AMA: Zapier Director, Revenue Operations, Lindsay Rothlisberger on Establishing the Revenue Ops Function

To set yourself up for success when establishing a Revenue Operations function, I recommend starting with an exercise to map out and benchmark the revenue process. You can use this to create a roadmap and then prioritize tasks using a framework such as the Value vs Effort Matrix. When RevOps is new at a company, a good way to determine the value of different tasks is to map out the revenue process and begin to benchmark conversion rates at different stages. This is a good way to familiarize your ...Read More

The Revenue Operations team at Zapier consists of four sub-teams focused on making sure that Zapier prospects and customers receive a seamless experience across marketing, sales and customer success interactions. To be more specific, we work to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of go-to-market programs with technology (like our email platforms and CRM tools), data (like sales forecasting and reporting) and process (like lead and deal management). We identify, implement, and manage GTM too ...Read More

Here are some goals I’d consider for a new RevOps function: First 30 days: Meet with key stakeholders in sales, marketing, customer success, and finance to understand the current processes, tools, and technology being used. Use the information gathered to identify areas where revenue operations can make the most impact, such as improving the sales process, implementing new technology, or optimizing the revenue model. Develop a roadmap for revenue operations. Based on the gaps and opportunities i ...Read More

To retain good RevOps talent: 1. Ensure that you support them in balancing foundational work, such as addressing tech debt, creating documentation, and building scalable infrastructure alongside reactive, execution-focused work.  RevOps teams run the risk of spending most of their time completing one-off tasks, such as implementing new automation within the sales process or launching marketing campaigns. While these tasks are a big part of the job, if RevOps team members cannot dedicate some tim ...Read More

Marketing Ops teams are typically focused on executing and optimizing marketing campaigns. This includes marketing technology system management, data analysis, and campaign planning. Revenue Ops teams are focused on optimizing revenue generation and the customer experience across all go-to-market teams and channels – including sales, marketing, and customer success.  Revenue Ops, without marketing housed within it, is more similar to a Sales Ops team than the concept of a RevOps team, which is m ...Read More