What hard skills are must haves to be a revenue operations leader? What are nice to haves?

In my opinion, soft skills are more imporatnt than hard in this role; however, there are a few hard skills that are important:

• Practical sales and/or marketing experience. It's important that you can resonate and empathize with the teams you are supporting.  This also provides credibility. 
• Strong experience with CRM and related technologies. My deep knowledge and expreience of Salesforce, Marketo, and other sales/marketing tools is a big reason I've been successful in this role.
• Experience with budgeting and data analysis. RevOps leaders need practical experience telling stories through data to enable the org to make better business decisions.

Honestly, I believe revenue operations leaders need soft skills more than hard skills. Hopefully they are coming from a background where hard skills like data analysis and visualization and Excel/SQL were needed, but broadening this question out to general skills - data analysis, storytelling, and communication and collaboration are the most important.

• Data analysis: Revenue operations leaders and teams are working with and responsible for the data that supports their stakeholders, so leaders should have a strong skillset in taking that data and using it to answer questions and solve problems so they can support stakeholders as well as help their teams do the same.
• Storytelling: This is kind of an extension of data analysis, but all the best data analysts are also outstanding storytellers. The CEO of your company is often not going to want the nitty gritty details of an analysis project, and so revenue operations leaders and professionals need to be able to distill complex topics into simple stories and narratives that someone who is not in the weeds will understand and take action on. 
• Collaboration: This is obviously important in MOST jobs, but revenue operations leaders are constantly working to align different teams and stakeholders across business functions, as well as help their own teams make the right strategy decisions. For example, Sales and Marketing are so reliant on each other, but oftentimes aren't collaborating nearly as much as they should be. A RevOps leader needs to be able to quickly identify those gaps and drive action based on aligned data, priorities, and initiatives. 

Qualities and Skills of Strong RevOps Leaders:

1. Data-Driven Decision Making

   1. Understanding: Proficiency in analyzing and interpreting data to make informed decisions. Great Revenue Operations leaders rely on data to identify trends, forecast revenues, and optimize strategies.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations heavily rely on data analytics to align sales, marketing, and customer success strategies. Expertise in data-driven decision-making is invaluable.

2. Cross-Functional Collaboration

   1. Understanding: Experience in collaborating with various teams, including marketing, sales, finance, and customer success, to achieve common objectives.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations require seamless collaboration between departments. Leaders need to bridge gaps and facilitate effective communication among different functions.

3. Process Optimization

   1. Understanding: Expertise in streamlining processes, identifying bottlenecks, and enhancing operational efficiency.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations leaders optimize end-to-end processes, ensuring smooth transitions from marketing-generated leads to sales and customer success interactions.

4. Technology Proficiency

   1. Understanding: Familiarity with CRM systems, marketing automation tools, analytics platforms, and other technologies used in Revenue Operations.

   2. Importance: Proficiency in technology enables Revenue Operations leaders to integrate systems, automate workflows, and leverage tools for data analysis and reporting.

5. Strategic Vision

   1. Understanding: Ability to see the bigger picture, align operations with business goals, and develop long-term strategies for revenue growth.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations leaders formulate strategic plans, ensuring that operational activities are in line with the company's overarching revenue and growth objectives.

6. Customer-Centric Focus

   1. Understanding: Understanding of customer journeys and the impact of operational decisions on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations leaders design processes that enhance customer experience, contributing to customer retention and lifetime value.

7. Adaptability 

   1. Understanding: Willingness to adapt to new technologies, industry trends, and best practices in revenue generation.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations is dynamic, and leaders must stay updated with evolving technologies and market demands to drive continuous improvement.

8. Leadership and Communication Skills

   1. Understanding: Strong leadership qualities, including effective communication, delegation, and conflict resolution skills.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations leaders lead cross-functional teams, making leadership and communication crucial for fostering collaboration and maintaining team morale.

9. Problem-Solving Abilities

   1. Understanding: Ability to identify challenges, analyze root causes, and develop creative solutions to complex problems.

   2. Importance: Revenue Operations leaders encounter diverse challenges that require innovative problem-solving to optimize processes and drive revenue growth.

10. Decision Making

    1. Understanding: Commitment to ethical business practices and making decisions that align with the organization's values.

