Kyle Norton here. I’m CRO at Owner.com and Host of the new Topline show, the Revenue Leadership Podcast. I’m guest writing this week’s newsletter and wanted to discuss a topic that comes up consistently at Pavilion dinners and in my private conversations with revenue leaders.
I hear things like: “How do I get my CEO to appreciate my insight on the market? How do I influence my executive team better? Why doesn’t anyone listen to me???”
If you want to influence company strategy and product direction and be considered a valued member of the executive team, delivering your number isn’t enough. To have true C-suite influence, you must transition from solely managing a sales team to operating as an executive.
This shift means thinking beyond monthly and quarterly new booking targets and focusing on the holistic health of your business and the enterprise value of the company. It’s not about titles or scope, either. You can be highly influential as a VP/Head of Sales.
Let’s discuss the cost of failing to influence as a revenue leader, where things go wrong, and how we can be seen as executives and influence accordingly.
The Cost of Failing to Influence as an Executive
Early in my career, I learned this lesson the hard way. As a first-time VP of Sales, I was laser-focused on hitting revenue numbers and thought about the business through a very narrow, new revenue-oriented aperture. I failed to influence the CEO at several critical moments, and the result was disastrous for the company and for me. I thought the CEO was blind to my perspective, but in reality, I lacked the trust and credibility to be taken seriously, and I failed to communicate the broader business impact of my recommendations and affect change.
We’ve all been there, unfortunately. It’s easy and comforting to cast blame outwards and criticize the CEO for not being able to see what you believe is obvious. However, I would encourage leaders in similar situations to take an extreme ownership mindset and consider what we could do better. It won’t always work, but on balance, this approach will put you ahead in the long term.
For this newsletter, I will assume you’re making good recommendations. Obviously, that is not always the case, but decision-making and judgment are topics for another time.
What’s Going Wrong: Lack of Trust
If you’re unable to influence as a revenue leader, the problem often boils down to one core issue: lack of trust. As Patrick Lencioni outlines in “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” trust is the foundation of any successful leadership team. Without trust, you can't have the healthy conflict to resolve tough decisions and without that conflict, you can’t change minds.
When your CEO or peers don’t see you putting the company’s needs above your own, you lose credibility. They may question whether you’re thinking strategically or just focused on your own compensation, pipeline, and team metrics. This isn’t to say those things aren’t important—they are—but executives need to put the business first.
How Can We Influence as Executives?
In my mind, there are two major building blocks to influence an executive team. One is credibility and the other is your approach to persuasion. Without sufficient credibility and trust built with your teammates, there aren’t enough persuasion tactics in the world to be effective. If you have done the work to build up credibility as a decision maker in your business, then and only then, you can apply the right approach to change hearts and minds.
Building Credibility
1. Put the company goals ahead of your own
You will never have credibility until you can demonstrate to your executive team partners that you can put the needs of the business above the needs of your team and your own. This is one of the biggest frustrations that I hear from the founders that I work with. One of the earliest decisions I made at Owner (when I owned only sales) was to significantly change our deal quality requirements.
This led to an immediate 40% reduction in closed won opportunities and an uncomfortable board conversation that you can hear about in this cilp from my conversation with Jason Lemkin. But it proved to be the right thing for the company, and it gave me immediate credibility with the executive team.
2. Learn to read a P&L
If you want to be taken seriously as a decision-maker, you need to understand how the entire machine operates. Learning to interpret financial statements and unpack a growth model are critical parts of an executive's toolkit. Pavilion has a few amazing courses here (Revenue Architecture School, CRO School, etc) that I strongly recommend leaders take to understand the bigger picture. If you can be a better steward of capital, you’ll be trusted to take on more.
3. Speak with less certainty
I know that sounds counterintuitive, so let me explain. Coming from the sales world, we’re programmed to speak to prospects with confidence and certainty but it does you a disservice when influencing internally. The credibility impact of being wrong is far greater when you've spoken with absolute conviction.There’s a great quote from Elon Musk in Isaacson’s biography of him; “It’s OK to be wrong. Just don’t be confident and wrong.” Life and business are probabilistic (read Annie Duke’s book to unpack) so speaking in probabilities instead of absolutes is a more accurate way of describing the world.
An Approach to Influence
So now that we’ve built credibility, how do you actually get things done internally? Here are three ideas you can leverage to move the organization.
1. Avoid triggering psychological reactance
One of the most important theories when it comes to influence is psychological reactance — the automatic resistance people have when they feel they’re being pressured or their freedom of choice is being threatened. If you try to persuade your peers through passionate appeals and combative arguments, you’ll likely hit a wall by activating a motivational state that is aimed at reclaiming freedom. This is why kids do the opposite of what you instruct them to do and we don’t really grow out of that.
Instead, take an indirect approach. Avoid framing discussions as “my way” vs “your way”. Seek insights from your peers, not agreement. People will feel more ownership over an idea if they think they’ve come to the conclusion themselves.
2. Socialize ideas in low-stakes settings
Avoid presenting big ideas in large meetings. Socialize them with key stakeholders in a low-stakes settings, one on one. This way you can let your teammates understand your proposal without the pressure of reacting in front of an audience. This approach reduces reactance, enables you to understand concerns, and allows you to gather valuable feedback, making your recommendations stronger and more aligned with the company's objectives.It’s a subtle but powerful way to build consensus without making others feel pressured.
3. Speak with data (beyond just new ARR)
Executives respect data-driven insights that are objective. Instead of arguing for what you think is the right path, frame your recommendations in a way that’s supported by data and presented probabilistically. It’s about showing that you’ve done your homework and are thinking strategically.
For example, when I began speaking about the total P&L impact of ideas and how strategy would flow all the way through to churn and renewal, my influence within the company grew. You can set yourself apart by shifting the conversation beyond just revenue, focusing on profitability, unit economics, and the long-term impact on the business.
Wrapping Up
Operating as a revenue executive in SaaS is about more than hitting quarterly targets. It’s about thinking holistically, building credibility over time, and influencing the long-term direction of the company. The key is shifting your focus from team-first thinking to company-first decision-making, and learning how to influence others through socializing ideas, speaking with data, and avoiding psychological reactance.
Kyle Norton CRO, Owner.com
Host of The Revenue Leadership Podcast and Guest Editor of Topline newsletter
If you enjoyed this editorial and want more insights, subscribe to The Revenue Leadership Podcast on all major platforms. Every Wednesday, I host top revenue leaders who share actionable frameworks and tactics. We dive deep for over an hour on a specific topic, delivering key lessons from the most successful companies—no fluff, no sales pitches.
“At the department level, the average number of SaaS apps used by each team grew by 14% to an average of 73 SaaS apps between 2022 to 2023. This is a notable change from the 2021 to 2022 numbers, which came in at 41% average growth and 64 apps respectively.”
Despite all the talk of tech stack bloat and consolidation, the average number of SaaS apps per department grew in 2023. This explains the rising demand for multi-product companies like Rippling because managing 73 different vendors per team isn’t sustainable.
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Thank you! I look forward to future episodes and the continued emergence of the Topline Media Empire!"
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Pavilion and Crossbeam are surveying leading GTM professionals for part two of The Future of Revenue report, aiming to uncover the key strategies driving growth in 2024.
