How can revops and the CS leader work together without anyone feeling like revops is “stepping on cs toes?”

Never underestimate the importance of building strong relationships at work. I honestly think all of this stems from building good relationships with the leadership across the teams and showing how RevOps can help CS improve, operate more efficiently, and achieve their goals.

The fact of the matter is, both teams are working towards the same goals. When I’ve seen situations like this before, I think it’s best to focus on the following:

• Focus on the shared goals across the two teams.
• Create shared objectives and initiatives.
• Pocket a few wins, and call attention to it.
• Focus on your key stakeholders and invest the time in building the relationship. Specifically focus on ensuring you’re aligned with leadership. Remember, we’re all people - connecting on a personal level will make it more enjoyable and collaborative.
• Be an internal advocate for the team where necessary.

When I think of CS Leader and the revops leader, to foster a strong partnership they need to be, and operate as two peas in a pod. This means - 

1. Shared goals: The CS leader and RevOps organization should be completely aligned on their ultimate goal, which is to drive revenue growth by delivering an exceptional customer experience. This makes the CS organization purpose driven.

2. Clear communication & Transparency: Foster open communication channels between the two teams. Having regular meetings, run joint planning sessions, and encourage information sharing. Transparency about data, insights, and decision-making processes will build trust and boost alignment. 

3. Clear R&R: RevOps and CS have distinct responsibilities The R&R clarity is very important for a great partnership. RevOps, as a strategic partner, is responsible for  analyzing data, optimizing processes, and ensuring everything runs smoothly behind the scenes. Customer success owns the customer relationships and is responsible for creating value for the customer and steering them towards success.

4. ​​Collaboration, not competition: RevOps is a partner and enabler of customer success. Their job is to work with customer success to deliver against the organization vision with the right KPIs , programs and clearly measuring outcomes.

5. Celebrate Success - Stronger together: RevOps and CS should celebrate joint successes. Whether it's hitting a revenue target or improving customer satisfaction, acknowledging and rewarding these achievements reinforces the value of their partnership.

If I have to use an analogy, revOps is like the pit crew in a car race. They work behind the scenes, analyzing data, delivering insights, designing processes and making sure everything runs smoothly. Customer success is like the driver, focused on winning the race (keeping customers happy and bringing in revenue). When the pit crew and driver work together seamlessly, they have the best chance of winning! Lets do this! 

Treat CX and any CS software like a product!

Build and maintain a product roadmap and share it often, gather feedback actively, groom your backlog of tasks and ideas, and use shared objectives to drive initiatives coming from RevOps and CS leadership. CS will see their needs and wants on that roadmap, but with an clear understanding of what may come first (and why), CS will also see RevOps solving problems before they hurt CS (which is literally magic).