AMA: LinkedIn Director Sales Strategy and Operations, North America, LTS, Zeina Marcotte on Revenue Ops 30 / 60 / 90 Day Plan

When starting a new rev ops role where the function did not exist previously, the most important step will be to align on the remit and priorities of the rev ops function. I would look at 4 core aspects: Strategy, Operations, Data & Systems, and Team & Talent and then determine the priorities to tackle first across those areas. 1. Strategy: If you are a brand new rev ops team, you need to start by asking what are the problems we need to solve for the business? What will be in the remit of Rev Ops? You'll want to spend time building out your priorities and aligning on them with relevant stakeholders. 2. Operations: Take a look at the current processes needed to operate the functions you support. For sales, this could look like understanding the acquisition funnel, the forecast process, rules of engagement and compensation. Understand who owns each of those and where the noise in current processes is coming from. Determine if any changes are needed or if there are things missing that need to be added as part of your priorities. 3. Data & Systems: Rev ops won't succeed without solid data and systems. Learn your tech stack and spend time understanding what's working well and what isn't. Ask about data infrastructure, who owns it? How reliable is it? Is it missing critical information? Should there be a rev ops priority for systems enhancements or data foundation investments? 4. Team & Talent: You will need a solid team to help you execute the Rev Ops priorities. Who is on your current team? Do they have the skills you need to tackle your priorities? Do you need additional resourcing? Understand the process to ask for additional headcount on the team. Then think beyond your core team. Who are the cross functional partners you work with regularly? Do you need more from them? Also including a link to a framework that has worked well for me as you progress across 30/60/90 days. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KOCTEDa_ezcSW0lUOgvQCt4csqunc7gg7n5VyAHb3Hw/edit?usp=sharing

Quick wins are a great way to boost your confidence and build your credibility early. I would be wary though of jumping the gun too quickly. Ideally, you spend some time learning the business to ensure you are solving the right problems, you don’t want to risk putting your energy and focus behind something that won’t provide long term value or isn’t aligned with the business strategy. Check in with stakeholders and understand if there are any immediate fires that could use your attention, but don’t miss the forest for the trees. You want to ensure that you are setting yourself and your team up for success. There’s a great HBR article on this that provides a framework for great “collective” quick wins. Most importantly, ensure that the quick win is urgent, meaningful and will help drive growth or improve efficiency. https://hbr.org/2009/01/the-quick-wins-paradox

In the first month, it is important to align on priorities for your team and your cross functional partners and stakeholders. Some great questions for crossfunctional partners could include: * What are your strategic priorities? * How do our teams normally work together? What has worked well in the past? What hasn't? * What information would help you make better strategic decisions? * Do you have a sense of where your greatest opportunities are? What about risks? * Where are the hurdles or challenges in the sales processes today? What generates the most noise for your team? * What is working well today that you don't want to risk disrupting? * How are we monitoring the success of our strategy? * How are we doing against competition? * Are there any macro or industry trends we need to factor into our strategy?

When creating a rev ops plan, you will want to make sure you are spending your time in the right place. A helpful way to do that will be asking many questions to ensure you're solving the right problems for the business. This requires a thorough assessment of what the business's challenges and opportunities are and building the right strategy to tackle them. I usually do this across 4 areas: Strategy, Operations, Technology & Data and Team & Talent. 1. First 30 Days Goal: Learn as much as you can about the business across the strategy, operations, tech & data infrastructure and team and talent. 2. In your next first 60 days: Question what you have learned so far. Some great questions to ask include: * How are we monitoring the success of our strategy? Is anything changing in the macro or competitive landscape that could lead us to want to adjust our strategy? * Where can we simplify our processes? What pain points exist? * Where do we need improvement in our systems & tools? Who owns our vendor relationships? How do we go about getting enhancements in our systems, tools or data infrastructure? Is there any strategy or process that's being held back by our system & tools? * Are roles and responsibilities clear? What cross functional teams are we missing or need more from? 3. In your first 90 days build out your strategy, initiatives and a timeline to get them all done. Key actions include: * Determine any changes to the business strategy * Set your/team priorities/OKRs * Align your priorities with your stakeholders * Determine the process enhancements needed * Determine the tools to invest in first * Align on data needs to prioritize * Determine any roles that need to be added or hired After the plans are in place, you can start to execute against with the confidence that you are tackling the correct challenges for the business. Set a cadence to report on key metrics and initiatives. Monitor performance regularly and tweak strategy as needed.

