Most Revenue Leaders Are Looking Through the Wrong Lens

 

In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, revenue leaders—Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), sales VPs, and growth executives—often find themselves buried in a sea of internal data. They pore over dashboards, tweak forecasts, and chase metrics like pipeline velocity or quota attainment. It’s a familiar playbook: optimize the machine, fine-tune the process, hit the numbers. But what if the playbook itself is outdated? What if the lens they’re using to view revenue is fundamentally misaligned with reality?

 

The best CROs don’t just play the internal game better—they rewrite the rules. They shift their gaze outward, seeing revenue not as a product of their own systems, but as a reflection of their customers’ world. This subtle yet seismic shift is what separates the good from the great, and it’s a mindset Matt Slonaker, our CRO at M. Allen, unpacks with precision on a recent episode of the Growth in Action podcast. His insights aren’t just thought-provoking—they’re a wake-up call for any revenue leader ready to rethink how they drive growth.

 

Customer Insights Trump Gut Feel

 

For too long, revenue strategies have been guided by intuition—“gut feel”—and a relentless focus on what’s happening inside the organization. How many deals are in the pipeline? What’s the close rate? Are reps hitting their activity targets? These questions aren’t irrelevant, but they’re incomplete. The real question, Slonaker argues, is this: *What’s driving the customer’s decision?*

 

Top CROs don’t guess. They dig into customer insights—data, feedback, behavior patterns—to understand what buyers actually value, what stalls their decisions, and what moves the needle. It’s not about what *feels* right to the sales team; it’s about what *is* right for the customer. This shift from instinct to evidence isn’t just smarter—it’s more profitable. Companies that prioritize customer-driven insights consistently outperform those stuck in the echo chamber of their own metrics.

 

Aligning Teams Around Buyer Signals

 

Internal alignment is a buzzword in revenue circles, but too often it’s about getting sales, marketing, and product teams to agree on *internal* goals. Slonaker flips this on its head: true alignment isn’t about syncing up your departments—it’s about syncing everyone to the buyer’s reality. When teams rally around real buyer signals—not just CRM data or quarterly targets—they stop working in silos and start working toward what matters.

 

Imagine a sales team that knows not just “who” their prospects are, but “why” they’re hesitating. Picture a marketing team crafting campaigns based on live customer pain points, not recycled personas. That’s the power of an outward lens: it turns fragmented efforts into a unified front, all laser-focused on solving the customer’s problem. The result? Shorter sales cycles, higher win rates, and happier customers who feel understood.

 

AI: The Unfair Advantage

 

Here’s where the game changes entirely: artificial intelligence. Slonaker highlights how AI is reshaping the revenue landscape by giving sales teams an edge that’s almost unfair. Forget clunky spreadsheets or endless manual research—AI can sift through vast amounts of customer data, spot trends, and surface actionable insights in real time. It’s like having a superpower that lets you see through the customer’s lens with crystal clarity.

 

For example, AI can analyze a prospect’s behavior—everything from their engagement with your content to their hesitations in past deals—and predict what they’ll respond to next. It can flag when a buyer’s ready to move or when they’re at risk of churning, often before the human eye catches it. This isn’t just efficiency; it’s precision. Sales teams armed with AI don’t just sell harder—they sell smarter, meeting customers exactly where they are with exactly what they need.

 

Selling the Way Customers Want to Buy

 

At its core, Slonaker’s message is simple yet radical: stop forcing customers to fit your sales process, and start building a revenue engine that fits “them”. The old lens—internal, metric-obsessed, gut-driven—might get you results, but it won’t unlock transformational growth. The new lens—customer-centric, insight-led, AI-powered—does.

 

This isn’t theoretical. It’s practical, actionable, and already working for the best in the game. If you’re a revenue leader who’s tired of chasing dashboards and ready to lead with clarity, Slonaker’s *Growth in Action* episode is a must-listen. It’s not just a podcast—it’s a blueprint for selling the way customers actually want to buy. Tune in, shift your lens, and watch your revenue follow.

 

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Want to hear more? Check out Matt Slonaker’s full breakdown on the “Growth in Action” podcast—because the future of revenue isn’t about looking inward; it’s about looking out.