AMA: Intercom VP, Sales Operations, Tyler Will on Revenue Strategy Execution

There are a few different angles I would consider when evaluating what to implement first for your revenue engine. First you should understand the dependencies each of the tactical elements you have designed for your strategy. It probably does not make sense to implement something first that won't function well because the things it depends on are not yet up and running. By mapping out the dependencies of your various strategy elements, you can start to sequence your work in a way that makes the ...Read More

This is as much about company culture as anything. At Intercom, we would have a Coda page because that is our main tool for documenting and sharing work like a data dictionary. There's nothing wrong with a Word doc or Excel file if that is something people will consistently rely on for this. Your job is to figure out what the medium is that the company will respond to. Whatever format you pick, spending time to socialize your ideas and get buy-in from the other key stakeholders will matter a lot ...Read More

I think the question behind this question is how to get the sales team to have good CRM hygiene so that your dashboard will be accurate and updated vs. how to build an accurate dashboard. CRM hygiene, of course, is the thing that keeps half the people reading this AMA up a night. There are a few different things you can do here, all of which are change management tactics since that's the solution to this problem. I am sure others here have dealt with this and could offers some suggestions of wha ...Read More

Like most RevOps teams, we look at a wide array of metrics that help us understand performance in various parts of the business. It's crucial to look at both short term and long term metrics, so I don't think it's bad to be concerned about the short-term, especially in a highly dynamic environment like we have been in for the past few years of Covid, ZIRP, and inflation. I like the book Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance by Jason Jordan th ...Read More

In this case of having a new leader want a different tech stack and strategy, I would stop or severely slow down the execution of your strategy until you can get on the same page as the new leader. Continuing on a path they have not bought into is not going to end well, especially since they seem to have a strong perspective and vision. The first thing I would do is get a large block of time with the new leader to review your strategy and make sure they understand it completely. You should get f ...Read More

Getting any senior leader on board is critical for any change, whether marketing automation or anything else we do in RevOps. Whenever we are dealing with larger initiatives, I like to use a decision-making framework (I prefer RAPID but RACI/DACI and others work as well). In most cases, for the big picture things RevOps teams are going to play the role of the R (and probably the P) whereas the sales or marketing exec will be the D. Within that program, you can be the D on specific implementation ...Read More

For your project to overhaul the handling of all inbound leads, I would think through all the different aspects of the change that might cause pain. That would let you develop a plan to mitigate the pain for sales and marketing. There are a few questions in the AMA about sequencing and timing of revenue strategy changes and implementation. I wrote a long answer to which you should look at for a general framework to use (see "How do I decide which tactical piece to implement first in our strategy ...Read More

I don't think there is a hard rule for how long an implementation should take to launch a new revenue strategy, and each company and the degree of change will influence this significantly. I wrote a longer answer to a similar question about deciding what to do first (see "How do I decide which tactical piece to implement first in our strategy for revenue engine?") and I think that guidance can help you reach an better estimate for the C-suite. If you have a plan, understand the dependencies, and ...Read More

Even with a budget cut, you should be able to find ways to leverage partnerships and community. You noted that you have a short list already so I would spend time prioritizing those efforts with the constraint of your new smaller budget. Which ones likely produce the most uplift for you? How much effort/cost is required for each of those? You can then look at the various portfolios of communities and influencers that fit your budget and will bring you the most uplift. That might be 100% to one c ...Read More

This is a good question and I hope other people can comment and provide their perspectives as well. I think defining and quantifying success metrics for RevOps is challenging. We're surrounded by probably the most quantifiable parts of a business - sales quota attainment and revenue generation, marketing leads and pipeline, etc. - and yet none of those directly reflect our work. As a general rule, I don't find time savings metrics from SaaS vendors very compelling. I think small time savings for ...Read More