In this conversation, Richard Ellis interviews Justin Barney, the CRO of Thousand Eyes, a Cisco company, about building a CRO career path. Justin shares his journey from Wall Street to technology and his passion for sales. He highlights the skills and traits that make a great CRO, including understanding the product and technology, being an active and transparent communicator, and knowing the numbers and metrics. Justin emphasizes the importance of customer success and collaboration with marketing and product leaders. He also provides practical tips for managing up and delighting the CEO. 
 
Chapters
 
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:32 Early Career Journey and Transition to Sales
03:20 Skills and Traits for a Great CRO
07:34 Practical Tips for Career Progression
8:10 Operational Rigor and Metrics for Success
09:00 ICP = Ideal Candidate Profile
09:23 Focus on Comp Plans
09:52 Measure the Key Metrics
11:20 Keep Up with Sales Tools
12:00 Plan to Make Mistakes
13:00 Learning a Process Focus
15:00 Partnering with Product and Marketing
19:00 Managing Up and Delighting the CEO
22:00 Recommended Book: The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon
 
Keywords
CRO career path, sales leadership, operational rigor, operating cadence, technology, product market fit, collaboration, managing up
 
Soundbites

"I started to make my customers successful. I got a tremendous amount of joy out of it."
"Understanding the product and technology is essential for a CRO to validate the team and build trust with customers."
"You have to know the numbers and you have to be good with metrics as well."
"My two best partners are the head of product and the head of marketing."
"People is where it starts and ends."

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