Chief sales officers are under pressure. Less than 50% of CSOs report their organization surpassed its 2024 strategic goals, according to Gartner research. In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, many CSOs are struggling to adjust their strategy to cope with the unexpected changes they face: 66% of CSOs say they struggle to adapt their strategic plans to sudden change. As CSOs look ahead to the second half of the year, there are three strategy shifts they should consider to meet their 2025 goals:
Shift 1: Align Sales and Marketing
According to Gartner research, 49% of CSOs say their sales organization’s definition of a qualified lead differs greatly from marketing’s definition. Fostering alignment between sales and marketing is vital for driving revenue growth, and misalignment can create dysfunction that can slow down progress. Too often, sales and marketing have conflicting priorities and goals that are not fully aligned. In order to improve alignment between the two functions, CSOs should:
Share priorities and objectives with their marketing counterpart. Examples of shared priorities could include driving current customer growth versus new customer acquisition, updating the ideal customer profile, or revising the customer segmentation and tiering approach.
Create one or two shared KPIs beyond just revenue to demonstrate alignment, such as a specific percentage of growth from current vs. new customers, product portfolio penetration at a market, territory, or customer level, or set specific pipeline goals at certain stages of the sales funnel.
Shift 2: Reskill Sellers to Meet Future Goals
Seventy-four percent of CSOs report a need for significant change in required seller skills to meet future revenue goals, according to Gartner research. Technology is driving this need: CSOs state that 58% of their sellers, on average, will need to be reskilled or upskilled by 2026 due to AI.
As buyers increasingly adopt generative and other forms of AI, sales teams need to develop the skills necessary to effectively interact with these tech-savvy customers. This requires incorporating AI into current sales processes to boost seller productivity. By aligning their teams’ skill sets with the changing market demands, leaders can ensure their organizations stay competitive and responsive to buyer preferences.
CSOs should build a two-year roadmap to reskill or upskill their sellers in response to AI impact and changing buyer preferences.
Shift 3: Leverage Technology
Almost half (44%) of CSOs report that incorporating an AI strategy for engaging buyers and sellers is key for creating future value. While AI is recognized as essential for boosting sales productivity, sales leaders frequently encounter obstacles due to their limited authority in choosing and implementing AI solutions within their organizations. Only 23% of CSOs are responsible for AI selection, whereas 68% only offer input or are kept informed about AI decisions.
In order to increase their influence over AI selection, CSOs must develop a strong point of view of AI’s potential impact on sales productivity. Then, they should monitor the use and impact of GenAI in buyer purchase decision making.
To succeed in today’s competitive sales landscape, CSOs must not only adopt AI but also strategically incorporate it into their workflows. This ensures that technology investments are deliberately aligned with organizational goals and adaptable to changing buyer behaviors.
