Akira Mamizuka

Correlation between Go-to-Market actions and renewal success is one of the most studied areas in SaaS firms. Although the answer will vary for each firm, having a data driven point of view on actions and indicators that lead to positive renewal outcomes is imperative. Examples of actions and indicators: - Seat utilization - Renewal meeting 90 days ahead of renewal date - Account continuity - Customer-specific metrics (e.g. HC growth) - Documented and updated customer objectives With clarity arou ...Read More

Although I am not a Systems expert, I have experienced this challenge as part of my RevOps career. From my standpoint, the root cause maps to the fact that most CRM Systems are built with the "Sales" use case at its core, and often the workflows and capabilities for Customer Success and Support can be limited. A separate ticketing system for CS is not an issue on its own; however, if you respond "Yes" to any of the questions below, you might have an opportunity to enhance your Tech stack: - Do S ...Read More

First of all, let's not convolute KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with targets. KPI definition should happen independent of our knowledge of the market or the availability of historical performance data. It simply means defining the metrics that matter for your business. After your KPIs are defined, setting targets is the next step. In the context of a new market, where there is less information available than in a mature market, a few approaches can be considered: Benchmarking: looking at com ...Read More

This is a non-trivial topic since Revenue Operations is often a "recommender" in many decisions, as opposed to a "decider". The "dual mandate" of the Revenue Operations function is: Grow revenue faster Make the go-to-market resources more productive I believe best-in-class Revenue Operations teams should have a seat at the table, with direct influence on the outcomes above. With that in mind, Revenue Operations should be accountable for: Revenue growth, addressable market penetration, market sha ...Read More

If we think about the revenue flow in terms of a funnel, demand generation would be at the top and revenue or bookings at the bottom. KPI definition should follow roles & responsibilities. Along each step of the funnel, it is critical to first define: - Which function owns that step? - What are the activities and expectations for that step? - What a good handoff looks like to the function owning the following step? After those questions are answered, defining KPIs and targets becomes natural ...Read More

At LinkedIn, we believe that customer value is a "true north" objective. In fact, we know that successful customers tend to expand their relationships with LinkedIn over time, leading to revenue and profit growth. On the B2B Tech space, multiple functions interact with customers and users along their journey, from pre-sales to post-sales. However, often those functions roll under different parts of the company, which results in misaligned goals, inconsistent measurement and inefficient resource ...Read More

At LinkedIn we use the TAM (Total Addressable Market) approach to tackle this problem. First, we separate the "New Business TAM" from the "Existing Business TAM", in order to understand penetration and "headroom" in each category. Startups, early stage companies (and even mature companies potentially) tend to have a "New Business TAM" that vastly exceeds their "Existing Business TAM". This tends to be the main reason companies prioritize New Business over Existing Business. A secondary and more ...Read More

Dashboard proliferation and staleness is an issue companies often deal with, including LinkedIn. Bias to action leads to multiple different dashboards being built over time, leading to: Inconsistent metrics, since not always the builders align with metric owners on the same source of truth or a consistent way to calculate metrics Staleness, with dashboards not being maintained to accurately reflect changes in the business Confusion, with users not knowing which dashboard or report they should re ...Read More

A junior hire who is the first Rev Ops hire is an exciting role to be. They will lay the foundations for the company to grow and scale. However, this is also a chaotic role. At such an early stage, the company likely has gaps in processes, systems, tools, training and reporting, just to name a few areas. The first Rev Ops hire will be pulled in multiple directions to close those gaps. Here's some advice I would share with them: Be intentional about the mix of your time spent between "run" and "b ...Read More

I see 4 key steps as part of an effective KPI-setting process: Align on the right KPIs. Employees need to understand why certain metric matters. Connecting any KPI to key business outcomes is crucial. Socialize the method and numbers. Some KPIs are complex to be calculated and can be perceived as a black box. The more your employees understand how KPIs are calculated and how their efforts influence KPIs, the more effective this process will be. Also, explaining how targets are set and the philos ...Read More