RevOps Rockstars

One of the most important things with major projects in RevOps is to get stakeholders involved from the start. You need someone who is in the trenches, and who can credibly defend the reasons for doing the project to leadership.

For many companies, their systems teams often align closely with IT teams. For Invicti, their systems teams roll up into RevOps. For Chris, this means managing a team of generalists who cover data, business systems, revenue systems, and finance systems.

Utilizing automation for CS Ops can offer many advantages, but getting started can be confusing. Start is with your communication channels. Automation tools allow you to quickly customize outreach, allowing you to more frequently contact customers. 

When balancing in house and outsourced work, Chris considers the timeline of a project. Day-to-day fixes and projects under 2 weeks are perfect for internal teams. As projects approach longer timelines, those are ideal for outsourced help. 

While you may want to focus on 2 or 3 long term projects that are most valuable for the company, you need to find a balance. If you’re too narrowed in, you won't be able to focus on compliance, preventing tech debt, efficiency gains, and operational gains. 

When implementing new processes or changing systems, your work’s not done after implementation. Change management is people management, and you’ll need to continually work with people to keep them utilizing the system effectively. 

Your investors are a valuable operations asset. Operating partners work with numerous companies, and can quickly distill what works, and what doesn’t. As an additional layer of help, their operating teams may even have analysts to assist you. 

“For me, success is more about the journey than it is about the destination.” - Chris Glen

Maggie Astolfi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggieastolfi/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-glen-08a8851b/ 

Website: https://www.invicti.com/ 

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/08a4b302-d25e-4b7b-a11a-60e9b51df083/revops-rockstars 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-rockstars/id1654084702 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6ynGAP60cktaDs1Cb6Chxh 

YouTube - https://youtu.be/oJ7ATUJ4GAQ 

As a RevOps leader you need to be careful with the tech you implement. When looking for new options, pick ones that are asked for in the field. Having a partner in the field to help drive implementation is a crucial step to make sure the implementation is effective. 

When you’re fixing problems, you need to balance the different internal stakeholders. An executive who brings you in and a frontline agent will have two different perspectives on the problem. Balancing their needs is critical to ensuring a proper solution. 

When balancing in-house and outsourced work Michael factors scope and time. For projects that someone in-house couldn't handle or wouldn’t have time for, he chooses to outsource. Most other projects are then in-housed.

When interacting with the board, you need to make sure your data is accurate. Pre-empt the questions that will be asked, and prepare data to back up your answers. It will take time, but it is important to demonstrate what is being worked on. 

To drive success for multiple departments, you don’t need to obsess over the minute details. However, constant communication is key. Establishing weekly meetings to align on goals and discuss vision allows you to move forward in the same direction. 

Tools like Gong and Chat GPT will revamp RevOps by providing new types of data. The challenge for teams will be the way the data is presented. Analyzing this unstructured data is the next big problem ops teams will need to solve. 

As new technologies trickle out, ops teams need to adapt swiftly. If you want to maintain a competitive edge, you need to ensure early adoption, and mastery of new technologies. If you can master the tools, you will give yourself an advantage. 

“When I join an organization, I spend a ridiculous amount of time talking to people.” - Michael Boardman 

Drew Mullen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewmullen13/ 

Taylor Young: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorvictoriayoung/ 

Phoebe Farber: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoebefarber/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-j-boardman/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjboardmanphotography/?hl=en 

Website: https://riskonnect.com/ 

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/08a4b302-d25e-4b7b-a11a-60e9b51df083/revops-rockstars 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-rockstars/id1654084702 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6ynGAP60cktaDs1Cb6Chxh 

When you move slow you actually move fast. In RevOps it can be tempting to move quickly, but you’ll soon encounter issues. Moving slowly and thinking about the long term impact of actions will help prevent future issues. 

RevOps is inherently cross functional. Even with small requests, it is important to understand what is trying to be done, what is trying to be accomplished, and who is going to be impacted by that change. 

Laura’s team at Spekit works to serve the BDR’s sales teams, and the CS organization. With the current financial climate, Laura has prioritized CS ops to better understand what their journey looks like, and to protect ARR. 

For startups, outsourcing work has a few benefits. It allows you to handle out of scope projects with short timelines very efficiently. While adding headcount allows you to invest in long term solutions, onboarding takes time and money you may not have.  

As a RevOps leader, you need to take ownership of how engaged employees are. If they aren’t confident in their role or hitting their targets, that responsibility falls on you to provide them with solutions. 