This is similar to the question I answered above, I usually approach any new rev ops role by building out a plan across Strategy, Operations, Data & Systems and Team & Talent. Those four categories generally cover the focus areas for most rev ops roles. I created a simple template that’s linked at the top of the AMA, also linking here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KOCTEDa_ezcSW0lUOgvQCt4csqunc7gg7n5VyAHb3Hw/edit?usp=sharing Use the questions in the template and any other relevant ones to start filling in the blanks to learn as much as you can in the first 30 days, question and go deeper in your second month and finally build your plan and start executing in your third month. Make sure you socialize your plan with relevant stakeholders and cross functional partners.

How you assess a new opportunity depends on your specific career goals and values. A useful exercise that’s worked for me is to spend time determining my most important career values. There are several ways to do this, but one way is to pull together a list of common values and stack rank them to find what is most important to you at work. For me, what usually tops my list is making sure I am learning/growing and being useful. The way that translates in my career is I always want to make sure that my next role is helping me build new skills and setting me up for something better in the future. I also like to be in a role that is highly valued or business critical. With regards to rev ops specifically, some things you might want to understand is the exact remit of rev ops at this new company. In some businesses, it’s seen as a strategic function that helps drive the priorities of the business, while at others it may be more operational and provide more systems and tools support. Make sure you clearly understand the scope and if this role will help propel you to what you hope to do longer term.

In my role at LinkedIn, we use a prioritization matrix with size of prize on one axis and likelihood of success on the other. Size of prize is meant to show the total value of spending time on this deliverable and the impact it will have on the business. The likelihood of success considers the level of effort to make it happen and resourcing and time needed. If something has a low value and a high level of effort, it is not worth spending time on and should come off your list, consider it “junk”. If something is high value/impact and high likelihood of success, consider it a home run and add it to your list. There’s a great post on LinkedIn about this framework here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/priority-matrix-pmat-alvin-kan/

I usually break up my plan for my first 30/60/90 days across strategy, operations, technology & data and team & talent. There is a template I created attached at the top of this AMA, also Linking it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KOCTEDa_ezcSW0lUOgvQCt4csqunc7gg7n5VyAHb3Hw/edit?usp=sharing Also critical in this time will be ruthless prioritization. Rev ops is often the go to for anything and everything sales or CS needs. Determine a prioritization framework that you agree upon with leadership. Here is a link to a post on LinkedIn's prioritization framework that has worked well for me. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/priority-matrix-pmat-alvin-kan/

When starting a new rev ops role where the function did not exist previously, the most important step will be to align on the remit and priorities of the rev ops function. I would look at 4 core aspects: Strategy, Operations, Data & Systems, and Team & Talent and then determine the priorities to tackle first across those areas. 1. Strategy: If you are a brand new rev ops team, you need to start by asking what are the problems we need to solve for the business? What will be in the remit of Rev Ops? You'll want to spend time building out your priorities and aligning on them with relevant stakeholders. 2. Operations: Take a look at the current processes needed to operate the functions you support. For sales, this could look like understanding the acquisition funnel, the forecast process, rules of engagement and compensation. Understand who owns each of those and where the noise in current processes is coming from. Determine if any changes to existing processes or new processes need to be part of your priorities. 3. Data & Systems: Rev ops won't succeed without solid data and systems. Learn your tech stack and spend time understanding what's working well and what isn't. Ask about data infrastructure, who owns it? How reliable is it? Is it missing critical information? Should there be a rev ops priority for systems enhancements or data foundation investments? 4. Team & Talent: You will need a solid team to help you execute the Rev Ops priorities. Who is on your current team? Do they have the skills you need to tackle your priorities? Do you need additional resourcing? Understand the process to ask for additional headcount on the team. Then think beyond your core team. Who are the cross functional partners you work with regularly? Do you need more from them? Also including a link to a framework that has worked well for me as you progress across 30/60/90 days. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KOCTEDa_ezcSW0lUOgvQCt4csqunc7gg7n5VyAHb3Hw/edit?usp=sharing