Brian Stout is the founder and head of marketing at Differ. He examines a comprehensive strategy for RevOps that goes beyond technology. Keep reading this blog until the end to learn valuable advice from Brian that will help you understand the need for a practical approach to effective RevOps leadership. He will debunk myths and answer questions related to RevOps.
Myth: RevOps is a sales operations extension
Brian highlights that the role of RevOps is wider and requires coordination between sales, marketing, and customer success, among other departments. In the end, eliminating departmental silos to provide a seamless client experience is the goal.
He highlights how technology can improve internal communication and teamwork in an organization. However, he emphasizes that technology is not sufficient. A unified staff that strives to deliver excellent customer value is essential for success.
Which aspects of RevOps, compel people to believe it is just an extension of sales operations?
Brian notes that many companies designate a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) role to manage RevOps.
The majority of these CROs have experience in business development or sales, and the tools they use frequently revolve around sales platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce.
Brian criticizes this restricted strategy. He believes that since everyone in the company eventually contributes to revenue generation, everyone should have an investment in RevOps.
Departmental mismatch results in a lost marketing budget, unhappy clients, and missed sales chances.
RevOps is more than just technology and tools. He makes the case for a thorough strategy that incorporates strategies, procedures, and, above all, collaborative efforts.
Although he acknowledges that each organization has unique demands, he thinks a more comprehensive approach is necessary for successful RevOps than just seeing it as an extension of sales operations.
How can a salesperson secure marketing support to extend RevOps beyond sales into other company areas?
Brian stresses that effective RevOps leadership requires understanding the difficulties other departments face. Leaders in RevOps with only sales experience can find it difficult to understand the wider picture.
This also holds for executives in marketing for customer success. He emphasizes the need to know other department heads to comprehend their daily challenges. This cross-departmental understanding is essential to promote alignment.
He talks about his experience moving from sales to operations for sales and then to operations for both sales and marketing. He feels that having a deeper understanding of marketing issues is crucial for good RevOps leadership, and this increased exposure to the field has made this possible.
How can RevOps executives benefit from an awareness of different business functions? Does he face any technical hurdles, given the merging of commercial operations and RevOps?
Before implementing technology, he emphasizes the importance of developing an effective strategy and specified procedures, stating that even innovative ideas might backfire without a clear roadmap.
Success depends more on team alignment and efficient use of the platform than on the platform itself, drawing attention to previous experiences.
Even if his current smaller company faces challenges comparable to those of larger ones, he focuses on finding cost-effective solutions and streamlining processes.
He stresses that strategy, methodology, and competent teamwork are all crucial components of an efficient RevOps, and technology is only one.
How does he manage operations and deal with the difficult task of data manipulation when using simple systems that are not compatible?
He admits that his earlier example of growing pains might not apply to his current circumstance. Brian notes that in previous organizations, it was difficult to transmit data quickly and execute new sales sequences.
This impacted his business development and sales teams' capacity to follow up on prospects efficiently. However, this is not a problem yet in his small, present business.
They have yet to experience those growing pains, but he admits there is still potential for improvement.
Where does he think the future of RevOps is headed?
He points out how important it is to keep alignment as the company grows and adds new team members.
Understanding that different backgrounds and methods of using technology and workflows may cause standard processes to become less efficient.
It is important to have a clearly defined methodology for integrating acquired enterprises. His organization launched the Embrace and Enhance program to grasp better the acquired companies' current tools and workflows.
They allowed acquired enterprises to use their productive tools, as continuity was more important than integration. The objective was to reduce interference and focus on the capabilities already possessed by the purchased companies.
After an acquisition, how does he integrate sales, marketing, and service delivery teams into an existing RevOps organization?
According to Brian, it is crucial to cooperate while making purchases. Successful businesses assign a leader to manage the complete departmental integration procedure.
This person is in charge and oversees everything. He serves as a bridge to make sure everything is in line. Brian agrees that there is no quick fix for these integrations, and they require time to complete.
He shares a personal story about his experience working as a sales analyst. His job was to build a temporary database to fill the gap until the technological stack of the purchased company could be combined.
Though the transaction unfortunately fell through, the experience shows how difficult these kinds of projects can be.
He emphasizes how difficult it is to integrate businesses with various systems, such as Slack and email services.
These alignments require devoted teams, and successful departmental integration depends on having a single point of contact to manage the entire process.
Is choosing a project manager from the acquiring firm or outside both organizations better?
Brian puts the significance of utilizing talent from both organizations to ensure a seamless transition while acknowledging that the acquiring firm usually has leadership during acquisitions.
He emphasizes the necessity of continuous marketing campaigns and departmental collaboration to create a new brand image based on his experience implementing rebranding strategies after acquisitions.
Despite the difficulties, he considers these experiences satisfying and sees them as chances to expand his customer-focused business and develop professionally.
In the middle of RevOps' complexity, how does Brian prioritize the customer's interests, particularly during mergers and acquisitions?
Brian proposes changing the name "RevOps" to "Value Operations" for the external audience to emphasize the importance of providing value to consumers.
He considers how revenue-focused teams are viewed by B2B clients and focuses on the alignment and customer value in RevOps.
In the end, he adds that productive teams place a strong priority on cooperation, communication, and a common customer focus to produce major benefits for the business and the client.
Listen to the full episode here.
