Critical Skills of RevOps Leaders
Introducing the W shaped RevOps Leader
This past week I’ve gone deeper on the skills needed to be a great CFO with SecretCFO. In a recent post, he shared some of the skills he’s consistently seen in the best CFOs. I’m not aspiring to be a CFO. However, I was struck by how similar many of these skills are with RevOps leaders.
A primary objective to RevOps is to align each element of the GTM engine. It’s getting everyone in the boat and rowing together. This requires breath and general aptitude across different business disciplines. The problem is that you can’t be a master of every discipline in GTM. RevOps leaders come from sales, finance, and marketing and their skills are varied across systems, analytics, process, and enablement (to name a few).
Secret CFO described the need for a CFO to be a T-shaped leader. The best RevOps leaders I’ve seen acted as W-shaped leaders.
If T-shaped leaders are capable in a lot of things and an expert in one of them, a W-shaped leader is an expert in 2 or 3 things. A specialist and a generalist. They make the intentional decisions on where to build out their W within GTM. I also like this visually because it shows a critical capability of being strategic but also mastering details (or Zooming In / Zooming Out).
4 of the 5 capabilities Secret CFO shared for CFO are spot on for RevOps.
Zoom In / Zoom Out
Problem Solving (new for RevOps)
Connect the business to the numbers
Storytelling
Build lucrative relationships
Bottom line. Be a specialist not a generalist and consistently learn new areas of the business. So whatever expertise you may have - whether it marketing, GTM analytics, sales - stack some of the above capabilities in addition to your own and you will add more value as a revenue leader.
Now let’s go deeper into some of those skills that I’ve seen in some of the best RevOps leaders:
1. Zoom In / Zoom Out
I’ve recently found myself in a 3-year strategy session and then meeting on a commissions escalation. The ability to flip back and forth between a GTM strategy and day-to-day operations at-will is critical, but harder than you think. Sometimes you can feel like a yo-yo.
The Ben Horowitz quote, “There is no silver bullet that’s going to fix that. No, we are going to have to use a lot of lead bullets” applies so well to RevOps. The challenge to the business may be at a broad level, but frequently there are many underlying factors that need to be adjusted or enhanced to achieve desired outcomes. Leaders need to Zoom In / Zoom Out between areas to get strategies working.
2. Problem Solving
Execution of a strategy is critical. RevOps leaders can can use their first super power to put new strategies into place or understand why a strategy is not working as intended. They use this W shaped skill to Zoom In / Out traverse into new parts of GTM and break down barriers to more efficient growth.
When I speak to other RevOps leaders they will talk about some of the skills they hire for. They frequently put curiosity and problem solving at the top of the list. The individuals have an innate desire to learn more and have a deep drive to solve the puzzle. They get deep satisfaction from solving a problem, seeing something work well, and being recognized for it.
3. Connect the business to the numbers
Great RevOps leaders understand the drivers of a business. They can look at a report or KPIs and digest performance. But they also know how to drive those same metrics across different functions and teams. They understand how marketing spend relates to a funnel, which can develop more pipeline and drives a sales process, converts to bookings, and can onboard and managed for customer value and retention.
It’s amazing how overly complicated GTM metrics can get. Great RevOps leaders are good at communicating these drivers in a simple way. The simplicity with which these leaders connect the business to the numbers is based on years of watching the numbers and understanding cause and effect.
4. Storytelling
The team needs to understand why the operations work is so important. This is rarely is the facts and figures. RevOps leaders influence with stories. It’s how they work with marketing sales, customer success, and finance. By painting a picture, they create broader buy-in and influence.
The best leaders I’ve worked with can rally a broader team (while ensuring operational processes are intact) and get momentum. The story or ‘why’ helps capture the team but relationships help get things done.
There is a second dimension to storytelling that is tangible for a RevOps leader. They frequently work with a CRO on critical communications, whether a review of the previous period to the Board or a strategy session at kick-off.
5. Build lucrative relationships
Back to the boat analogy. There are lots of groups in the boat. RevOps works across the GTM functions, but also need to work effectively with Finance as well as a product organization.
Influence without authority is a very real thing. Secret CFO has honed his skill with the law of reciprocity. I’ve also seen success with this strategy. Consciously being generous, transparent, and helpful. Always trying to do the best for the business. But when you ask for something, making it important. Tell them exactly what you need and why.
I don’t think that anyone ever perfects this skill. But its sure one you can consistently strengthen and improve and the results pay dividends.