RevOps Co-op Weekly #64 - Bringing Standardization to RevOps through Systems, People and a Dash of Psychology.
Standardizing the world of RevOps requires an appreciation of process and the need for discussions about change in order to have the best outcomes for efficiency.
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Bringing Standardization to RevOps through Systems, People and a Dash of Psychology.
Blake Kendrick is the RevOps Manager at Thankful.ai, and he’s seen a lot of what works and what doesn’t in his experience working for a range of B2B revenue teams. His background in psychology doesn’t let him read minds, but it has certainly helped with introducing change and creating standardization for RevOps professionals.
Resistance is futile.
Is this why some people resist the efforts to create standardization? They think it’s the work of the Borg and they’ll all become one vanilla, mass collective devoid of original thought or joy?
If that’s the fear, we’ve got to get around it. Because the payoff is worth it. It’s past time to think about fearless ways to introduce standardization into RevOps to create more efficient outcomes. Blake Kendrick, RevOps Manager with Thankful, brings a background in psychology to his role along with a wealth of experience in the B2B space. He’s seen the value to be gained in creating a common approach and it has nothing to do with filling up a massive square space entity.
“You’d be surprised, with all the different [company] offerings, really, the structure is the same,” he says. “The measurements and the main objectives that each department has can sometimes clutter things up.”
For example, marketing might be sucked into the wormhole of generating net new leads, webinar attendees, or other campaign metrics that don’t consider the other functions (sales & client success) enough... We can make things sooooo much simpler when we realize one fact:
“Everybody’s goal is to generate a customer and provide the best customer experience along the way.”
With that as your North Star, as Blake says, it doesn’t matter what a company sells; the structure is the same. The intended outcomes are the same, too.
Filling the gaps
The loop from the customer and market-facing systems back to the internal organization gives those teams what they need to know. Creating alignment in that loop is where the glitch in the system sometimes crops up. Whether it’s the feedback itself or how internal teams talk to each other about the information, there can be static that turns crystal clean information into something like the telephone game you played at kids’ birthday parties.
‘His left sandwich is down from New York?’
‘No, no no! The original message was, “his best friend is smoking some pork!’ How did you not get that?’
Static. Glitches. Gaps. Call it what you like, but the information gets muddy.
Blake says especially with remote roles, communication is key and RevOps can take a starring role in delivering clarity.
“Alignment and communication feedback between those teams is paramount,” he says. “Everybody’s always looking for the best practices and how to deploy sequences. But really, we want to tie back to a meaningful impact and that’s the customer generation and revenue generation.”
Standards for an objective team
And like an expert technician with a deep understanding of both where this spaceship is headed and how it works, RevOps steps in to help fill those gaps and provide better communication between formerly disparate functions. While RevOps team members may report into sales or marketing, (Blake reports to the CMO), ultimately, the role is responsible to the entire revenue organization. From top to bottom. RevOps professionals are on the bridge helping with navigation and below deck performing routine maintenance on the warp drive.
That role can be hard when there are constant questions about whether engineering is going to deliver what sales expects; if the target market has been properly identified; and if educational content from marketing reflects the true value that the product offers. Everyone has an opinion and a need and they don’t always align.
How very un-Borg-like.
“I think objectivity is very important. It all starts with recognizing ownership and accountability throughout the organization,” he says. “Everyone’s goals should be very revenue-centric.”
While division of responsibility happens early in a company’s growth and information goes into the CRM to inform everyone of what’s happening, are the right people doing the work in the right way? Can the best of systems be replicated & scaled? Are blocks being identified & acted upon quickly?
“I think RevOps has a responsibility to guide that a bit because they are sort of overseeing different elements of the organization,” he says. “Ultimately, there is a structure that everyone needs to follow that looks the same every time.”
🗣 From the Community
#04_revops-questions - Documentation SOPs
12/20/21: Anybody here have really good SOPs for documentation? We've tried several times over the years to get internal knowledge bases up and running and they've always petered out because people didn't add/update/access frequently. What should we do to make sure this current attempt is the one that stays? Read 4 Replies.
#04_revops-questions - Surfacing Old Lost Opportunities in Salesforce
12/21/21: Any Salesforce flow ninjas out there got a second? I need to come up with a trigger to auto-surface an old lost opp based on the input (re-engage time).I could just have flows waiting in the background until a calculated date is reached, but at scale that could take toll. Ideally, it can trigger only when that calculated date is reached so it happens all at once, but I cannot think of a way to do this right now. Read 9 Replies.
#08_tools-and-software - Integration Issues with 6sense
12/20/21: Looking for 6sense users, we are about 3 months in and having a good amount of data and integration issues. We're being told that we're unique but seeking anyone with similar experience and recommendation on how to get back on track. TIA! Read 5 Replies.
