Back to Your Feed

Who do you align yourself with to gain momentum in the leadership organization?

1 Answer
Kayvan Dastgheib
Kayvan Dastgheib
Tegus Global Head of Revenue Strategy & OperationsJanuary 24

I think this is a great question, because RevOps as a role becomes exponentially more impactful the more stakeholders that we have bi-directional, empowering relationships. New and existing RevOps teams should constantly evaluate how they are delivering for their stakeholders, and proactively gather feedback to build this positive improvement loop. We need to build upon trust and accountability.  

Let's first define what is momentum. I see this as a two different scenarios.

  • You are likely looking for a C-level executive to be a champion for your initiatives, to act as a sponsor and use their influence and relationships on your behalf. This applies in both situations where RevOps has a seat at the leadership table and does not, and senior collaboration is critical for getting C-Suite attention. 
  • You are new to an organization, and eager to make a big impact. You are weighing where and with whom do you focus your efforts, knowing this is a stepping stone to broader organization wide change.

In RevOps, your time is precious, and the initiatives and leaders you support implies that there will be others that you will support less (until capacity becomes available or increases of course). There is no magic answer here, because this alignment is conditional on the current objectives of the business.  

  1.  Make sure you know, in granular detail, the strategic objectives for your organization in the current half and fiscal year.
  2.  Internalize the message from the leadership team. Be able to explain what is important right now, and what focus areas are cascaded down to the various teams. There is definitely at least one direction the ELT is leading the organization, maybe a few. This can be a number of things: like focusing on customer growth, reducing churn, building a high performance new business team, implementing consistent quarterly marketing campaigns, driving penetration/attachment rates of multiple products across the customer base, etc. 
  3. With that in mind, examine the teams accountable for delivering on that objective. Those C-level leaders and their respective teams are going to be the best candidates for your alignment and proactive focus. I think it will be a theme in my responses today, but everything needs to be tied to a measurable (and believable) revenue impact. If your organization for example is focusing on churn, and building the infrastructure and strategy to mitigate it. Perhaps your organization has a Chief Customer Officer, with respective CS leadership. Maybe you have a joint team reporting to a CRO, where CS and Account Management leaders will be working side by side.  
  4.  Look at their priorities, and the current state of the business in respect to the change that needs to happen. To be a partner, you need to be an expert on their business, as if it were your own. Invest the time to build an intimate understanding of the nuts and bolts of their organization's day to day and how they work towards delivering towards that strategic objective.
  5.  Get time with the accountable leaders. Pick their brain. Trust their input, as they see problems and opportunities through a different lens than you. Relationships take work, in every aspect of our lives. You need to show that you are committing the time to listen and internalize their way of thinking.
  6.  Start block and tackling these big initiatives into bite sized wins distributed across, now, soon and later timelines. Partner with their teams, aligning on these specific bodies of work, and get to work. Use your skillset to deliver insights, process, data, and systemic wins to build credibility for your efforts.
  7.  Repeat. This takes time, and as you progress you will be able to look back and see just how much momentum you built.

P.S. If you are a new RevOps leader, or are going to be joining as a new leader, pick up the book The First 90 Days. Some of it may seem obvious but it is a great playbook to bolster your communication ability to establish those relationships early.

804 Views
Top Revenue Operations Mentors
Ignacio Castroverde
Ignacio Castroverde
Cisco Senior Director, Global Virtual Sales Strategy and Operations
Akira Mamizuka
Akira Mamizuka
LinkedIn Vice President of Global Sales Operations, SaaS
Ken Liu
Ken Liu
Databricks Director - Sales Strategy & Operations
Josh Chang
Josh Chang
HubSpot Director, GTM Strategy & Revenue Operations
Tyler Will
Tyler Will
Intercom VP, Sales Operations
Mollie Bodensteiner
Mollie Bodensteiner
Sound Agriculture Revenue Operations Leader
Azim Mitha
Azim Mitha
HubSpot Interim Sales Director (Asia)
Shirin Sharif
Shirin Sharif
Adobe Sr. Director, Revenue Operations
Eduardo Moreira
Eduardo Moreira
LinkedIn Director of Sales Strategy and Operations (EMEA & LATAM)
Brian Vass
Brian Vass
Paycor VP, Customer Experience Operations