How to Build a Legendary Revenue Career

A revenue career is one of the most sought after careers in America right now – but what is it? And how do you define a revenue career exactly?

Put simply, a revenue career is a career dedicated to the revenue process. 

You can think of it like a “marketing career” or “sales career” where people are committed to the discipline of selling and marketing goods or services.

A revenue career is more than hitting numbers (though that is certainly part of it). Someone with a revenue career understands that revenue is not just an outcome — it’s the most important business process inside every organization. 

Anyone committed to stopping revenue leak and achieving revenue precision has a revenue career. As a refresher:

• Revenue Leak: The loss of revenue due to breakdowns in the revenue process.
• Revenue Precision: The full, predictable, and repeatable capture of revenue.

These aren’t just the most valuable employees in any organization; they’re quickly becoming the most sought after. 

Now is the best time to build your revenue career. 

CNBC recently published that Revenue Operations is the #1 fast-growing job in the United States. 

Investors and executives are realizing that achieving revenue precision takes more than technology; it also requires the world’s best talent. And a lot more of it. 

As the creator of revenue operations, this is incredibly rewarding to see. Clari isn’t just providing the platform to run revenue, but creating real opportunities for people to build an impactful and meaningful career.  

Examples of revenue careers

By now you might be wondering, Do I have a revenue career?

If you’re helping your org run revenue like a process, stopping revenue leak, or achieving revenue precision, then the answer is YES! 

Take a moment to congratulate yourself. You have one of the most rewarding and lucrative careers on the planet. I love it; it’s what motivates me every single day. 

Folks with revenue careers carry many titles and responsibilities, but in case it’s helpful, here are some of the most common:

• Chief Revenue Officer (CRO): responsible for overarching revenue management strategy.
• Revenue & Sales Ops: responsible for revenue strategy, execution, and measuring success.
• Sales leadership: responsible for sales strategy and revenue capture. 
• Individual contributors (Sales, CS, SDRs): responsible for converting value into pipeline and revenue.
• Finance (including deal desk): responsible for the company’s finances, making key investment and planning decisions based on revenue projections and actuals.
• Marketing: responsible for creating and capturing demand and converting it into revenue.   

Now, how do you build a legendary revenue career? 

It depends on your ability to bring new ideas that shape how others think about their business. 

This is how you get labeled as a “strategic thinker” — which really means that you’re able to grow the business using new “thought patterns”. Put another way, they apply new thinking to business problems to get outputs with high-impact business results. 

To accomplish this, you must move from reactive to proactive. 

An example:

Reactive: Waiting to be told to chase down a report that answers a question someone else is asking. 

Proactive: Guiding the conversation by asking — and ideally, answering — the right questions that challenge and guide your company’s strategy. 

Even more simply:

Reactive: Let me get that for you.

Proactive: Let me tell you what we should be asking….

When I think about the rising stars at Clari, they’re the people who are doing three things incredibly well:

1. They understand our business deeply and their impact on strategic initiatives.  
2. They are courageous enough to take big swings on new ideas.
3. They understand how to communicate their ideas and get buy-in.

That second bullet is incredibly important. Building a legendary revenue career takes courage because you’re intentionally disrupting the current state of your business.

As a recap, if you want to rise up in your revenue career, you need to bring new ideas that shape your company’s strategy and how executives think. And it probably goes without saying, but those ideas have to become reality and show results, too. 

To give you a kick start, here’s how to put today’s advice into practice:

1. Where are you currently being reactive? 
2. Where are opportunities to become more proactive?

Think through it, identify areas where you can add significant value, then act with conviction. 

That’s how you build a legendary revenue career. If you want to chat more about how you can grow your team and scale your business, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or request more info on getting started with Clari.