Lindsay Rothlisberger

To set yourself up for success when establishing a Revenue Operations function, I recommend starting with an exercise to map out and benchmark the revenue process. You can use this to create a roadmap and then prioritize tasks using a framework such as the Value vs Effort Matrix. When RevOps is new at a company, a good way to determine the value of different tasks is to map out the revenue process and begin to benchmark conversion rates at different stages. This is a good way to familiarize your ...Read More

Here are some goals I’d consider for a new RevOps function: First 30 days: Meet with key stakeholders in sales, marketing, customer success, and finance to understand the current processes, tools, and technology being used. Use the information gathered to identify areas where revenue operations can make the most impact, such as improving the sales process, implementing new technology, or optimizing the revenue model. Develop a roadmap for revenue operations. Based on the gaps and opportunities i ...Read More

Marketing Ops teams are typically focused on executing and optimizing marketing campaigns. This includes marketing technology system management, data analysis, and campaign planning. Revenue Ops teams are focused on optimizing revenue generation and the customer experience across all go-to-market teams and channels – including sales, marketing, and customer success.  Revenue Ops, without marketing housed within it, is more similar to a Sales Ops team than the concept of a RevOps team, which is m ...Read More

The Revenue Operations team at Zapier consists of four sub-teams focused on making sure that Zapier prospects and customers receive a seamless experience across marketing, sales and customer success interactions. To be more specific, we work to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of go-to-market programs with technology (like our email platforms and CRM tools), data (like sales forecasting and reporting) and process (like lead and deal management). We identify, implement, and manage GTM too ...Read More

We recently started selling a new product and so our key challenges are: Unified Narrative: One of the biggest hurdles is ensuring consistent messaging across all customer interactions, whether they're one-on-one or one-to-many. It's crucial that our teams convey a cohesive story that presents our solutions effectively and comprehensively. Focus: Beyond just revenue numbers, it's essential to align on the specifics of our target customer profile and the problems we aim to solve for each (e.g. sh ...Read More

In our approach to lead management, we've redefined the traditional stages to better suit our sales velocity and product interaction. We combine Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) into a single category of Qualified Leads (QLs). This integrated definition ensures that each lead not only fits the right customer profile but has also demonstrated intent through key interactions—whether that's submitting a form, engaging with our sales team via chat, or actively usin ...Read More

At Zapier, Marketing and Sales collaboration is structured across various forums and levels within the organization, all with different levels of altitude, but all to report on, align and improve performance: Weekly Business Reviews: Held every week, these meetings focus on reviewing top-line metrics such as conversion rates for different sales motions. We discuss significant strategic shifts, like whether to increase investment in high-velocity sales motions based on recent successes and the tr ...Read More

Zapier has always been a remote workplace, so I appreciate how intentional teams are about building culture, relationships and trust. Some of the strategies I’ve found most successful in maintaining cross-functional alignment: Call out misalignment promptly: it’s important to be vocal when you notice folks aren’t on the same page. In RevOps, we are sometimes the first to notice this because we have line of sight across multiple functions. Open communication: We use shared channels like slack and ...Read More

RevOps can play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between Marketing and Sales by implementing several actions: Calling out Misalignment: RevOps is uniquely positioned to spot and address areas of misalignment as they have visibility across the entire funnel. For example, if Marketing is launching a new campaign, RevOps can ensure that Sales is not only aware but also prepared to leverage it effectively. Participation in Leadership Meetings: By joining the operational rhythms of both Sales and M ...Read More

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 tim ...Read More