Reflections and Objectives of a Chief Revenue Officer
By Sarah Clark
I’ve recently moved into a new role – Chief Revenue Officer – at The Legal Director, responsible for bringing our ambitious growth plans to life. Throughout my career, both as a General Counsel and more recently in my role of Chief Transformation Officer, I have been interested in introducing initiatives and designing value propositions that bring about positive change. This new position represents an amalgamation of the roles I have inhabited over the past few years and I’m keen to lay the right foundations for success. I speak with plenty of people who, in similar positions, are charged with driving growth in their businesses. So, I’m hoping my musings on the journey I am taking will strike a familiar chord with many of you.
The strategy we have written is bold! We’re reimagining our brand strategy, marketing approach, sales processes, product strategy and client relationship efforts. Though I love a challenge and I’m very excited by this new position, I want to set some parameters round the role, so it doesn’t become unmanageable. So, it’s important for me to formalise my thinking about the pain points I’m likely to face and the challenges I will encounter and create some guardrails for working more effectively for my sanity and for the success of the business. Here goes…
Will it make the boat go faster?
In figuring out how best to master the new challenges I am taking on, my thinking has been guided by one source of inspiration in particular. Two people in a week recommended the book “Will it make the boat go faster?”, which must be a sign. Written by Ben Hunt-Davis, the British rower, and Harriet Beveridge, author, keynote speaker and comedian, it focuses on the strategies and techniques used to bring about Olympic-levels of success. (It’s always good to aim high.) The book advocates asking this key question – “Will it make the boat go faster?” – as a guiding principle for all decisions and actions. If whatever you’re ploughing your energies into doesn’t make the boat go faster, it’s not worth the effort.
Learn to say no
So, if I intend to focus my efforts only on what increases the speed of HMS TLD, I need to concentrate on the work I don’t do as much as the work I do. For every single thing that comes across my desk in a day, whether that’s a request for a meeting or planning a conference, I will ask if the business benefits it brings are worth the time taken away from other things.
Be clear on strategy and goals
In order to make those decisions effectively, it’s vital to know exactly what the business is trying to accomplish. Last year, we laser-focused on the areas that are most impactful to TLD, and they are:
- Know the market and be known in the market – increasing our brand awareness and making sure that everybody who ‘thinks GC, thinks TLD’.
- Increase the pipeline of warm leads, making sure that our clients refer us to each other and that we’ve got partners who wax lyrical about TLD in the market.
This has really clarified where we should be concentrating our efforts, and consequently, what I can do in my role that can effect the biggest change. So, if you’re undertaking a similar change in role, or in your business, it’s important to put in the thinking time first. What is your stage of growth, where do you want to be this time next year, what do you want to be known for? To return to our nautical metaphor, it doesn’t matter what speed your boat is travelling at if it’s following the wrong course.
Delegate
Back in June of last year, energised from running a workshop with Crafty Counsel on the importance of working mindfully, I wrote my ‘not-to-do list’ – i.e. bad habits I need to get out of – and made a commitment to stick “Keeping things I would be better off delegating to someone else” high up on that list. As a remarkably busy person who has not yet learned how to clone herself, I still need to make this my mantra.
Bringing in the right people is essential. It’s what our whole business model is founded on. We know that our Client Legal Directors, who are business people before they are lawyers, can come into organisations, take a load of work off the CFO or FD’s desk and act as valued strategic partners to help businesses on their growth journey. This allows the CFO to concentrate on their role and what they do best, focusing on their own unique skills and experience that can drive the business forward.
Obviously, I’m lucky to have over 50 highly experienced fractional GCs in the mix, so I’ve got the legal side of the equation covered. And there are other people in the team who can also support me. Anything that I can pass on to somebody else who can do it as well or better than I can frees up time for me to crack on with the highest-value work on my never-ending to-do list.
Embrace change
We are evolving to be the business that we want to be in the future. This means that we can’t do everything in the way it was done before, and we need to accept a period of flux. So, I want to approach my new role with curiosity, open-mindedness and courage, embracing technology and ways of working that will help me be more efficient and effective, and that will calm the waters as we navigate our way towards change.
And, as a concluding thought, I must remember that, though tasked with helping this boat to move faster, I am not the only crew member!
Do you want to rethink the way you work? Is your to-do list threatening to sink you? These resources may help you start the thinking process.
Download your personal “Not to do” list and Energy vs Value Quadrant sheet here.
