How Your Revenue Team Can Avoid These 5 Missteps in 2023 and Beyond

As we head into 2023, businesses face a host of new challenges – economic uncertainty, increased pressure on budgets, and the continued acceleration of digital transformation. In this environment, an effective Revenue Operations (RevOps) function is more critical than ever for optimizing the customer journey and driving profitable growth.

RevOps has the potential to be a major value driver – when done right, it can increase sales productivity by 10-20% and reduce go-to-market expenses by 30%. But many RevOps teams are held back by common missteps that limit their impact.

To uncover these pitfalls and how to avoid them, I sat down with Linda Fitzek, VP of Revenue Operations at leading sending platform Sendoso. Linda has built high-performing RevOps teams at companies like Google and now Sendoso, so she has first-hand experience with what works – and what doesn‘t.

Here are the 5 biggest missteps Linda sees RevOps teams making, and her actionable advice to overcome them:

1. Only exploring tech stack independently

Many RevOps teams approach their tech stack in a piecemeal way – they identify a specific business challenge, then look for a point solution to address it. While this can help solve isolated problems, it misses the bigger picture.

"When I see RevOps teams going into each tool independently to assess usage and ROI, that‘s a major red flag," Linda told me. "To really move the needle, you need to zoom out and look at all business capabilities across the go-to-market lifecycle."

Instead of an ‘a la carte‘ approach, Linda recommends taking a more holistic view. "Map out your key processes from prospect to customer – things like lead qualification, deal desk, customer onboarding, and so on. Then identify where the biggest gaps and improvement opportunities are."

Once you‘ve aligned on priorities, then look at your tech stack as an enabler. "Ask yourself – do I have the right tools in place to support this capability? How can I optimize usage and ROI across tools?"

By taking a capability-driven vs. tool-driven approach, you can build a tech stack that‘s greater than the sum of its parts. A tool like ZoomInfo, for example, doesn‘t just help with contact acquisition – it can also enable smarter go-to-market processes, richer account insights, and tighter alignment between Sales and Marketing.

2. Underinvesting in customer experience

Another common issue is not giving postpurchase experience the same attention and rigor as customer acquisition. "CX metrics like retention, expansion, and advocacy are harder to measure than pre-sale metrics, so they often get deprioritized," Linda explained.

This is a major missed opportunity, because an integrated customer journey is key to maximizing customer lifetime value. "Especially in a SaaS business, the renewal is just as important as the initial deal," Linda emphasized. "RevOps needs to give visibility into the entire lifecycle."

So how can RevOps teams quantify the impact of CX? Linda gave the example of Sendoso‘s "SuperSenders" community marketing program. "Our Director of Customer Marketing built a model to track the influence of SuperSenders on key metrics like feature adoption, pipeline, and revenue. That helped justify further investment."

Beyond just tracking CX metrics, RevOps also needs to facilitate alignment between postpurchase teams and the rest of the GTM engine. "What you‘re trying to do with retention and expansion is create a cohesive customer experience," Linda said. "So RevOps needs to make sure CX and Marketing are working together and aware of what the other is doing."

(Want to up your CX game heading into 2023? Check out Sendoso‘s ebook for tips and best practices.)

3. Not hiring strong RevOps generalists

Looking at many RevOps job descriptions, you‘d think deep expertise in Marketing, Sales, or CX tooling was a must-have. But in Linda‘s view, the most important skill set is actually the ability to solve problems across functions.

"I‘ve always hired generalists, because what I really need are people who can understand a business challenge, come up with a solution, project manage it to completion, and measure impact," she told me.

That type of agility and lateral thinking is key for RevOps to be successful. "You have to be able to pivot quickly and understand the needs of different stakeholders, almost like an internal consultant," Linda said.

So when hiring for your RevOps team, look for strong problem-solving skills, business acumen, and project management ability over narrow domain expertise. And give your existing team opportunities to stretch beyond their comfort zone – things like doing ride-alongs with Sales, sitting in on Marketing standups, or shadowing Customer Success calls.

