AMA: Zapier Director, Revenue Operations, Lindsay Rothlisberger on Marketing / Revenue Ops Alignment

We recently started selling a new product and so our key challenges are: 1. Unified Narrative: One of the biggest hurdles is ensuring consistent messaging across all customer interactions, whether they're one-on-one or one-to-many. It's crucial that our teams convey a cohesive story that presents our solutions effectively and comprehensively. 2. Focus: Beyond just revenue numbers, it's essential to align on the specifics of our target customer profile and the problems we aim to solve for each (e.g. should we focus on one specific persona in one market, or should we experiment in a few areas). And what questions do we need to answer in order to know we made progress (e.g. what content is resonating with this customer profile)? This focus helps us better understand which segments to prioritize as we expand our go-to-market (GTM) strategy. 3. Compelling Offers: Aligning on what offers will effectively convert leads is critical. This might mean adapting our sales approaches to offer varied levels of engagement—whether high-touch or low-touch—based on the customer's needs and the scenario at hand. 4. Alignment on Strategic GTM Decisions: Deciding on the GTM approach involves numerous strategic decisions. These include targeting senior decision-makers while also engaging other influencers within the organization. It's about finding ways to nurture end-users and gradually develop them into sales-ready opportunities. By addressing these challenges, we aim to ensure that our sales and marketing efforts are not only aligned but also optimized to drive growth and penetrate new market segments effectively.

In our approach to lead management, we've redefined the traditional stages to better suit our sales velocity and product interaction. We combine Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) into a single category of Qualified Leads (QLs). This integrated definition ensures that each lead not only fits the right customer profile but has also demonstrated intent through key interactions—whether that's submitting a form, engaging with our sales team via chat, or actively using our product in ways that indicate an interest in upgrading. Our Revenue Operations team plays a critical role in this process. We are responsible for classifying these Qualified Leads into priority buckets, which determine the type of sales experience each lead receives. This segmentation allows us to tailor our engagement strategies effectively, ensuring that higher-priority leads receive a more personalized and intensive sales approach. Our process goes directly from Qualified Lead to Opportunity, then to Qualified Opportunity, and finally to Closed Won. This reflects our quick sales cycles, which can vary dramatically in length—some leads close within a day, while others take more time. A lead is converted to an opportunity as soon as they schedule a meeting with our sales team. It only progresses to a Qualified Opportunity once our sales team confirms that the lead is a good match for our offerings. The main metrics we focus on are the transitions from QL to Qualified Opportunity (QO) and from QO to Closed Won. We analyze these metrics weekly, drilling down into different lead sources such as inbound, chat, and product interactions to refine our strategies continually. This process helps us maintain a tight, effective funnel that can accommodate different types of leads efficiently.

At Zapier, Marketing and Sales collaboration is structured across various forums and levels within the organization, all with different levels of altitude, but all to report on, align and improve performance: 1. Weekly Business Reviews: Held every week, these meetings focus on reviewing top-line metrics such as conversion rates for different sales motions. We discuss significant strategic shifts, like whether to increase investment in high-velocity sales motions based on recent successes and the trade-offs involved. These sessions also provide an opportunity for Sales Leadership to share customer feedback directly with Product Leadership, which helps in refining our offerings based on real customer reactions. 2. Sales/Marketing Alignment Meetings: Also weekly, these meetings delve into the specifics of our strategic execution and how we can meet our revenue targets effectively. For instance, we might decide to concentrate our advertising efforts on a specific segment and assign a dedicated sales representative to validate this strategy. Additionally, we analyze the performance of various lead sources and hypothesize reasons behind any discrepancies in expected revenue outcomes. 3. Campaign-Specific Working Groups: These groups consist of team members who are directly involved in executing specific campaigns across Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing. They meet weekly or bi-weekly to discuss the tactical details, evaluate what’s working, and adjust strategies as necessary. This includes experimenting with new messaging or tweaking tactics to improve lead response rates. These structured interactions ensure that both Marketing and Sales are not only informed but also aligned on strategies, leading to more effective and cohesive campaign execution and lead management.

RevOps can play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between Marketing and Sales by implementing several actions: 1. Calling out Misalignment: RevOps is uniquely positioned to spot and address areas of misalignment as they have visibility across the entire funnel. For example, if Marketing is launching a new campaign, RevOps can ensure that Sales is not only aware but also prepared to leverage it effectively. 2. Participation in Leadership Meetings: By joining the operational rhythms of both Sales and Marketing leadership, RevOps can offer a neutral perspective that helps unify decisions and strategies. This involvement ensures that inconsistencies between the two departments are addressed quickly. 3. Creating Shared Performance Views: RevOps should facilitate the creation of unified dashboards or reports that highlight what’s working and what’s not. By providing commentary and insights on performance, they help both teams align their efforts with the overall go-to-market strategy. 4. Standardizing Tooling: Ensuring that both Sales and Marketing use the same tools and data sources is essential for consistency. RevOps should oversee the implementation and integration of these tools, promoting a common language and approach across all go-to-market activities. 5. Cross-Team Sharing of Resources: When RevOps introduces new tools or processes for one team, sharing these resources across departments can be beneficial. For instance, Marketing might gain new insights from Sales enablement tools and strategies 6. Feedback Loops: Establishing regular feedback loops where Sales and Marketing can provide input on each other’s initiatives can further enhance collaboration. At Zapier, we host a weekly Sales<>Marketing leadership alignment meeting. RevOps not only strengthens the partnership between Marketing and Sales but also ensures that both departments are more aligned and effective in their operations.

Mapping the ideal customer journey can be a great alignment exercise. The way I’ve done it is using the existing journey as a starting point, applying customer-centric thinking, and layering in metrics / data as later step to validate or disprove hypotheses and inform the ideal journey plus set goals: 1. Define the Goal: Start by clarifying the purpose of the mapping exercise. Are you aiming to educate executives, align stakeholders, or diagnose gaps in the customer experience? Setting a clear goal will guide the entire process. 2. Adopt a Customer-Centric Approach: Instead of focusing solely on internal metrics, take a customer-first perspective. Begin with a simplified chart of each major touchpoint. This avoids the complexity of minor nuances and focuses on the core customer interactions. 3. Align Touchpoints with Customer Needs: Evaluate whether each touchpoint effectively meets the customer’s needs at that moment. Are customers receiving the appropriate level of engagement and the right message for their position in the journey? This part can be highly subjective and that’s okay, definitely debate this with your marketing, sales and cs leaders. 4. Identify Mismatches: Highlight areas where there’s a disconnect between what the customer needs and what they are receiving. 5. Incorporate data: Layer on the conversion metrics and data to validate your findings or challenge your initial assumptions. Assign a key goal for each major touchpoint (e.g. conversion to qualified lead, expansion revenue) 6. Map the ideal scenario against the existing one: With insights from the previous steps, map out what the ideal customer journey should look like. Comparing the current journey to this ideal state will reveal gaps in tools, processes, and strategies necessary to enhance the customer experience. 7. Analyze Drop-Off Points: Identify where customers tend to disengage or drop out of the journey. Understanding these points allows you to develop strategies to re-engage these customers and guide them back onto the desired path. 8. Stakeholder Engagement: Ensure alignment and buy-in from all relevant stakeholders before initiating this project (marketing, sales, cs should be aligned on the ideal journey). The success of redefining the customer journey relies heavily on the engagement and commitment from your go-to-market team.