AMA: HubSpot Director, Sales Strategy, Azim Mitha on Revenue Ops KPIs

Successful outcomes for a RevOps function / leader typically includes: * Better cross-functional alignment as part of annual planning process and throughout the year to execute on annual plan * Driving unified approach to revenue generation across Sales, Marketing & Customer Success * Increased revenue growth (higher win rates, larger deal sizes, improved retention) * Enhanced operational efficiency (shorter sales cycles, streamlined processes) * Data-driven decision making As AI transforms RevOps, the metrics for success evolve and expand: * Generate more accurate sales forecasts * Predict customer behavior and needs with greater precision (for eg, identifying potential churn risks before they materialize) * AI powered deep & actionable insights from vast amounts of data * Improving sales rep productivity through AI-assisted tools and insights (and increasing productive time for sellers) * Automation of routine tasks (e.g., lead scoring, data entry, follow-ups) to reduce operational costs and human error

When entering new markets, there are several strategies to overcome the uncertainty of KPIs: * Engage with local customers / partners / industry experts to gain insights on the new market * Look for prior examples of similar businesses (or adjacent businesses) that have entered the market to analyse and understand the market potential & growth, product needs, customer acquisition costs, sales cycles, ASPs and conversion rates * Focus on short-term, achievable goals that can build momentum and provide early learnings ==> Perhaps start with a small pilot to learn from, before investing big! * While revenue and market share are important, they often reflect past performance. In a new market, focus on leading indicators such as (i) Website traffic and engagement; (ii) Leads generated and conversion rates; (iii) Customer acquisition cost (CAC) * Cross-functional alignment & collaboration is critical to ensure that all part of the organisation understand the KPIs set, and the role of each cross-functional partner in achieving the KPIs * Have a rapid feedback loop - internally (within teams) and externally (with customers / partners) - to continue to iterate your GTM * Regularly review and adjust these KPIs based on actual performance and market feedback to refine them over time.

Focusing on core metrics such revenue growth, ASPs, pipeline health etc, a KPI that can be often overlooked are customer engagement metrics & customer health once they have made the purchase. Focusing on customer success metrics (such as product adoption rates, NPS, customer health scores) can help to drive a more thoughtful customer lifecycle journey, from acquisition to retention to expansion, and drive company strategy using a more holistic view.

There are several non-negotiable KPIs for measuring retention and revenue, which include: * Product usage = Understanding metrics such as "Depth of Usage"; and "Feature Adoption Rate" to understand how customers are using product; and to improve their product usage before contract renewal time. * You can also build a "Customer Health Score" which is an aggregation of product usage metrics based on assigned weightings to analyse health score of customers with your product. * GRR or Gross Rev Retention = This metric is to measure churn, excluding any expansions and upgrades. It's really to understand how sticky are the customers with the product suites they have. Improvement in GRR is a healthy sign to upsell / cross-sell customers * Net Retention = which is includes GRR + expansions + upgrades. This is to understand how customers are growing their spend with the company * CSAT or NPS to understand customer sentiments and loyalty, which are strong predictors of retention.

RevOps & Demand Gen teams work together closely, but have unique KPIs to drive company growth. RevOps focuses on aligning sales, marketing, and customer success teams to drive revenue growth and operational efficiency, while Demand Gen teams concentrate on creating awareness and interest in a company's products / services, focusing on the top of the funnel activities. For RevOps, some of the core KPIs would be revenue growth; ASPs; Sales Cycle; Customer Acquisition Cost; Churn. For Demand Gen teams, some of the core KPIs would be MQLs, cost per lead, conversion rates at different funnel stages, brand awareness metrics. Important to note that through close feedback loops between RevOps & Demand Gen teams and tight collaboration, it can help to unblock any bottlenecks to make the company grow efficiently (and for sales teams to operate productively).