Recently, on our Scale with Strive Podcast, we spoke with Jeremey Donovan, Executive Vice President Revenue Operations and Strategy at Insight Partners.
During the podcast, we gained so many useful tips for anyone looking to learn more about the world of RevOps – including:
💡 Breaking down RevOps – What is it? How does it help your business? Why is it important?
💡 How to know if you are ready to make your first RevOps hire.
💡 What skillsets to look for when making that hire.
We explore ‘RevOps 101’ below, but please listen to the full podcast to build on this foundational base!
Let’s Dive In!
What is RevOps?
Jeremey advised if he was to explain RevOps in the most basic terms, that it’s a way to increase sales productivity and answer the all-important question of:
“How do I help sellers sell more?”
“When I was five years old, I was selling mangos because we had a mango tree, and I would set up a little table in front and I would sell mangos for a dime.
So, if I explained RevOps to my five-year-old self, it would be that RevOps is helping me figure out how to sell more mangos per hour so I could go buy more baseball cards at the Five and Dime store.”
He also advised that a CRO had previously advised him:
RevOps work on the business, which is different to other Business Leaders (e.g., the CRO), who work in the business.
In terms of the Core Responsibilities of RevOps, Jeremey identified the below areas:
· Strategy and Planning
· Analytics and Forecasting
· Systems and Data
· Comp and Quota
· Territory
· Deal Desk
If we see the above as the ‘Horizontal Responsibilities’, then the ‘Vertical Responsibilities’ would be whether that applies to Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, etc.
Why has demand for RevOps increased post COVID?
“I think it was a realization that we needed to find a way to become more productive because the previous model of “growth at all costs” was just to throw lots of bodies at the problem.
And then you were sitting in a situation where your Sales and Marketing as a percentage of Revenue had exploded, which means your CAC payback, which that's an input into, had exploded.”
He pointed out that with long CAC payback times and high Sales and Marketing expenses, businesses needed to find a way to get more efficient – and needed someone to solve the problem, to keep the CRO and Sales teams working hard ‘in the business’ on winning deals.
This need for productivity therefore led to the rise in demand for RevOps professionals.
How to know when to start building out a RevOps team?
“The typical ratio, for very early-stage, would be 10 or 11:1.
So, once you have 10 or 11 people on the Sales team, it's time to hire a RevOps person - and that ratio then creeps up over time to around 15:1, as Companies grow.”
Top Tip:
- If you are new to a RevOps role, and tasked with building out a department as the company grows, to avoid having to negotiate with the CFO every few weeks / months, agree the ratios of Sales to RevOps upfront and build out the Finance Plan from there.
- This will allow you to continue staffing at the agreed ratios as the company grows, without always having to negotiate on each individual role.
A suggested ordering for building out your RevOps Team:
- A CRM Specialist.
- A hire who will be much more focused on deeper Analytics and Forecasting.
- A more Senior hire to manage Strategy and Planning (note, you choose to have you CRM Specialist and Analytics and Forecasting hires report to this person).
- Comp and Quota / Deal Desk hires – with the aim of taking these areas away from Finance to free the FPNA people up.
- Territory Specialist.
What Key Metrics should RevOps be responsible for?
As well as ‘Lagging Indicators’ such as Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), where RevOps can really add value is in some of the ‘Leading Indicators’ such as Pipeline Generation.
“It's PG all day, every day. So, I think the more critical thing for RevOps is to be looking at is pipeline metrics.”
Jeremey advised also “doing the math” on activities if they are strongly correlated with outcomes.
“There are certain activities that likely are so, for instance, Proof of Concepts that are being run. That might be a good activity, for instance, to track.
But on the Pipeline Generation piece, it's looking on a per Rep basis. What's their PG over the course of whatever the appropriate period is? For a SMB Rep it might be over the course of a week or two weeks or a month. For Enterprise Reps you're probably looking at Quarterly PG relative to target.”
What traits should you look for when hiring into a RevOps Team?
Some suggested traits discussed on the Podcast were:
· Project Management
· High Analytical skill
· Attention to Detail
· Process design and Optimization
· Entrepreneurial spirit
· Great communication
· Cross Functional Collaboration skills
“I've found in hiring RevOps people that those with some degree of consulting training / strategic problem solving is really critical. It's a very teachable thing, but if you’ve got someone who comes in with that ability beforehand, great!”
Want to learn more?
Watch the full episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/G3uzVd0ns4E
Listen on Spotify 🎧 – https://open.spotify.com/episode/3No1xP4ojruhB0dNSB8VHm?si=f8438dc5d6274d11&nd=1&dlsi=66bc8147f61a4fd2
Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎧 - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mastering-revops-for-business-growth-with-jeremey-donovan/id1710179366?i=1000647204252
Connect with Jeremey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremeydonovan/
Connect with Adam - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/
Learn more about how Strive can support you in growing your RevOps Function - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/
Search for RevOps roles - https://www.scalewithstrive.com/careers/
Adam Richardson
Co-Founder and Director
