Unleashing the Strategic Potential of Revenue Operations: Escaping the Hamster Wheel
Revenue operations (RevOps) professionals are often
- January 25, 2022
Revenue operations (RevOps) professionals are often caught in a perpetual state of fire drills, grappling with urgent but low-value tasks and other daily challenges that hinder their ability to focus on strategic initiatives. This blog explores this RevOps dilemma and provides actionable strategies to break free from the cycle of constant firefighting, allowing practitioners to become more strategic and elevate RevOps as a front office function.
Going Nowhere Really Fast
As RevOps professionals, our days are consumed by a plethora of bandwidth-hogging daily fires including the ones listed below. These tasks leave little room for tackling larger, more strategic initiatives that at best get cursory attention.
- Tracking pipeline review action items including opportunities at risk and discount approvals
- Keeping tabs on campaign performance, and lead assignment and follow-up
- Preparing dashboard reports for management on key revenue metrics
- Chasing reps to update the CRM and maintain data hygiene
- Managing periodic rep issues – hiring, firing and commissions
“While RevOps practitioners make great firefighters, some tactical fires are better off handled in other ways.”
While RevOps practitioners make great firefighters, some tactical fires are better off handled in other ways – assigned to other teams or completely offloaded (think automatic fire sprinklers instead of stamping out fires manually) so as to free up cycles for the more strategic tasks. Examples of important tasks that typically get shortchanged in many organizations include:
- conducting a data-driven analysis of what worked and didn’t work in the past quarter
- tracking and driving improvements to core metrics
- conducting win-loss analysis and identifying vulnerable cohorts
- validating or refining the ideal customer profile
- detecting revenue leaks that are holding the company back in consistently meeting their revenue targets
While most RevOps professionals would like to establish themselves as strategic advisors for the CRO rather than reactive action item managers, the reality of everyday RevOps work holds many of them back.
While most RevOps professionals would like to establish themselves as strategic advisors for the CRO rather than reactive action item managers, the reality of everyday RevOps work holds many of them back from performing in that capacity. Brutal task prioritization is the only way to step off the hamster wheel.
The Eisenhower Matrix “What is urgent is seldom important and what is important is seldom urgent.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
President Eisenhower of the United States made famous an effective time management model called the Eisenhower matrix that can serve as a guide in the workplace for prioritizing tasks and creating resource cycles for strategic projects.
- Delete
Any manual or repetitive tasks that are both not urgent and not important, and can be eliminated altogether with the aid of technology - Delegate
Tasks pertaining to smaller fire drills that are urgent but not important and can be delegated to someone else, and eliminate the middleman - Decide
Tasks that are important but not urgent e.g. strategic cohort analysis, that should be scheduled on the calendar so that they get done within a reasonable time frame - Do
Tasks that are both urgent and important e..g. revenue impacting emergencies, that should be prioritized and performed right away
The following table illustrates how different types of RevOps tasks are done/not done today vs. what could be taken on, or improved with better task prioritization.
| Eisenhower Matrix | How it is done today | How it could be done |
|---|---|---|
| Delete automatable tasks | Manually monitoring a set of metrics and pulling data manually across multiple systems to root cause drop-offs | System watches all metrics over time and alerts whenever there is a dropoff/deviation from the norm |
| Delegate low-value fire drills | Work with SDR manager on why leads have not yet been followed up on within SLA | Systems monitors lead follow-up time and automatically assigns action item to SDR manager |
| Decide to tackle – ignored high-value tasks | Typically no effort is made to validate whether the GTM efforts are working across all segments of the defined ICP profile | Taking on a periodic validation/ refinement of the ICP would help the company course-correct its GTM efforts and improve revenue delivery |
| Do now – all high-value fires | Work individually with sales team to save a six-figure opportunity that is at risk of loss | Use data-driven playbook to save the six-figure opportunity that is at risk of loss |
Conclusion
Breaking free from the constant fire drill mode is essential for RevOps professionals to unlock their strategic potential and elevate the role of RevOps within the organization from that of a reactive firefighting function to a strategic front-office partner. By leveraging task prioritization frameworks such as Eisenhower Matrix and the power of technology to automate and/or delegate low-value tasks, RevOps practitioners can escape the tactical hamster wheel and find time for important strategic initiatives. Embracing a proactive mindset and focusing on pre-emptive action rather than fire drill reaction will enable RevOps to become a vital front office function, driving consistent and sustainable success for the entire GTM organization.
BigLittle Can Help
BigLittle was founded to provide RevOps practitioners with the tools, techniques and insights needed to simplify their lives and transform their function into a strategic front office organization. RevenUp provides both visibility and governance for strategic RevOps and agility and automation for day-to-day RevOps.
Talk to us to learn more.
