Chief growth officer: the role and the first 90 days
Updated By the SalesOne research team8 min read
The short answer
A chief growth officer owns how a firm wins new clients and grows existing ones, across marketing, business development and client programs. In a partner-led professional services firm, the role does not replace partners as sellers; it decides which clients to pursue, prepares partners for each conversation and measures what turns into work.
What does a chief growth officer do?
A chief growth officer (CGO) is the executive accountable for revenue growth from new and existing clients. The title brings together work that used to sit in separate places: marketing, business development, proposals, client programs and sometimes pricing.
- Decide which markets, sectors and clients the firm pursues, and which it does not.
- Build the list of target clients and the reason to approach each one now.
- Prepare partners for conversations: the client’s situation, who decides, a point of view.
- Run key-client programs that grow work with the firm’s best clients.
- Own the pipeline report and the win rate on proposals.
- Align marketing, proposals and partner time behind the same targets.
Chief growth officer vs CMO vs CRO
| Role | Usually owns | Common in |
|---|---|---|
| Chief marketing officer | Brand, content, events, demand | Firms with a strong brand engine |
| Chief revenue officer | The sales team, the forecast, quota | Firms with salaried sellers |
| Chief growth officer | Which clients to win and grow, and how partners spend their selling time | Partner-led firms where partners sell |
In a product company the CRO carries a number through a sales team. In a partner-led firm there is often no sales team: partners win the work. The CGO’s job is to make partner time count.
Why do professional services firms hire a chief growth officer?
Most firms create the role at a turning point, when growth from referrals and long relationships is no longer enough for the plan.
- A private equity or outside investor arrives with a growth target.
- A founding partner retires and their relationships need new owners.
- Two firms merge and need to sell each other’s services to the combined client base.
- The firm launches a new practice that needs clients it has never served.
- A new managing partner wants growth to depend on more than a few rainmakers.
Each of these is also a reason the CGO needs new client conversations quickly, which is why the first 90 days matter.
A chief growth officer’s first 90 days
| Phase | Focus | What you show at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 30 | Meet every partner; read the last two years of wins and lost proposals; list where work came from; meet five clients | Where growth really comes from today, and how concentrated it is |
| Days 31 to 60 | Pick two or three sectors; agree the client profile for each; build a target list with a reason to approach each firm now; agree which partner owns each | A target list partners have signed up to |
| Days 61 to 90 | Brief partners before each approach; start conversations; run a monthly growth review; report proposals and wins by source | New client conversations under way, and a reporting rhythm partners trust |
How should a CGO measure growth?
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| New client conversations with people who decide | Whether outreach reaches the right level |
| Proposals from target clients, not just inbound requests | Whether the firm chooses its work |
| Proposal win rate | Whether the firm is in the conversation early enough |
| Share of revenue from the top 10 clients | Whether growth reduces risk |
| Partner hours on client development | Whether the plan has real time behind it |
For context on concentration, see customer concentration risk; for proposals, see sales win rate.
What makes a chief growth officer fail?
- Running marketing campaigns while partners keep chasing their own leads.
- Building a target list partners did not agree to.
- Measuring activity (events, posts, emails) instead of client conversations and proposals.
- Trying to grow in every sector at once.
- Asking partners to do research they never have time for.
How SalesOne helps a chief growth officer
S1 agents do the client research a growth team never has time for. They find companies in your chosen sectors with a dated reason to need your firm now (a new plant, a leadership change, a merger), map who decides and draft a point of view for the partner who owns the relationship. A person approves every message, and every approval is recorded with who gave it. See SalesOne for professional services.