What is the job of a VP of Revenue Operations?
The VP of Revenue Operations is one of the fastest growing roles according to LinkedIn, and yet it is still very early.
If we include titles such as VP Revenue Operations, Head of Revenue Operations and VP of GTM Operations, we find just 2,900 people with that title, of which 2,000 of them are in the US.
RevOps leaders around the world
Includes VP of Revenue Operations, Head of Revenue Operations, VP of GTM Operations
In this article I want to dive into what this role entails, some of the main goals and aspirations that a VP of RevOps has in their career and personal lives, followed by the main challenges that we see these individuals having in achieving those goals.
The jobs, gains and pains of a VP of Revenue Operations
What are the main responsibilities of a VP of Revenue Operations?
The VP of Revenue Operations has a wide-ranging mandate, which is tied together by the need to align marketing, sales and customer success into a single unified revenue engine.
Within this main job they are responsible for:
GTM operational efficiency - driving simplified processes that reduce delays, rework and remove siloes and wasted cost from the revenue generating system.
Revenue/GTM strategy - partnering with the CRO, CMO and head of customer success to define channels, geographies, acquisitions and hiring strategies to deliver the company’s revenue goals.
Annual planning - partnering with the CRO and other revenue leaders to deliver territory, hiring, and commission plans that balance the company’s revenue goals with available budgets
Hiring and leading a revenue operations team - building out an org structure of strategists, data analysts, systems admins, deal desk and enablement to support the end of end revenue machine.
Pricing and bundling strategies - working with marketing, product and the CRO to develop new commercial models to drive incremental revenue.
GTM enablement - including both buyer and seller enablement. Mapping the buyer journey from unaware to repeat customer and ensuring the right content, tools and assets are available. Ensuring sellers are equipped, trained and coached to guide buyers through their buying process.
GTM systems and tech - delivering a unified, seamless end to end experience for sellers and buyers through a modern marketing, sales and customer success tech stack.
Data, insights and forecasting - using an integrated data set to provide valuable insights to buyers, sellers and leadership. Includes accurate forecasting to the CRO and senior leaders.
Plus - many more!
What are the main goals and desires of a VP of Revenue Operations?
With the VP of RevOps still a relatively new role we work from a small dataset, but in my experience a VP of RevOps wants to be seen as a strategic role, more than a collector of data and provider of forecasts.
A peer to the CRO/CEO - within the current role, VPs or RevOps want to reposition themselves and their teams from the historical sales ops role - locked in a bunker, creating forecasts, commission plans and assigning territories, and to be seen as strategic role that has a seat at the executive table.
A future CRO - if you are a true peer to the CRO and CMO, if you are leading the development of the GTM strategy and the enablement of the sales teams - then it is not too much of a leap to step into the CRO role yourself. You have experience across all of the GTM functions, you know how to drive incremental revenue - so it is just a case of spending more time in the field, in front of customers and picking up the emotional side of selling - understanding what happens beyond the spreadsheet.
Predictable revenue growth - the VP of RevOps gets that strategic seat at the table by being able to deliver predictable growth. Reducing cost of sale and driving efficiency gains is important - but that has a floor. Being able to demonstrate how you can grow revenue, find new sources of pipleline, open up new channels - this is the goal that ensures job security, future job opportunities and that move to a CRO role.
A big network and speaking opportunities - the world of RevOps is small - with a handful of online networks and its relatively easy for innovative and pioneering VPs of RevOps to build a name for themselves, picking up speaking opportunities on podcasts or in-person events like SaaStr. Building a personal brand gives you opportunities to move into larger organisations, and to move into roles within VC/PE firms or fractional consulting.
What are the main pains or challenges that face a VP of Revenue Operations?
Standing in the way of achieving these goals and desires are a host of issues - many of them legacy challenges driven by siloes in the go-to-market organisation.
Seen as a tactical function - in many organisations RevOps is still seen as a tactical function - the creator of spreadsheets. Often they are RevOps in name only - SalesOps rebranded, and aren’t given the true responsibility for driving the end to end go-to-market strategy. One of the top questions I see in RevOps communities is “how do I get senior leaders to see RevOps as strategic?”
Siloed data and systems - if a company has implemented a RevOps model too late, the siloes have taken hold - with GTM functions maintaining their own systems, reporting, ops teams and processes. This can leave RevOps without the control or support they need to build an aligned revenue engine.
Lack of sales experience - B2B sales is not a computer game. You can’t win it with a spreadsheet. At some point humans need to stand in front of other humans and build relationships, explore their pain, develop a point of view. VPs of RevOps that come from a pure ops background miss this emotional aspect of sales. I recommend they spend as much time in the field with buyers and sellers as possible - to learn from customers and build credibility with sellers.
As a note - go to 6m20s of this SaaStr talk where Erica Anderson the CRO at Notion describes her move from Ops to the CRO role and this exact challenge.
Rapidly changing world/I don’t know why its not working - the way customers buy has changed for ever over the last four years. The playbook you had in 2019, even 2021, is no good. Forcing cadences and webinars on SDRs to push out to their call-avoiding prospects is not good enough anymore. VPs of RevOps must constantly put the buyer at the centre and decide how to build a GTM function that gives the buyer what they need when they need it.
Seen as a cost centre - whilst the VP of Revenue Operations is a rapidly growing role it is also challenged at the same time. The more we build up the strategic nature of the role, the more it sounds like the Chief Revenue Officer role. Do we need two senior execs doing the same thing? If that is the case, VP of Revenue Operations risks being an unnecessary overlay, or pushed back to its tactical roots. As companies strive to improve their ARR per FTE we’ve seen RevOps teams reduced - especially in enablement - CEOs are asking “can we do more with less?”
Plus - many more!
What is the future of the VP of Revenue Operations role?
It is still early and for many companies, they are still trying to understand what a revenue operations model means in their context, and how a revenue operations model will pay off.
I believe the successful VPs will be the ones that tie themselves intimitely to revenue growth, over cost efficiency. Cracking the code to new sources of revenue growth is strategic, and positions these VPs for a move into the CRO role, or running their own companies in future.
What do you think? What would you add or remove from each section?
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