As AI tools progress in their ability, RevOps leaders would look to adopt them into their tech stack. AI tech has the potential to revamp the way sales departments write battle cards, construct pitches, and create engaging emails. 

While RevOps leaders don’t need to be frontline leaders, having a close relationship can be beneficial. Close observation will help you understand where you’re falling short on revenue, what new tools you may need, and how messaging may need to be revamped. 

“I take ownership of how engaged our employees are because those are my stakeholders.” - Laura Wheeler

Wizards of Ops: https://wizops.org/ 

Amy Volas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas/ 

Thursday Night Sales: https://aspireship.com/thursdaynightsales/ 

Sales Enablement Collective: https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/ 

The Enablement Squad: https://enablementsquad.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheels-spekit 

Website: https://spekit.com/ 

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/08a4b302-d25e-4b7b-a11a-60e9b51df083/revops-rockstars 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-rockstars/id1654084702 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6ynGAP60cktaDs1Cb6Chxh 

While RevOps teams get a reputation for having all the answers or knowing every solution, it’s ok to not know everything off the top of your head. If someone asks you for an answer you don’t know, do some research, and return with the answer. 

In a well run organization, your success, marketing, and sales departments are tightly interwoven. RevOps needs to drive an organized GTM function. You don’t need to know the nuances of each department, but you should understand their function. 

On a RevOps team, it’s important to understand the root behind each request. While adding in a new field may seem like the solution, a good ops team can address if that change may complicate other areas. 

One crucial function of a RevOps team is preventing tech debt, but tech debt comes in many forms. Most commonly it is having multiple pieces of software that do the same thing. But it can also be owning a single piece of software that you don’t actually need.  

Dustin organizes Flashpoint’s RevOps on a hub and spoke model. The core team is 3 people, with operational partners in different departments. Rather than owning everything, the RevOps team enables teams, while protecting the system’s integrity

While Dustin’s team is the primary owner of their Salesforce, individual partners have their own dev sandboxes. Through multi stage deployments, departments are able to work towards fixes, and RevOps is able to ensure a smooth integration. 

When outsourcing work, Dustin looks to an outside partner as assistance with overflow, and as an advisor. While sometimes he just needs extra person hours, he finds the real value in targeted engagements where you need expert opinion and guidance. 

“I really believe that our role is to support the business holistically” - Dustin Brown.

David Giller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgiller/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinmbrown/ 

Website: https://flashpoint.io/ 

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/08a4b302-d25e-4b7b-a11a-60e9b51df083/revops-rockstars 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-rockstars/id1654084702 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6ynGAP60cktaDs1Cb6Chxh 

YouTube - https://youtu.be/B48r1Wns_no 

Building out a RevOps team requires balance. Ops teams handle both long term revenue issues and short term fixes. It’s important to hire people who enjoy both types of work, and are able to transition seamlessly between them. 

When you lead a team with members in different locations and time zones, an extra degree of flexibility is required. As a leader, allow your team members to structure their day in a way that works best for them. 

Building a RevOps team is a two step process. When you start, hire people to add in cross support to other areas you serve. Once you have a strong foundation, new hires should be adding new value rather than just taking over operational tasks. 

If your company already offers remote work, hiring outside the country offers a few key benefits. Hiring globally allows you to draw from a wider, stronger talent pool, and allows you to save money on new hires. 

When determining whether to in house or outsource a role, Danny likes to consider timeline and investment. Tasks that require a lengthy training process are done in house, while those that are quick and don’t require in depth access to data are outsourced.

When planning to interact with the board, you need to be efficient and prepared. When preparing slides, try to predict the questions you’ll be asked. When building a narrative on your work, allow the data to shape and shift the narrative as you build slides. 

When planning for the future of RevOps, teams should be looking to implement AI and automation to their workflows. Using automation on repetitive time consuming tasks frees up valuable time for Ops teams to work more efficiently. 

“You need to be excited about both the destination of the cool stuff that we’re building, as well as the journey of getting there.” - Danny Schonfeld

Kyle Stout: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stout0/ 

Bart Piela: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartpiela/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannyschonfeld/ 

Website: https://www.glia.com/ 

Not everyone truly appreciates the role that RevOps plays in an organization. This is especially true if the organization has never had a RevOps role before, which also means you’ll need to teach yourself as you go. 

The people who are asking questions when rolling out a new process are the perfect internal stakeholders who can help you champion success. Their eagerness and curiosity provides a valuable source of data and insights.  

Cross department collaboration is important in RevOps. Ali likes to identify things the ops team needs to own now, and future areas of ownership. For future tasks, the ops team works closely with the task owner until ops can fully own it.  

