Revenue Executive Officer study plan
Revenue Executive Officer · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Revenue Strategy and Business Model Design
Build a one-page model of five revenue architectures (subscription, usage-based, transaction fee, licensing, hybrid) and state for each the margin logic, cash-flow timing, and the customer segment it fits.
Diagnose three public companies' 10-K revenue disclosures to identify where their monetization model creates expansion revenue versus one-time revenue.
Map your own organization's (or a case company's) revenue streams onto a value-capture canvas showing value created, value delivered, and value captured.
Draft the decision criteria you would use to choose between a usage-based and a seat-based model for a mid-market SaaS product.
Your checkpoint
A 2-page revenue model comparison memo with a decision matrix scoring at least four architectures against margin, predictability, and expansion potential.
Revenue Strategy and Business Model Design & Pricing, Packaging, and Monetization
Connect the business model chosen in week 1 to a packaging structure by defining three tiers, the value metric each tier meters, and the feature fences between them.
Calculate unit economics (CAC payback, gross margin per segment, LTV:CAC) for two packaging scenarios and identify which breaks under a 20% price cut.
Explain how price positioning signals segment fit and where a low entry tier cannibalizes enterprise deals.
Identify three monetization levers (overage, add-ons, platform fees) and quantify the revenue impact of each on a sample cohort of 100 accounts.
Your checkpoint
A packaging and pricing worksheet with three tiers, a named value metric per tier, and a unit-economics table showing CAC payback and LTV:CAC for two scenarios.
Pricing, Packaging, and Monetization
Design a price-increase playbook covering segmentation, grandfathering rules, notice period, sales talk tracks, and churn-mitigation triggers.
Evaluate discount governance: define approval thresholds, a deal-desk escalation path, and the metrics that reveal margin leakage.
Compare three price metrics (seats, usage, outcomes) on a scorecard of alignment to value, predictability, and ease of administration.
Model the revenue effect of moving 30% of the installed base from flat to usage-based pricing over four quarters.
Your checkpoint
A pricing change business case (3 pages) including the migration model, discount governance thresholds, and a risk register with mitigations.
Revenue Operations and Go-to-Market Alignment
Document the handoffs across marketing, sales, and customer success with entry and exit criteria for each stage of the funnel.
Define a single set of funnel stage definitions and conversion-rate KPIs that all three functions accept as the source of truth.
Diagnose three common GTM misalignments (lead scoring disputes, territory overlap, CS owning expansion) and prescribe a structural fix for each.
Draft a quarterly GTM operating cadence: which meeting reviews which metric, with owners and inputs.
Your checkpoint
A one-page GTM operating cadence plus a funnel-stage definitions table with owners, entry criteria, and target conversion rates.
Revenue Forecasting, Analytics, and KPIs
Build a bottom-up revenue forecast from pipeline coverage, stage conversion, average deal size, and sales-cycle length, then compare it to a top-down market-share estimate.
Calculate and interpret the core KPI set: ARR growth, net revenue retention, gross revenue retention, magic number, and pipeline coverage ratio.
Identify the leading versus lagging indicators in your KPI set and explain which ones you would act on inside a quarter.
Stress-test the forecast under three scenarios (base, downside, upside) and state the assumptions that drive the spread.
Your checkpoint
A forecast workbook with a bottom-up model, three scenarios, and a KPI dashboard definition listing formula, source system, owner, and review frequency for eight metrics.
Revenue Forecasting, Analytics, and KPIs & Sales Performance Management and Compensation
Design a compensation plan with a 60/40 or 70/30 split, quota-setting method, accelerators above 100% attainment, and a clawback clause for churn.
Evaluate how plan design changes behavior: compare a flat-rate plan against an accelerated plan on a sample rep's earnings curve at 80%, 100%, and 130% attainment.
Set quotas using a triangulation method (market potential, historical attainment distribution, bottom-up capacity) and document the assumptions.
Define the performance-management review rhythm: forecast call, pipeline inspection, and coaching cadence with the metrics each reviews.
Your checkpoint
A compensation plan design document with a worked earnings table at three attainment levels and a quota-setting methodology note.
Customer Retention, Expansion, and Lifecycle Revenue & Revenue Technology Stack and Data Governance
Build a customer lifecycle map identifying the leading indicators of churn at onboarding, adoption, and renewal stages, with an intervention for each.
Design an expansion playbook that sequences upsell, cross-sell, and usage-based growth by account health score.
Inventory the revenue tech stack (CRM, CPQ, billing, data warehouse, BI) and flag the integration gaps that corrupt revenue reporting.
Write data governance rules covering metric definitions, source-of-truth ownership, and change management for schema updates.
Your checkpoint
A lifecycle and expansion playbook plus a data governance one-pager listing five critical revenue metrics with their single source of truth and owner.
Leadership, Ethics, and Executive Communication
Assemble an executive-level revenue narrative that links strategy, pricing, forecast, and retention into a single board-ready story with three key messages.
Draft responses to two ethical dilemmas: a rep pressuring a customer into an unsuitable tier, and a forecast inflated by deals unlikely to close.
Practice delivering a 5-minute revenue review to a simulated executive audience, covering the headline, the risk, and the ask.
Build a 90-day post-exam action plan naming three changes you would make in your own organization.
Your checkpoint
A 5-slide executive revenue review deck plus a written ethics position statement and a 90-day action plan.
Milestones
Week 2: You can explain, without notes, why a given company's revenue model and packaging produce its margin and expansion profile, and your unit-economics table reconciles to within 10%.
Week 4: Your GTM cadence document is specific enough that a new hire could run each meeting from it, and every funnel stage has one named owner and one target conversion rate.
Week 6: Your forecast and compensation documents agree: quota totals derived from the bottom-up model fall within the plan's capacity assumptions, and you can defend the accelerator design with the earnings table.
Week 8: You can deliver the 5-minute revenue review from memory, answer two challenge questions on forecast risk, and articulate an ethics position that cites a specific policy or disclosure obligation.