Doctors and Chief Revenue Officers (CRO) have a lot in common. These BIG 3 things in common determine if the patient or the company get better or expire.
Big 1 – They can’t do it all by themselves, both doctors and CROs depend on science and their team.
Doctors have hundreds of years of medical science, various specialties, technicians, procedures, advanced and basic technology, principles they live by and a hospital full of people who speak the same language, follow the same process and believe in the same patient focus. No matter how good any one doctor is they are so much better with an aligned team, a great organization, proven process and ways to measure success for today and the long-term.
CROs bring “Revenue Science™” that is deployed through every single person in their organization. No person in a company is without a role in “Revenue Generation”. Every person in the “Revenue Generation” process enhances or inhibits every other person and the required outcomes. The CRO’s job is to help the organization create a Revenue Strategy that everyone aligns with making everyone else better at compelling and delighting customers. Like in the medical community no one person can achieve the organization’s client focused mission for today let alone the long-term
Big 2 – They are best when they don’t pretend to know it all. No two patients, customers or situations are the same.
Doctors are confronted by new strains of virus, combinations of medications, experimental procedures, legal restrictions and beliefs. The age, sex, health, genes and mental condition of every patient is different impacting the current condition and the possible treatment. No matter what the Doctor knows they don’t know it all, so the more open they are to input and the more likely they arrive at the best option.
CROs have their own organizations history, dreams, structure (official and unofficial). Then the CRO has all the people with individual goals, beliefs, dreams, problems and state of health. All of this is before the CRO starts to think about the Revenue Resources available, technology, market conditions, different current and past customers plus all those that might be customers or partners. Every day this combination along with global issues, politics, and changes in the banking world change every question that should be asked and every answer that may be presented. The best CRO is the one who is willing to listen, learn, challenge, clarify and start all that over again. NO customer wants to do business with someone who used to be good. EVERY customer wants to do business with someone who is good today and will be better tomorrow at helping the customer with all the crazy stuff going on in the world.
Big 3 – Success is the result of either good luck or good listening and diagnosing.
Doctors can’t do it all themselves. When they pretend to know it all they aren’t creditable and are dangerous for the patient. They have two very different options. The first is do everything yourself, blame others for not doing their work right since you knew exactly what to do and did it (it might even be the patients fault for not coming early enough). The second is listen, learn, clarify and work with the medical team and patient to arrive at the strategy with the greatest probability of being deployed in this organization with this team to achieve the best outcome.
CROs, like the doctors, can’t do it all themselves, they can’t know it all and like the doctor their short-term actions can result in life or death. Unlike the doctor the CRO is impacting not just the patient but the dozens, hundreds or thousands of lives connected to the company and the company life can go for decades or even hundreds of years. Even more than the doctor the CRO must rely on a combination of diagnostic skills and facilitation. The CRO must lead their organization and partners to a place where they survive and then grow stronger and stronger over time. The CRO must first know where NOT to go, then where to go that is most likely to result in survival while bringing the organization, partners and customers along the same path.
Doctors and CROs must apply their various sciences to their missions (patients, companies, customers or partners) by bringing everything available in an aligned way to avoid chaos, myth and silo thinking to achieve at least survival. The application of the science must be accompanied by the skills of a great facilitator who makes everyone else part of the aligned deployment that grows every day.
These two professionals have a lot in common and are guided by the Big 3.