    2. Importance: Ethical decision-making ensures that revenue strategies are sustainable and contribute positively to the organization's reputation and customer relationships.

The must have for a revenue operations leader data driven decision making and the ability to turn data into insights and insights to impact! Connecting the dots, identifying risks and opportunities to fuel growth is a differentiator!

Another must have as a leader is dealing with ambiguity ! Revops at its best, is Solving complex problems )at times with inadequate information), designing initiatives, setting objects and breaking organizational objectives into byte-size consumable chunks for the rest of the organization and mobilizing change across departments working with a wide-variety of stakeholders and constantly shifting priorities. How to do this is not a series of steps or a simple playbook, it requires one to look beyond what's possible and operate in a state of managed ambiguity (don’t pass chaos or complexity to your teams or stakeholders). This is an important differentiator to set yourself apart as an effective leader! 

In terms of soft skills - effective communication, ability to simplify and communicate vision/ideas clearly, good stakeholder management, collaboration and adaptability to change are all valuable!

The hard skills necessary for success in rev ops varies upon role, but usually include:

• Strong understanding of the GTM motion for the team you support (e.g. sales, pre-sales, customer success)

• Comfort analyzing data to surface insights and make recommendations

• Thinking from first principles when addressing a problem

• Familiarity with key GTM tools that the sales team you support uses (e.g. Salesforce)

Worth noting are the equally important soft skills that a rev ops leader should continue to refine

• Empathy for sellers; proactively think about how you can directly/indirectly help sellers drive more revenue

• Listening to your business partners and asking questions to understand what are their pain points

• Pro-actively partnering with other operations teams (e.g. marketing, enablement) to support one another

  • Think of joint KPIs (e.g.#of SQLs that SDRs and Marketing can help drive) and feedback loops (e.g. Cust Success helping Marketing identify ICPs of customers who renew well)

I do not like the terms "hard skills" and "soft skills" because, ultimately, to be a RevOps leader, these are simply skills that you need to master to be effective in your role. Due to the significant variance, you will find in RevOps leaders and their career paths, some competencies will be more prevalent or highly indexed than others, but each of these plays a role in being a successful leader.

• First, you need significant depth and breadth in understanding go-to-market strategy and planning. RevOps leaders need to be able to lead planning cycles, define the development of sales and growth plans, understand headcount, budget, territory design, and compensation plans, and build these into a cohesive rules of engagement

• Then, there needs to be a strong understanding of analytics and data strategy. The best RevOps leaders are the ones who understand the importance of data governance, data integrity, and take ownership of implementing a clear reporting dictionary. Data is the secret language of strategy. RevOps is often seen as the connective tissue between go-to-market functions, and that comes with the responsibility to align the truth and ensure everyone is speaking the same language.

• Following closely is a strong understanding of forecasting, knowing how to design and implement the systems and frameworks that ensure go-to-market leaders are able to deliver accurate forecasts and maintain pipeline hygiene.

• A key differentiator for RevOps leaders is also a mastery of business systems. Go-to-market technology can easily be one of the most powerful force accelerators for a go-to-market team and just as easily be a drag on what should be an adaptable and high-velocity machine. As a result, having at least a fundamental understanding of broader best practices around tools, technology, and, more importantly, change management and implementation will set someone apart as a best-in-class RevOps leader.

• Being a RevOps leader means you are going to be leading a RevOps team, and that means you need to build an A+ roster. You have to hire the critical players that are missing within your team, know where you're strong and where you need to index. If you're very strong on the financial aspects of go-to-market planning and are not as strong on the technical, make sure that your priority is to hire technical experts for your team. Similarly, if enablement strategy isn't your strongest, make sure to index and invest in talent that has a high ownership over the enablement function. If you are not as well versed in managing deal desks or in building out the robust functions required for effective contract management, hire a strong field desk manager to be a part of your team and add value in that space within your organization.

• Lastly, but most certainly not least, and arguably I would say it's the most important, is you need to be able to build cross-functional partnerships and communicate at a senior level. The best RevOps leaders work with everyone at the organization; there isn't a limit to go-to-market. As a result, you need to be able to be a partner, to put the business first, to be an effective agent of change, to build alliances and partners across an organization, and learn how to influence many other parties within the organization with whom you do not have direct management and oversight.

If you wrap all of that together, that's going to be the scorecard to live by for a best-in-class RevOps leader.