligned. They train the senior marketers in their communities on revenue only - the 4Ps, building strategic plans, orienting to the market and customers - nowhere to be seen.
Ivor had heard that marketers in other parts of the city were being pressured to think like Sales Development Reps (SDRs), with everything designed to push prospects through a funnel as fast as possible. But he had never seen such a bad outcome of this pressure as what was in front of him right now.
Those CROs thought they were being efficient, but they were also very short-sighted.
Ivor wasn’t a marketer, but he could see with his own eyes that when everything is focused on closing deals, there’s no room for market education, thought leadership, or customer relationship-building, all of which drive sustainable, long-term growth.
It was clear to see that Mary Marketing had become a sales handmaiden rather than a strategic growth function.
And it was Ronnie, the CRO, who had made it that way.
Ivor knew he couldn’t stop here. He had to dive further into the investigation of the CRO and its impact on Mary….. because the evidence didn’t look pretty!
To be continued………