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Journey of a Revenue Operations Leader

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Revenue operations isn’t sales operations of old

Supporting, servicing and selling to customers rarely starts and ends with one function. Organizations may have been optimizing within silos of sales, marketing or service in the past and thinking about tools, processes or even people to support those organizations, but now organizations need to take a broader, more holistic view to optimize priorities that drive the revenue engine.

Marketing, Sales and Service sometimes focus through their narrow lenses, and that is precisely where revenue operations can play a big role in opening up big opportunities across functions. This broader concept directly connects to revenue impact, and revenue operations is proving to drive and support revenue growth more effectively and efficiently.

Arshad Carim, principal at Alexander Group, recently had an executive interview with Cam McKenzie, VP of commercial operations at Pacific Biosciences. This six-part video series highlights the journey of a RevOps leader, key transformation points of revenue operations, the importance of getting C-level support, and the power of a well-functioning RevOps team.

Below are a few highlights from the dialogue between Cam and Arshad on these topics.

C-Level Support for Revenue Operations

Through Cam’s experience, a commercial or revenue operations leader’s job is to help the organization generate revenue, but it is a double-edged sword. You want to make it as seamless as possible but there is a lot going on behind the scenes. You must support and manage all the data and account hierarchies to create a very broad picture that helps drive strategic insight.

Cam shared the importance of gaining C-level support without losing their interest with details:

“Commercial operations is like a sherpa going up the mountain, carrying a lot of weight. They can do it and have been up that mountain a thousand times before. They are there to support the person on their journey to make it seem easier. The climber doesn’t need to know all the details but expects to get to the top. This is much like commercial operations leaders. They have the responsibility to ensure that the team understands the value and impact of what they are doing for the organization and choose when and how to expose to senior leadership what is really going on underneath.”

Diversity of Talent

Another important element Cam highlighted from his career is the need for diversity of talent within a RevOps team. As new roles emerge with the rise of RevOps teams, diversity of skillsets and new ways of thinking are critical. Cam noted that as a commercial or revenue operations leader, you cover many broad functions. You can’t be an expert in all of it, so you need to think carefully about the expertise required on your team to be effective.

Cam shared that “sometimes it is good to bring in outside perspectives. You may have always done things one way or with certain tools. When you bring in someone who can look from the outside, they might question processes or technology in a way that makes you think. This can allow your team to grow and use new resources that you might have missed without new points-of-view.”

As a revenue operations leader, it is important when you are figuring out how to support the organization, to spend time at the beginning listening and understanding what the needs are within the organization. Cam cautioned new RevOps leaders as follows: “Don’t just come in thinking you know what the organization needs. Make sure you understand what’s being done and how they’re operating before you make that decision for them.”