AMA: LinkedIn Vice President of Global Sales Operations, SaaS, Akira Mamizuka on Revenue Ops KPIs

This is a non-trivial topic since Revenue Operations is often a "recommender" in many decisions, as opposed to a "decider". The "dual mandate" of the Revenue Operations function is: 1. Grow revenue faster 2. Make the go-to-market resources more productive I believe best-in-class Revenue Operations teams should have a seat at the table, with direct influence on the outcomes above. With that in mind, Revenue Operations should be accountable for: 1. Revenue growth, addressable market penetration, market share expansion 2. Revenue/ FTE, FTE HC growth vs revenue growth Since an important part of the function pertains to running effective operations, it should also be accountable for: * Plan and forecast accuracy * Rep quota attainment distribution (50/50 or equivalent philosophy) * % account transitions y/y (lower is better)

I see 4 key steps as part of an effective KPI-setting process: 1. Align on the right KPIs. Employees need to understand why certain metric matters. Connecting any KPI to key business outcomes is crucial. 2. Socialize the method and numbers. Some KPIs are complex to be calculated and can be perceived as a black box. The more your employees understand how KPIs are calculated and how their efforts influence KPIs, the more effective this process will be. Also, explaining how targets are set and the philosophy behind them is key. 3. Track and publish KPIs. Make KPIs widely available through dashboards, newsletters, team meetings and 1:1s. Discuss trends and insights. 4. Use KPIs to make your business better. Take learnings from KPIs and propose changes to the business based on them. Hold individuals and teams accountable for underperformance. Celebrate overperformance.

First of all, let's not convolute KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with targets. KPI definition should happen independent of our knowledge of the market or the availability of historical performance data. It simply means defining the metrics that matter for your business. After your KPIs are defined, setting targets is the next step. In the context of a new market, where there is less information available than in a mature market, a few approaches can be considered: * Benchmarking: looking at comparable markets, both internal and external references, to use as a guide post. * "What you need to believe": backsolving the KPI to allow the business to hit certain financial goals (e.g. return on investment) In new markets, we often get targets wrong initially. However, the discipline of setting KPIs, tracking and learning from them, is what matters most.

If we think about the revenue flow in terms of a funnel, demand generation would be at the top and revenue or bookings at the bottom. KPI definition should follow roles & responsibilities. Along each step of the funnel, it is critical to first define: - Which function owns that step? - What are the activities and expectations for that step? - What a good handoff looks like to the function owning the following step? After those questions are answered, defining KPIs and targets becomes natural, in the sense that they should manifest how effective the company is both within each step and across the whole funnel. For a "new business" funnel, common roles and responsibilities and KPIs across each step of the funnel are: * Top of the funnel: typically owned by Marketing. Common KPIs: lead volume by channel and type * Middle of the funnel: typically owned by Sales Development. Common KPIs: volume of opportunity creation * Bottom of the funnel: typically owned by the Account Executive. Common KPIs: bookings, conversion rate, average selling price (ASP) A good understanding of the funnel requires the different functions owning the funnel to be in lock steps, and in some organizations (including LinkedIn) Revenue Operations (aka GTM Operations) also own Planning & Performance for Demand Generation.