RevRev Ep. 9 – Mike Weir
Understanding your organization’s purpose, seeking to understand the career goals of your team members, and taking leaps of faith to advance your career. In this episode of Revenue Revolutionaries, I sit down with G2 CRO, Mike Weir, to discuss all of these topics and more. I walked away from the conversation with a set of incredibly valuable insights and perspectives that I believe can help every leader grow and improve.
Episode Key Takeaways
1. Bring in outside talent to create learning opportunities for your team – During his time at Linkedin Mike learned the importance of helping create the right career trajectory for team members. He uses the strategy of bringing outside talent (i.e. industry thought leaders) into team development to create space for team members to engage outside of their day job. He believes in the power of learning from others and believes it’s key to personal and career development. He encourages the idea of thinking differently and taking intelligent risks.
2. The CRO role can be a lot more than building and closing pipeline – For Mike, his role as the G2 CRO goes beyond managing pipeline and closing deals. Mike stresses the importance of keeping a finger on the pulse of the market by staying close to customers, reading, participating in events, and seeking discussions. Mike proactively puts himself in situations to consistently be a part of the conversations taking place in the market to learn and understand what people are talking about and doing. This approach has put him in a strong position to cast a vision for the organization to ensure the team understands the task at hand.
3. Understand your purpose to bring your customers into a ‘value exchange’ – According to Mike, you have to know your place in the market and aim to understand why your buyers are using your products and services to deliver business impact. Ask the question, “how can you help buyers understand the value you deliver to the market?” Mike describes the idea of a ‘value exchange’ as a way to keep perspective on the power of positioning your products and services in a way that considers the true needs of a customer. This should be an ongoing exercise at the individual customer level.
4. Develop team members through their career goals and ambitions – Mike explains the importance of leaders understanding the career goals of their team members. It is only after having an understanding can a leader ensure the team member is having the right experience with an organization to prepare them for the future. Create a career journey for your team members to ensure they get the most out of their experience with your organization. Think about ‘stretch projects and experiences’ that can help shape an individual and prepare them for future roles.
5. Chief Growth Officers (CGOs) will become more common in the future – Mike and I talk about the future of the CRO role and Mike predicts we will see more Chief Growth Officers (CGOs). This evolution will happen as organizations strive to create a more unified go-to-market strategy to ensure CRO, CMO, and CPO alignment. Building a shared cross-functional ‘roadmap’ will become more necessary to put the business in the best position to pay off the vision of the company.
6. Cross-functional career shifts can take you to new heights – One of the most revolutionary moves that Mike made in his career was to shift from Marketing leadership to Sales leadership. Jumping over the fence to Sales created an opportunity for Mike to help the Sales team to understand how Marketing thinks and works. He believes this transition is a big reason for being able to drive stronger relationships early in the lifecycle with customers.