As a RevOps leader, you need to encourage people to leverage you as an internal resource. Ops leaders know better than anyone else the pain of the buyers for their companies.

One of the best parts of RevOps is getting to drive improvements for your teams. To execute effectively, you first need to find where you need to improve. Sit down with people who are struggling, identify their pain points, and implement solutions.

Being a former customer and then ending up working at the company you were a customer of creates a great synergy and gives valuable insight into what parts of the software works, what doesn’t and how to fix it.

As a RevOps leader, you may not always have someone at your company to learn from. The best resource for gaining more knowledge about RevOps is to follow and connect with other RevOps thought leaders on LinkedIn. 

“You're someone who has to essentially introduce order to chaos.” - Ali Seibel

Brandon Redlinger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonredlinger/ 

Jordan Henderson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanmichaelhenderson/ 

Hilary Headlee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilaryheadlee/ 

Rosalyn Santa Elena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosalyn-santa-elena/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/therevopsswissarmyknife/

Website: https://www.groove.co/

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/08a4b302-d25e-4b7b-a11a-60e9b51df083/revops-rockstars 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-rockstars/id1654084702 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6ynGAP60cktaDs1Cb6Chxh 

YouTube - https://youtu.be/c0wI9S2qonw

Data is the language of RevOps, but everyone speaks at a different level of fluency. While some things may seem obvious internally, Ops teams need to take the time to effectively communicate their observations. 

When presenting your data, it’s not enough to just show the numbers and stats. RevOps teams need to distill into actionable insights. You need to convert the data into benchmarks or milestones that teams can work towards completing. 

RevOps professionals need to also consider themselves revenue leaders. RevOps leaders need to keep an eye on booking targets and the forecast pipeline. Pacing on gross and net retention alone is not enough. 

Kay breaks his RevOps team into 6 operating pillars. Sales operations, revenue enablement, business analytics, CS operations, marketing operations, and go to market systems. 

When it comes to finding the balance between in-house and outsourced work, a large factor for Kay is time. For time bound projects that require expertise on tap, Kay prefers to leverage external consultants. 

It wouldn’t be RevOps if there wasn’t something that needed immediate attention. As a RevOps leader, you need to rely on your teammates under you for critical escalations. Setting metrics of importance allows you to supervise the team without micromanaging. 

While simpler is often better, RevOps teams operate within multiple pieces of software. Having a central source of truth is good, but ensuring the way you construct your reports are synonymous is a crucial step. 

“Our stakeholder’s success is our success.” - Kay Dastgheib

Josh VanGeest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrvangeest/ 

Anil Somaney: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anilsomaney/ 

Chris Hays: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrishays1/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayvandb/ 

Website: https://www.mural.co/ 

Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/08a4b302-d25e-4b7b-a11a-60e9b51df083/revops-rockstars 

Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revops-rockstars/id1654084702 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6ynGAP60cktaDs1Cb6Chxh 

YouTube - https://youtu.be/zKGrhOCwbFI 

When assigning territories you need to keep fairness and equity in mind. You don’t want one rep to have 80 customers and another rep to have one. By using data to assess spending and industries, you can divide up accounts more fairly. 

While Cody measures general success through the company number, he also ties each functional unit to the function they support. A Field Ops Director for EMEA is tied to EMEA results, a CS op is tied to the overall goals of the CS team. 

To drive successful results, you need to be methodical. Block out time in your calendar for strategizing. Talking with frustrated sales reps will help boost their morale, give you a better understanding of issues, and build stronger relationships. 

When balancing outsourced and in housed work, Cody prioritizes outcomes and speed. For features that have high impacts, are needed quickly, and take a while to build, he will outsource. For longer term, less urgent projects, those are handled in house. 

The best thing you can do in a new RevOps position is to “nail it and scale it”. Whatever function you start in, learn the ins and outs of the role, become world class at it, and then scale yourself. 

When preparing for board meetings, earlier is better. If you start preparing right after the quarter ends, all of your data and initiatives are fresh in your memory. Starting early gives you extra time, giving you weeks before a meeting to review a polished deck.

A best practice for RevOps leaders is to stay close to your sales and revenue teams and really understand how they work. Riding shotgun with sales people and attending marketing events will give you a clear picture of how those teams operate. 

“I find a lot of the innovation just comes from listening to sales.” - Cody Guymon

BJ Larsen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanjlarsen/ 

Yezi Peng: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yezi-peng-5223652b/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codyguymon/ 

Website: https://www.workato.com/ 

Email: [email protected]