AMA: Intercom VP, Revenue Operations, Tyler Will on Building a Revenue Ops Team

I think whether you're the first hire or joining a larger, existing team, there are two categories of work to think about. First comes the foundational needs of the business which have to be set up. This is important to get right and build for some expectation of scale in the business: CRM, incentive plans, quotas, territories, rules of engagement, a forecasting process, and some basic dashboards for reps and leaders to manage the business (I'm probably forgetting half a dozen other essentials h ...Read More

My RevOps org structure is aligned around our key stakeholders (i.e., it mirrors our Sales and Success/Solutions orgs) and then has a few specialist functions. I have five director level reports with teams (see below), plus one IC who functions as a chief of staff / super-analyst to help me on priority projects and to run the org. Sales Strategy & Operations: this role has managers for our major sales regions with ICs underneath, as well as the Deal Desk team and Partner Ops support. Success ...Read More

When you start to build out a RevOps team, I think the first place to spend time is defining what the new people are going to do and then developing your hiring strategy for what you need. I have never going from one to many in my career but this principle holds for just about any headcount growth plan. What do we need these people to do? Is that work that is not being done today, or are you doing it solo and need someone who can go deeper? Or are we just seeing such a volume of the same type of ...Read More

I don't spend much time talking to the rest of the company about RevOps updates and activities. There is typically much more focus and interest in the performance of the teams we support - demand gen, sales, and success/solutions. On those topics, we're using a variety of monthly exec reviews, QBRs, weekly forecasting, bi-weekly deal review and pipeline reviews, and other reporting and readouts depending on what's the biggest priority for us. We speak more directly about RevOps in a few ways: We ...Read More

This is a good question and I don't think there's a single "right" answer to it. The most important thing is that you agree about how you will divide the work up so there's no confusion. At Intercom and LinkedIn, these two teams have different expertise. The DG team knows about marketing - what kind of campaigns to run, messaging, SEM, SEO/AEO strategies, content creation, etc. The RevOps team knows how to provide data and tools (Marketo, LeanData, 6Sense, etc.) to execute the campaigns, score a ...Read More

The key processes will depend on the nature of your company to some extent, but here are some things I'd think about. Daily operating processes Some checklist of whatever needs to be managed daily (often SFDC tickets, requests from sales/marketing/success leaders, etc.) with clear ownership Annual (or whatever cadence you have) planning Company level target setting (probably with Finance) Headcount / capacity planning Territory carving (for new and existing business) Incentive design (to the ext ...Read More

I answered a similar question earlier in the AMA, but I'll try to add some nuance for the existing business specifics. Most of this, however, is the same if you're the first RevOps hire working on new business, existing business, or both. I recommend trying to do a few things quickly to scope the role and set expectations (i.e., make your new job sustainable). Get very clear with your boss on the scope of your role. Since this is focused on existing business, you'll want to understand what that ...Read More

It's great you're even thinking about this because it's the first step to providing structure and the ability to make a case for more resources down the road. The exact answer is going to vary based on the needs of your business and the specific skillsets of the people you have on the team. I would start with some of the frameworks and points I have shared elsewhere in this AMA: Build a list of all the things you need to get done (daily operations, forecasting, analytics, planning, etc.) Align w ...Read More

If you're the first RevOps hire at your company, you are going to need to do a few things quickly to make your life manageable. Get very clear with your boss on the scope of your role. RevOps has a very wide remit and different meaning in every company. It would be impossible for you to cover all of that as a single person. Demand clarity on what your priorities are, who else will do other rev ops like work, and how you'll engage with stakeholders. Set up a few critical operating cadences to hel ...Read More

At Intercom we defined four characteristics of a best-in-class RevOps organization: Operational Excellence: we deliver a high-integrity system for the revenue teams that provides visibility, accurate forecasting, and data; we work in a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability Data-Driven Decisions: we help translate complex data into influential insights for stakeholders, drive alignment across teams, and inform decision-making across the revenue organization Strategic Thinking: we ant ...Read More