RevOps Co-op Weekly #4 - GTM tech stack mistakes to avoid, startups edition
A company's startup phase is similar to creating a foundation for a building. You can avoid a lot of pain down the road by building the right way from the beginning.
RevOps Co-op provides resources, content and community for those who ❤️ revenue operations. This weekly newsletter features collected tweets, posts and thoughts on a variety of RevOps topics.
🙅🏻♀️ 10 GTM tech stack mistakes to avoid, startups edition
When it comes to building out your GTM tech stack, with the right mindset, a little capital, and a lot of determination, revenue operations professionals can avoid a lot of pain down the road by building a strong foundation in the beginning.
Trevor Greyson, Revenue Operations Manager at Miro, sums it up perfectly:
A company’s startup phase is similar to creating a foundation for a building. If you prioritize low spend (particularly around talent) and speed over proficiency, you’ll negatively impact your ability to scale. If you use bad construction materials, you may quickly have a building two or three stories high, but anything taller than that will be too unstable. You’ll have to tear it down and start over again.
We’ve collected a list of Do’s and Do Nots when it comes to building out your GTM tech stack. Here are some of the do’s:
Do build for the SaaS you want
Chances are you won’t get the technology you want out of the gate. Most companies start with a freemium platform (or even Google Sheets) until they’ve raised sufficient funds.
Just remember, the more complicated a system is to use, the less often people will use it.
Do hire an expert for key implementations
When you get the funding to upgrade to “real” SaaS products, hire an expert to implement them. Enough said.
Do educate the C-suite about best practices
No one wants to look like they don’t know what they’re doing. To avoid everyone throwing the initials “MQL” around to describe everything from an unknown prospect to a qualified opportunity, work with your business leaders to define key metrics as early as possible.
Do advocate for scaling your RevOps team
Do not let people punish you for being efficient.
Insist on scaling your organization proportionately to the departments you are supporting.
Do expect to get scrappy
You will be asked to do impossible things, you will educate your leadership team on the technical limitations you face, and you will still be told to “go figure it out.”
While you don’t want to paint yourself into a corner, sometimes your only option is to stick a bandaid on what you’ve got.
So what should you avoid? Here are some do not’s:
Don’t let others assume software is a silver bullet
The longer you work in revenue operations, the more skeptical you’ll become of claims made by SaaS vendors. The only things that are certain in life are RevOps technology skepticism, death, and taxes.
Don’t skip taxonomy
If you think data is boring, you’re probably not in revenue operations. We tend to see value in order and process, and we like to know that the data we’re pulling for key reports isn’t a mess. This requires some thought to go into naming conventions.
Don’t let people forget you’re limited by your tech
Striking a balance between realism and negativity is a delicate dance. I’ve yet to meet a leader who appreciates being repeatedly told that a request is impossible. They prefer solutions, not problems.
But.
Not voicing a system limitation is setting yourself up for an even more disappointed executive team.
Don’t let execs take over your CRM
Executives frequently insist on data to help them make decisions. From their perspective, it’s a no brainer. They need a metric to figure out the source of an issue. Their employees are paid a salary, and data entry for the sake of selling more product is certainly part of fulfilling their job description.
Unfortunately, it’s never as simple as requiring one piece of information.
Don’t skip establishing a tool review process
Do you know the “shiny object” syndrome? The one where leadership runs after the next “silver bullet” SaaS solution?
If people are allowed to buy tools at their own discretion, it will lead to multiple tools that do the same thing. And somehow, they will come out of your budget. This will limit the dollars you have to spend on analytics tools that will help the rest of the business make better decisions.
Read the full blog post on this topic from RevOps Co-op here 👉 10 GTM Tech Stack Mistakes to Avoid - Startups Edition
🐦 This week in #RevOps Twitter
Companies with RevOps functions see a 71% higher stock performance, 19% faster growth and 15% more profits than un-aligned businesses. 🤯
Couldn’t agree more👇
Good reminder given our natural tendency to overcomplicate everything
📚 Your curated #RevOps reading list
What Everybody Is Getting Wrong About Revenue Operations (RevOps) & What You Need To Do About It, from Imagine Business Development
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves and RevOps becomes just another buzzword fad left on the ash heap of magic pills and silver bullets that just make everything slower and harder, you need to be aware of the things that often go wrong, and more importantly what to do about it.
Some interesting points are brought up in this article, including:
RevOps is being viewed through the lens of tech and the tech stack
There’s more focus on “operations” instead of “revenue”
RevOps is the ultimate strategic decision, and should not be subordinate to sales, marketing or success
RevOps has only one job —> to reduce negative friction
Silo-Busting with Cross-Functional Teams, from Turknett Leadership Group
Silos form when employees are more loyal to their departments or groups than to the company as a whole. They become less likely to share information, work practices and resources. As a result, incentives and priorities become misaligned, and decision-making across the company becomes uncoordinated.
This short blog post talks about the benefits of cross functional teams when it comes to breaking down silos, and how you can implement them effectively within your own organization.
Sales Ops Might Be the Revenue Hero You Didn’t Know You Needed, from the Salesforce Blog
A dedicated sales operations crew can help ensure your revenue stays predictable in an unpredictable environment. In this blog post from Salesforce, they give four reasons why companies should invest in one, including:
A successful sales operations team can free up your sales team’s time and energy
Sales ops will be what saves you when you’re scrambling to scale up
You need visibility into your funnel, and sales ops can distill the data
A sales ops expert communicates and minimizes risks
Funl is an operating system for your GTM team that provides end-to-end, full funnel analytics and insights that keep marketing, sales and customer success teams aligned and working seamlessly together.