How Do You Build Executive Alignment Around Customers?
You build executive alignment around customers by making customer value the shared North Star for strategy, investment, and metrics—then hardwiring that focus into governance, dashboards, and rituals so the C-suite leads with the customer, not the org chart.
Build executive alignment around customers by defining a clear customer value agenda, agreeing on a common set of customer and revenue metrics, and embedding those into planning, governance, and incentives. Use shared dashboards, regular customer-focused reviews, and external benchmarks to keep the leadership team anchored in customer outcomes, not functional KPIs.
What Matters for Executive Alignment Around Customers?
The Executive Alignment Around Customers Playbook
Use this sequence to move from customer-centric intent to executive alignment that shows up in strategy, funding, and day-to-day decisions.
Diagnose → Frame → Align → Instrument → Embed → Enable → Review
- Diagnose your current state: Assess how aligned your executives are today across customer vision, metrics, and governance. Tools like a Revenue Marketing Index can reveal gaps between aspiration and execution.
- Frame the customer value agenda: Define the customer segments and outcomes that matter most. Clarify where growth will come from: new customers, expansion, retention, or a mix.
- Align on shared metrics and dashboards: Collaboratively select a core set of customer, pipeline, and revenue metrics and visualize them in a shared dashboard, using guidance such as What Metrics Belong in a Revenue Marketing Dashboard?.
- Instrument executive governance: Bake customer metrics and stories into quarterly business reviews, investment cases, and board updates. Make it impossible to make big decisions without considering customer impact.
- Embed alignment into incentives: Update leadership scorecards and compensation so that hitting customer and revenue marketing goals is as important as hitting short-term sales targets.
- Enable leaders with playbooks & content: Give executives clear narratives, proof points, and customer stories they can use with teams and the board, informed by resources like The Revenue Marketing eGuide.
- Review, learn, and refine: Run periodic reviews to check whether executive behaviors, portfolio bets, and resource allocation still reflect your customer agenda, and adjust where drift appears.
Executive Customer Alignment Maturity Matrix
| Dimension | From (Fragmented) | To (Customer-Aligned) | Owner | Primary KPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vision & Strategy | Generic growth vision; customers mentioned but not central | Clear customer value agenda shapes strategy, markets, and bets | CEO / ELT | Customer-Centric Strategic Initiatives |
| Metrics & Dashboards | Every function has its own metrics and reports | Unified dashboards tie customer health and engagement to pipeline and revenue | CRO / RevOps | Adoption of Shared Dashboards |
| Governance & Decisions | Decisions made in silos; customer impact considered later | Cross-functional governance with customer impact as a required lens | COO / Strategy | Customer-Impact-Informed Decisions |
| Incentives & Performance | Comp plans driven by short-term bookings and cost control | Executive scorecards balance revenue, customer, and transformation metrics | CHRO / CFO | Share of Comp Tied to Customer Metrics |
| Customer Insight & Voice | VOC appears when there’s a problem | Systematic VOC programs and customer councils inform roadmap and strategy | CX / Product | Customer Insight Utilization in Decisions |
| Communication & Storytelling | Internal updates focus on internal activities | Executive narratives start with customer outcomes and proof points | CMO / Communications | Customer-Led Executive Communications |
Client Snapshot: Aligning the C-Suite Around Customer-Led Growth
A major B2B provider struggled with disconnected executive priorities: Sales chased near-term deals, Marketing focused on leads, and Product prioritized features by volume of requests. By reframing the conversation around customer value and revenue marketing, they implemented a shared dashboard guided by Execution & Playbooks: What Metrics Belong in a Revenue Marketing Dashboard? and used benchmarks similar to the Revenue Marketing Index. Drawing inspiration from transformations like Transforming Lead Management: How Comcast Business Optimized Marketing Automation and Drove $1B in Revenue, the executive team shifted funding, goals, and governance to support customer-led growth, resulting in tighter alignment and more predictable revenue.
Executive alignment around customers is not a slogan—it’s a system. When your C-suite shares one customer value agenda, one metric framework, and one story about how you win, you create the conditions for durable, scalable growth.
Frequently Asked Questions about Executive Alignment Around Customers
Turn Customer-Centricity into Executive Alignment
We’ll help your leadership team agree on the customer agenda, the right revenue marketing metrics, and the dashboards and governance to sustain alignment.
Schedule Your Revenue Marketing Assessment Define Your Strategy