How do you retain good talent, especially when revenue operations roles are in such high demand across the industry?

• Ensure that associates are working on challenging projects
• Recognize the positive impact they are having on the business
• Provide meaningful feedback on a regular basis. We have quarterly "Connects" to share accomplishments, areas for improvement, goals for the next quarter, and development opportunities.
• With a virtual team, it's extra important to communicate what's going on in the business and provide the opportunity to ask questions. I have weekly team meetings and individual 1:1s.
• Invest in continuing education -- conferences, online training, or whatever is appealing to the associate
• Have some fun! Happy hours, team outings, etc.

Revenue operations demands a wide skill set that leads to a wide range of tasks as well as demanding career ladders. Additionally, revenue operations has the propensity to become low autonomy due to its nature in assisting numerous teams. Managing these challenges is essential to retaining top revenue operations talent.

Here are some ideas to improve retention:

• Understand both what interests the employee, but also what disinterests them
• If you can do it genuinely, reframe work outside of the employee’s interests by tying it to things that excite them more.
• For example, let’s say there’s admin work to be done around Opportunities in Salesforce but the employee's interest lies in data management. Ask the employee to lean on their interests to ask if there is an opportunity to increase data integrity or collect new data points of interest to the business. Give them the opportunity to complete this project while adding to its value by using their interests.
• Make sure to hire employees with varying interests, not just varying skill sets
• Career ladders should not demand excellency in all areas of revenue operations. RevOps spans data management, data analysis, tooling, strategy, and project management. You can create a more general career ladder with all important RevOps competencies and work with the employee to identify which are the most relevant for their career advancement
• For example, I have a career ladder with competencies in Data Insights, Project Management, Strategy, Tooling, and Leadership. The combination of any two leads to a powerful employee and as the team expands, their mastery will be more important than their generalist abilities. Reach out to me if you want to see this career ladder.
• Projects and ideas sourced within revenue operations can fall by the wayside if there’s too much emphasis on supporting other teams. The best way to support other teams is to give them perspective on the gaps across all go-to-market teams and what projects revenue operations can own to accelerate revenue growth. The cherry on top is this creates more autonomy for employees and increases retention.

This is a great question - so many things about talent retention have to do with the company as a whole vs. things that I have control over on the operations team. So the first thing is to join a company that aligns with your values and where you believe in the mission and leadership; retention is much easier if it’s a great place to work! On the ops team in particular - make sure your team is working on projects that interest them, that they have a voice in setting their roadmap and OKRs and that you share context from other business units with your team to highlight the importance and impact of the work they’re doing. Also, if there are parts of the job that someone is particularly averse to (e.g. software procurement/negotiations) step in or offer support so they can do more impactful work. Unless it’s a key responsibility of their role, doing some lifting on those ‘less exciting’ tasks can go a long way. Finally, run defense for your team whenever possible so they have less thrash and can focus on their work and not on bureaucracy or fire drills.

There obviously is not a one-size-fits-all approach here, but the way I think about this boils down to a few things:

• Create and foster a culture of learning and collaboration amongst your team, and enable folx to solve interesting problems together without someone constantly looking over their shoulder. When your team is learning and growing together with autonomy, that can sometimes be a tough thing to recreate somewhere else.
• Expanding on that, top talent will always value autonomy and trust in their work. I lean towards giving my team almost too much autonomy - the best way for them to learn is to learn from mistakes and figuring things out on their own, but it's also an important skill to know when to ask for help.
• Advocate tirelessly for your team and your top talent - that can apply to comp/promotions, visibility and exposure at a big company, or giving frequent positive and constructive feedback. I've been really lucky to have worked for managers who have advocated tirelessly for me and as an employee I really valued that. Working with a manager who knows your skillset and body of work well is super valuable so make it clear to your team how much you value them and then execute on that.

Retaining top-notch RevOps talent isn't as tricky as it might seem. At the end of the day, RevOps talent, like any other, sticks around when they feel valued and see opportunities for growth. Here's how to keep them engaged:

1. Recognition and Appreciation:

• Shine the Spotlight: Make a point of recognizing and appreciating the hard work and contributions of your RevOps team. Often, they're the unsung heroes behind the scenes, making the revenue engine run smoothly. Highlight their achievements and let them take center stage.

2. Nurturing Growth Opportunities:

• Lay Out Clear Paths: Acknowledge that RevOps roles are in high demand, with a rapid career trajectory. Offer clear career paths within the organization, allowing your RevOps talent to explore different aspects of the business and contribute meaningfully.

• Continuous Learning: Provide avenues for continuous learning and skill development. Encourage them to broaden their expertise in areas related to revenue operations.

