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Gartner Research Quick Answer:How Should CSOsRespond to TariffVolatility? Robert Blaisdell, Daniel Hawkyard, Steve Rietberg, Doug Bushée 21 February 2025 Quick Answer: How Should CSOs Respond to TariffVolatility? 21 February 2025- ID G00827967- 7 min readBy: Robert Blaisdell, Daniel Hawkyard, Steve Rietberg, Doug BushéeInitiatives:CSO Effectiveness Chief sales officers have concerns about how new or potentialtariffs under the Trump administration will impact sales strategy,go-to-market approach and business continuity. CSOs shouldprepare by partnering with key executives to evaluate potentialactions and scenario plan. More on This Topic This is part of an in-depth collection of research. See the collection: Tariff Volatility: How Executive Leaders Can Seize the Shift■ Quick Answer How should chief sales officers (CSOs) respond to the Trump administration’sapproach to tariffs? Sync with your CEO, chief supply chain officer (CSCO) and chief financial officer(CFO) to delineate between the anticipation of changes and the need to respondto a near-term, impending change.■Execute an agile sales strategy by providing operational transparency to partnersand customers, and training to sellers and sales leaders.■Work with the core group of executives to create scenario plans assumingcontinued uncertainty.■ More Detail Worldwide Google searches for “tariffs” hit a 20-year peak in February 2025. Our CSOclients are raising concerns about how new and potential tariffs under the Trumpadministration will impact sales strategy, customer engagement and business continuity. The recent approach by the Trump administration is different from recent administrations’in three ways: Tariffs are being used as a foreign policy/national security lever.■Potential unilateral tariffs are large in size and scale.■Tariffs are being used as a highly publicized negotiation tool that divides publicreactions.■ Clients across the C-suite are coming to Gartner with concerns that current tariff volatilitywill persist for years, rather than months. They understand that businesses cannot emergesuccessfully by staying the same as they are today. The C-suite can take both offensiveand defensive measures to leverage potential changes to tariff policies. Figure 1 shows a framework that CSOs can use as they think through any new tariffannouncements and delineate among proposed, brand-new and near-term/impendingchanges. Figure 1 highlights that evaluation and initial response should occur up to thepeak of uncertainty, and postpeak actions call for strengthening. Depending on the impactof the tariff, the actions should be chosen based on the goal outcome on the right, suchas reinvigorate or rebalance. Given the tariff volatility and the uncertainty it brings, CSOscan use this framework to think through any new tariff announcements, as there are likelyto be multiple iterations as tariffs come and go. Figure 1: Tariff Planning Framework CSOs must help focus and strengthen their sales organization’s response to near-termvolatility, while also planning for future impact on their own organization and on globalcustomers. Sync With Key Executives to Assess and Respond CSOs should collaborate closely with the CEO, CFO, CSCO and other key executives to gainalignment and a holistic perspective of the organization in a volatile tariff environment.The primary goal of this collaboration is to assess the impact of tariffs on theorganization and to implement a coordinated, cross-functional strategy for the near termwhile anticipating new changes. Tariffs can be temporary and difficult to predict, so astrategic shift in any business direction must be based on a rigorous, data-driven analysis. Work to understand how the organization as a whole, as well as specific functions, willrespond to these changes. As the CSO, representing the voice of the market is animportant value to provide other executives when making important decisions. CSOsshould work with key executives to: Identify specific tariff challenges:Begin by determining which regions, products andservices are impacted by tariffs, and then assess the probability and extent of theimpact on each area. This will help prioritize the organizational response, ensuringthat the most critical issues are addressed effectively.■ Evaluate supply chain impacts:Analyze vulnerabilities related to supply constraints,potential disruptions, cost increases, customer pricing adjustments and overallcompetitiveness.■ Deploy existing risk assessments:Build on current enterprise risk evaluations orinitiate a tabletop risk management exercise to address the organization’s exposureto current or anticipated tariffs. These should cover product, geographic andfinancial risk.■ Create flexible tiered pricing models:Collaborate with the CFO and finance team tocreate flexible pricing models that can be swiftly adjusted in response to tarifffluctuations. This could involve implementing dynamic or value-based pricingapproach