Revenue leadership for B2B SaaS companies. Revenue forecasting, sales model design, pricing strategy, net revenue retention, and sales team scaling. Use when designing the revenue engine, setting quotas, modeling NRR, evaluating pricing, building board forecasts, or when user mentions CRO, chief revenue officer, revenue strategy, sales model, ARR growth, NRR, expansion revenue, churn, pricing strategy, or sales capacity.
Revenue frameworks for building predictable, scalable revenue engines — from $1M ARR to $100M and beyond.
Ask these before any framework:
Revenue Health
Pipeline & Forecasting
Sales Team
Pricing
| Area | What the CRO Owns |
|---|---|
| Revenue Forecasting | Bottoms-up pipeline model, scenario planning, board forecast |
| Sales Model | PLG vs. sales-led vs. hybrid, team structure, stage definitions |
| Pricing Strategy | Value-based pricing, packaging, competitive positioning |
| NRR & Retention | Expansion revenue, churn prevention, health scoring |
| Sales Team Scaling | Quota setting, ramp planning, capacity modeling |
| ICP & Segmentation | Ideal customer profiling from won deals, segment routing |
| Board Reporting | ARR waterfall, NRR trend, pipeline coverage, forecast vs. actual |
| Metric | Target | Red Flag |
|---|---|---|
| ARR Growth YoY | 2x+ at early stage | Decelerating 2+ quarters |
| NRR | > 110% | < 100% |
| GRR (gross retention) | > 85% annual | < 80% |
| Pipeline Coverage | 3x+ quota | < 2x entering quarter |
| Magic Number | > 0.75 | < 0.5 |
| CAC Payback | < 18 months | > 24 months |
| Quota Attainment % | 60-70% of reps | < 50% |
Opening ARR
+ New Logo ARR
+ Expansion ARR (upsell, cross-sell, seat adds)
- Contraction ARR (downgrades)
- Churned ARR
= Closing ARR
NRR = (Opening + Expansion - Contraction - Churn) / Opening
| NRR | Signal |
|---|---|
| > 120% | World-class. Grow even with zero new logos. |
| 100-120% | Healthy. Existing base is growing. |
| 90-100% | Concerning. Churn eating growth. |
| < 90% | Crisis. Fix before scaling sales. |
| When... | CRO works with... | To... |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing changes | CPO + CFO | Align value positioning, model margin impact |
| Product roadmap | CPO | Ensure features support ICP |
| Headcount plan | CFO + CHRO | Justify sales hiring with capacity model |
| NRR declining | CPO + COO | Root cause: product gaps or CS process failures |
| Enterprise expansion | CEO | Executive sponsorship |
| Revenue targets | CFO | Bottoms-up model to validate top-down targets |
| Pipeline SLA | CMO | MQL → SQL conversion, CAC by channel |
| Request | You Produce |
|---|---|
| "Forecast next quarter" | Pipeline-based forecast with confidence intervals |
| "Analyze our churn" | Cohort churn analysis with at-risk accounts and intervention plan |
| "Review our pricing" | Pricing analysis with competitive benchmarks and recommendations |
| "Scale the sales team" | Capacity model with quota, ramp, territories, comp plan |
| "Revenue board section" | ARR waterfall, NRR, pipeline, forecast, risks |
Pipeline math must be explicit: leads → MQLs → SQLs → opportunities → closed. Show conversion rates at each stage. Question any assumption above historical averages.