3. Cultivating Initiative and Ownership:

• Foster a Culture of Initiative: Create an environment that encourages taking initiative. RevOps professionals are natural problem solvers. Empower them to take charge of challenges and drive solutions.

• Sense of Ownership: Nurture a strong sense of ownership over their projects and responsibilities. RevOps talent often thrives when they feel deeply responsible for their work.

4. Valuing Their Input:

• Treat Them as Business Partners: View your RevOps team as strategic business partners rather than merely receivers of directives. Actively seek their input and involve them in decision-making processes.

• Investment in Stakeholder Success: When RevOps professionals feel personally invested in the success of their stakeholders, it becomes a catalyst for both their personal growth and the overall growth of the company.

I dedicate time every week to evaluate how I am doing my part to deliver on the above on a consistent basis for the talent on my team. I have found that committing to these tenets creates an environment where RevOps professionals are not only motivated to stay but are also empowered to contribute significantly to the success of the organization.

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 time to foundational, less visible areas, it can result in "fires" and issues that become frustrating distractions for them later on.

2. Trust RevOps professionals to help make tooling decisions. They excel at selecting and procuring tools that solve business needs. However, Marketing and Sales leaders sometimes prefer tools they have used in the past. Lean on RevOps to help make these key business decisions.

3. Involve them early in new program ideation. RevOps professionals are excellent partners in helping to shape new go-to-market programs and initiatives(like trying new marketing tactics or new sales campaigns), but can sometimes be left out of the process until it's time to execute. This makes it difficult for them to gather the context they need to build the best process or solution. 

These are some suggestions that will help your RevOps team be successful -- and feel both empowered and supported.

First and foremost, you need to understand what is important to your team(s) and the individuals within it. At the end of the day, not everyone is motivated by the same thing(s). However, I have found usually someone's motivation will fall into one or combination of the following buckets:

• Compensation: Offer competitive salaries and benefits that align with industry standards/for your size of a company. See where you can differentiate yourself with perks too.

• Career Development: Provide clear career paths and growth opportunities for employees in revenue operations. Folks hate hitting a glass ceiling! Ensure individuals have the opportunity to acquire new skills relevant to their roles.

• Recognition: Recognize and appreciate the contributions of your team. Acknowledges their achievements and milestones. This can look like a shoutout in a public setting, a 1-on-1 note of appreciation or creating an "awards" program.

• Positive Work Environment: Culture matters. You can have the best role in the world on paper but if you can't stand the people you work with, it all goes out the window pretty quick. Foster a positive and inclusive work environment. Empower your team to share their ideas and contribute to decision-making processes. Create a culture that values diversity and belonging.

• Regular Feedback: Do regular performance reviews. provide constructive feedback to help your team grow and improve. Feedback is a gift. This should go both ways too (ie. you asking for feedback from your team on what you can do better or more of also).

• Continually Build Your Bench: Even with all of the above, you are going to lose people. This happens. Ensure you are in a continuous networking phase so you have "built a bench" of potential candidates when you get in a position you do need to hire quick.

I think it comes down to a few things and I don't think this is specific to revenue ops. I borrow this concept from one of my favorite Youtubers, Ali Abdaal, who notes in his upcoming book that meaningful work boils down to three P's - power, play, and people. And if you have a team or an organization that does all three well, you'll have a good chance of retaining people.

• Power is about autonomy and progress, the feeling that people have control over the work that they do. It also encapsulates a feeling of progress, and having a destination to work towards. Do people feel like they have a path forward? Do they have autonomy? Being able to say "Yes" to both is necessary to retaining (and hiring) talent.

• Play is simple - it's enjoyment. It's the idea that doing the thing, the work in and of itself, is joyful and fun. Do they enjoy the work? Are they being challenged enough? Are they bored?

• People is many things, but fundamentally I think it's about teams. I picture this as an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle is the immediate team that someone is in, their manager, their direct coworkers, the people they interact with on a daily basis. Is there a sense of connection with the team? Do people feel like they have to compete with one another? How are ideas discussed? How are they criticized? It's often said that people leave managers (and teams), not companies, and that's what the inner circle is about. The outer circle is the broader organization and company. It's less relevant than the inner circle, but still important. A strong sense of connection the company's mission is a indicator of retention.

Two pillars: reward good work and promote talent growth.

Reward good work by fighting for competitive compensation (aligned with industry but also in a relative basis within the company), offer visibility opportunities such as executive-level presentations for high performers, and implement a robust recognition program.

To promote talent growth, assign mentors for career advocacy, offer tailored coaching, and facilitate mentorship to foster skill development and thinking beyond the current role.