As challenges arise, chief sales officers (CSOs) are often trapped between their desire to take action and the fear of hurting revenue growth. In this episode, Gartner Sales Podcast host, Betsy Gregory-Hosler, interviews Gartner expert and former chief revenue officer (CRO), Brendan Condon, to discuss the changes that CSOs can confidently make in 2025.

Brendan Condon is a senior director analyst within Gartner’s CSO Strategy team covering go-to-market (GTM) strategy and CSO effectiveness. Prior to coming to Gartner, Brendan served as the global chief revenue officer of the martech firm, GDS Group. Previously, he was the CRO of Captify — the world’s leading independent provider of search intelligence for global marketers and their advertising agencies. In this role, Brendan took the company to new heights of sustainable and profitable revenue, resulting in a successful sale to a private equity (PE) firm. Prior to that, Brendan was the chief revenue officer for Comcast Advertising (Effectv). He was recruited to streamline and oversee $2.5 billion in advertising revenue streams across national, regional and local agencies and clients (>25K) covering cross-screen, addressable, audience-based, linear TV and digital video solutions. Prior leadership roles include the CEO of an advanced TV ad network and a fulfilling career holding numerous positions across Time Inc., Time Warner and AOL.

In this episode, we explore the Gartner Leadership Visions for 2025, highlighting recommendations tailored to chief sales officers, sales enablement leaders and sales operations leaders. Gartner experts Robert Blaisdell, Tyler Huguley and Shayne Jackson guide us through the trends, challenges and priorities for each sales leadership role.

Robert Blaisdell is a vice president, analyst and chief of research in the Gartner Sales Research and Advisory practice. He covers all aspects of sales but with a primary focus on current customer management and growth via account planning best practices and strategic key account management.

Tyler Huguley is a senior director, analyst in Gartner’s Sales practice. Tyler has 15 years of experience in sales and sale operations in the media, automotive and consumer goods (B2B) industries. He also has three years of experience practicing law in private practice and in-house with Cox Enterprises.

Shayne Jackson is a senior director, analyst in Gartner’s Sales practice. Shayne covers enablement and talent management, advising and producing research for chief sales officers and sales enablement leaders. His extensive global experience leverages a programmatic approach to learning, content and tools that elevate sales teams’ effectiveness.

Sales development is an essential function for addressing pipeline challenges and driving business growth. However, CSOs are struggling to evolve the function and maximize SDRs’ impact on revenue. Gartner expert Shiela Rahimian joins the podcast to discuss the best practices sales leaders should consider when assessing and optimizing their sales development function, and how to measure that function’s impact.

Shiela Rahimian is a Director Analyst in the Gartner for Sales Practice, where she covers all aspects of sales execution with an emphasis on pipeline generation and development, optimizing inside sales roles, launching key account programs, account planning, evolving sales processes, methodologies and playbooks within sales enablement functions. As a former Director of Sales Enablement and Sales Consultant, Mrs. Rahimian provides sales leaders with practical guidance on how to improve performance and results.