How RevOps Drives Value in the GTM Organization

In today’s fast-paced business environment, Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a game-changer for scaling organizations. Chris Fezza, CEO of Operatus, shared valuable insights at the GTM Masters event on how RevOps leaders from companies with $100M+ ARR navigate complexities to drive value.

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The full presentation can be found at this link, but if you want a quick summary - here are the highlights:

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1. The Importance of Seeing Around Corners

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RevOps professionals need to anticipate challenges and opportunities, a concept Chris Fezza refers to as "seeing around corners." This involves becoming the domain expert on current operations and looking ahead to what's coming next. By closely analyzing key data like activity and pipeline metrics, SLAs, and account penetration reports, RevOps teams can spot inflection points and test hypotheses to stay ahead of the curve.

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Some essential strategies for "seeing around corners" include:

• Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs): Deep dives into business performance.
• Data-Driven Insights: Identifying early warning signs and testing strategies to mitigate risks.
• Testing: Creating hypotheses, testing them, and implementing changes once you have statistically significant results
• Advisors: Build a good network of advisors and mentors who have been where you want to go, they can help accelerate you
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How to "See Around Corners": The 5 Cs Framework

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To ensure effective support for GTM (Go-to-Market) initiatives, Fezza emphasizes focusing on five key areas, the 5 Cs:
- Conditions: Understanding market trends and internal shifts.
- Customers: Knowing today’s buyers and how future buyers prefer to purchase.
- Collaborators: Engaging cross-functional teams for smoother operations.
- Competitors: Keeping track of how competitors are evolving.
- Capabilities: Continuously evaluating the effectiveness and adaptability of the team’s capabilities.

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2. RevOps Pillars: Data, Systems, and Strategy

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RevOps is built on several crucial pillars, each of which plays a key role in business success:
- Data Governance and Analytics: Ensuring clean, actionable data is the foundation for sound decision-making.
- Systems Management: Handling everything from CRM systems to sales engagement tools.
- Revenue Planning: Supporting annual and quota planning, territory design, and pipeline reporting.
- Process Design: Optimizing business processes to drive efficiency.

The goal is for these pillars to work cohesively, allowing the organization to make data-driven decisions and execute strategic initiatives smoothly.

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3. Proactive vs. Reactive RevOps

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One of the biggest shifts in the RevOps mindset is moving from a reactive to a proactive approach. Fezza advises that instead of simply supporting sales, marketing, and customer success functions, RevOps should be seen as a strategic advisor to those teams. This requires building a strong narrative around the value RevOps brings to the organization, backed by industry benchmarks and data-driven insights.

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4. Aligning RevOps with Company Goals

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The alignment between RevOps and overall company objectives is crucial for success. Fezza highlights that RevOps leaders should break down company goals into actionable objectives for each RevOps area, prioritizing initiatives based on revenue and people impact. Using frameworks like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) or V2MOM can help structure these goals.

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5. Churn Prevention Through Proactive Insights

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RevOps plays a critical role in preventing customer churn. By analyzing patterns in customer data and identifying churn risk factors, RevOps teams can take proactive measures to retain customers.

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Two notable examples:

1. A company analyzed patterns in customer data to identify churn risk factors. They discovered certain product combinations led to higher retention. Result --> Proactively upsold "sticky" products to at-risk customers, even at lower margins.

2. A company that increased its Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) by 6% in a year by doing a detailed breakdown of historical churn to create a risk threshold model, with 3 categories – which each have a churn % avg attached. Shows them the $ at risk. Helps get renewal team the support they need to properly escalate internally and mitigate the risk. GRR impact: was 91% (in 2022) and they closed 2023 at 97% GRR

6. Building an Effective RevOps Team

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Building a high-functioning RevOps team requires aligning individual team member goals with company priorities. As the organization evolves, RevOps leaders must assess the desires and capabilities of their team, ensuring that each team member is in a role where they can add the most value.

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Conclusion

RevOps is more than just a support function; it’s a critical partner to sales, marketing, and customer success teams. By proactively driving insights, optimizing processes, and aligning with broader company goals, RevOps can be the catalyst for sustainable growth.

For companies looking to scale, adopting these RevOps strategies will not only enhance efficiency but also ensure long-term success.

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Want to talk further about these concepts with Chris Fezza, CEO of Operatus? Book a time here to speak with our team.

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