#08_tools-and-software - Setting up Hierarchies in SFDC to Match Customer Business Models
12/21/21: Hi @revopscoop crew 👋 . I was wondering if Salesforce savvy users/admins can recommend best practice to setup the below hierarchy which is needed to align with our customer’s business models. Ideally, we'd like to drill up or down the organization once we are in a contact object and each such contact would be assigned at a certain location / level. Also, each location would have a unique ID assigned so, when looking at sales numbers in the future, we would be able to look at them rolled up / rolled down. Naturally, 'company' would be the native account object in Salesforce but I am wondering what is the best practice to create the 3 child layers below (and clearly show the relationships). Thoughts? Read 8 Replies.
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🐦 This week in #RevOps Social
Ah yes. Of course! 🤦♂️
RevOps-a-day keeps the Dr. away! 👩⚕️
Not to late to update those JDs! 👀
📅 Upcoming Events
RevOps Hangout with the ROC! Virtual Networking - Thursday, January 6th at 11am PT (2pm ET)
Topic: Getting Started in RevOps. Co-hosting with us is Jeff Ignacio of Revenue Operations Impact, Seb van Heyningen from Central Metric and Blake Kendrick of Thankful. Their stories run true and their advice flows easy!
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Room 1 is for those that are RevOps curious or know they want to get into RevOps and are looking for advice, next steps, and learning tracks for landing their first role.
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Slack AMA with Briana Yarborough - Wednesday, January 12 at 9am PT (12pm ET)
Tune into #03_general as we chat with with Briana Yarborough, Revenue Operations Leader at ASAPP. Get your questions in about: 1. RevOps & BI as an evolutionary framework, 2. Finding your Tribe, 3. What it means to be a Sponsor, and why it’s important for DEI/ Intersectionality in Revenue.
📚 Your curated #RevOps reading list
Sis Awesome Operations Presentations from INBOUND 2021 | Remotish
As a HubSpot RevOps Correspondent, I had the pleasure of attending all the operations-related sessions at INBOUND 2021. It was amazing to see so much focus on ops and especially on RevOps this year! Ops people are usually the unsung heroes and behind-the-scenes players. It's nice to see the spotlight start to shine on ops professionals!
Dashboard vs Report: Similarities and Differences | DataBox
Snooping around trying to understand the difference between dashboard vs report and when to use each? Get this: A marketing dashboard is a collection of key performance indicators (KPIs) related to a specific objective. The aim? To offer centralized data and help you track progress at a glance. On the other hand, a report is a collective document that dives into project details and other valuable insights – all put together with the aim of helping you make a data-driven strategy.
7 Reasons Why Chief Customer Officers Need To (Eventually) Own Revenue | Gainsight
Whether or not your CSMs own revenue, I want to make the argument that you, as a current or aspiring Chief Customer Officer, absolutely should. I’m addressing this post to the head of “post-sales” in your company. You likely have some combination of Customer Success Management, Support, Professional Services, Training, and perhaps other functions. Hopefully, you’re already holding the CCO title or on your way there. Here are the seven reasons you should find a way to drive revenue.
🎧 RevOps Podcasts
Alan Hawley: How to Build a Go-to-Market Strategy | RevAmp
Alan Hawley is the Chief Revenue Officer for Tomorrow.io, a weather and climate resiliency technology company based out of Boston. Alan has been involved in revenue, either in sales management or revenue operations for the last 20 years. In this podcast, Alan shares his approach to building Tomorrow’s go-to-market strategy. His sales team helps customers understand the cost of not using Tomorrow’s platform. He explains how this focus on the customer enables the company to increase their average selling price and average contract value.
Closing the Customer Experience Gaps with Jason Reichl of Breadcrumbs and Go Nimbly | OpsStars
In this episode of the OpsStars Podcast, Rachael McBrearty is joined by Jason Reichl, the CRO at Breadcrumbs, a revenue acceleration platform based on a co-dynamic lead scoring and routing engine living at the intersection of marketing and sales. He also co-founded Go Nimbly, a Revenue Operations consultancy, where he currently serves as a board member, advisor, and RevOps Evangelist. He joins us to discuss how today’s customers expect a personalized buying experience and how RevOps can use data and analytics to close the experiential gaps in their GTM processes to maximize revenue.
How to Manage RevOps Capacity and Scale Your Team, with Andy Mowat | RevOps Podcast
Andy Mowat (Founder and CEO of Gated) is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and investor with over 18 years of experience in growing technology companies, with a focus on Marketing and Revenue Operations. Andy has scaled three unicorns, including: Culture Amp (he drove a 10X growth in ARR in four years), Box (he ran all post-sale operations and marketing operations across 80,000 customers), and Upwork (built the initial marketing and sales systems). Today he joins us to talk about building RevOps from the ground up, how to manage capacity and scale your team.
🔥 A few HOT #RevOps Jobs
Senior RevOps Manager | Bread
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🚒 Weekly RevOps Meme
Thank you again, Rosalyn Santa Elena!
Funnel IQ 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 to drive more revenue growth for your business.