4. Not clearly outlining quarterly priorities

For many RevOps teams, the issue isn‘t a lack of important, impactful work – it‘s having too much on their plate and getting stretched too thin. Often this stems from a lack of ruthless prioritization.

"If you don‘t publish your quarterly priorities and what you won‘t be working on, stakeholders will assume you‘re working on their pet project," Linda cautioned. "You have to show the receipts and explain the tradeoffs."

Linda‘s advice is to align on the three to five initiatives that will yield the greatest business impact – increasing pipeline velocity, improving lead-to-opp conversion, reducing churn, etc. – and deprioritize the rest.

"Given the team you have and company goals, be honest about what you can and can‘t tackle," she said. "Then communicate those priorities clearly so everyone understands what you‘re focused on and why."

It can feel uncomfortable to say no, especially in a function like RevOps that‘s designed to enable others. But by being intentional about where you invest resources, you can deliver more meaningful results.

5. Not encouraging authenticity

Last but not least, Linda emphasized the importance of authenticity and transparency on the RevOps team – something that‘s especially important in navigating the uncertainty of the current economic climate.

"As a leader, you have to be willing to say ‘I‘m struggling‘ or ‘I don‘t know how I‘m going to get this done.‘ Modeling that vulnerability gives your team permission to do the same," she said.

Creating space for real talk is key to building trust and resilience. "Right now, we‘re all being asked to do more with less, which is stressful," Linda acknowledged. "The teams that will come out ahead are the ones where people feel psychologically safe to have honest conversations."

One simple thing Linda does is to build buffer time into team meetings to check in on how people are doing. She also makes a point to highlight small wins and recognize good work – even if it‘s just a sincere Slack message.

Adaptability, empathy, and emotional intelligence are key leadership skills for RevOps in 2023 and beyond. By encouraging authenticity within your team, you set the foundation to navigate challenges with confidence and creativity.

Enabling RevOps Success in 2023 & Beyond

Heading into the new year, businesses will rely on RevOps more than ever to drive durable growth. But that requires RevOps leaders to navigate the headwinds of tighter budgets, leaner teams, and increased scrutiny on efficiency and ROI.

To meet the moment, RevOps teams must evolve from reactive to proactive – getting ahead of potential risks, continuously optimizing the buyer journey, and quantifying their impact on revenue.

Some key areas to focus on in 2023 will be:

• Evaluating your tech stack for opportunities to consolidate and increase utilization. Look for tools that can support multiple use cases, like ZoomInfo.
• Strengthening collaboration between RevOps and other functions through shared goals, integrated processes, and consistent communication. Consider embedding RevOps team members with Marketing, Sales, and CX.
• Identifying leading indicators of revenue health, like pipeline coverage, deal velocity, and net retention. Build dashboards to give real-time visibility into these metrics.
• Investing in RevOps team skills and enablement, especially around change management, stakeholder influence, and data storytelling.

As the business landscape continues to evolve, so too will the practice of RevOps. Over the coming years, we can expect to see an expansion of RevOps‘ purview – owning more strategic metrics like LTV:CAC, getting involved earlier in things like product-led growth motions, and having a bigger seat at the executive table.

We‘ll also see RevOps teams doubling down on agility as a core competency. "The ability to quickly diagnose gaps, spin up a tiger team, and iterate on new plays – that‘s what will separate good from great," Linda predicted.

While the road ahead won‘t be easy, it‘s an exciting time to be in RevOps. By staying focused on the right priorities, upleveling your team‘s skills, and leading with empathy, you can drive outsized impact and business value in 2023 and beyond.

Use the 5 missteps Linda shared as a gut check to assess where you may have blind spots or areas to optimize. Most importantly, give yourself and your team grace as you test, learn, and continuously improve. Sustainable growth is a marathon, not a sprint.