Sales Assembly’s RevOps Roundup is a monthly collection of tips, trends, and tactics to help you navigate the wild west of Revenue & Sales Operations – featuring yours truly, Sheriff Brad Rosen, Head of Revenue Operations here at Sales Assembly.
Let’s get into it. Yippee Ki Kay!
How many software tools do you use on a regular basis? Like really use. 3? 5? Maybe 7?
Of those tools, what do you think your utilization percentage is relative to the full capabilities?
We use only a fraction of the total capacity of each tool and even more worrisome are the tools we don’t use at all. Why is this “software waste” happening?
- Too many tools – mid-sized businesses each use hundreds of tools. This is perpetuated by the fact that more are brought to market every day. In fact, in 2012 software vendors had ~2 competitors and now they have ~9 on average!
- Switching costs are virtually zero – the cloud has made implementation and setup a breeze. However, this also makes churning from one product, and moving to another, super easy. It’s no wonder that companies are churning anywhere from 29%-46% of their software annually.
- Scope Creep – it used to be that each tool served a specific purpose and was really good at solving a singular problem. Now, every tool wants to be everything to everyone. Being a “platform” is now necessary for significant growth. Because of this, many tools have certain features that overlap with other software already in your tech stack.
So what can we do about this?
First, you should consider a tools audit. Rank each of your tools (1-10) based on the following attributes:
- Cost
- Potential Business Impact
- Ease of Setup
- Ease of Use
- Current Utilization
Once you have ranked each of your current tools based on this framework, you should have a better understanding of which tools make the most sense to lean into.
Next, consider if there are any tools that aren’t having the intended impact (probably high cost, low utilization, and low potential business impact). Don’t be afraid to rip tools out! Sometimes less is more…
Speaking of Platform Building
Zoominfo, the B2B contact database company, just made another big splash, acquiring Chorus.ai for $575M. You add that to their previous acquisitions (EverString, Clickagy, and Datanyze) and it’s pretty clear that they are trying to build the newest software platform.
What remains to be seen is if they can integrate these tools in a cohesive manner to allow for a seamless user experience. Only time will tell!
The Incumbent
When most people think of software platforms, the first name that comes to mind is Salesforce. By removing ancillary tools and using tools that natively integrate, you may be able to leverage economies of scale for pricing and efficiencies between sales activities.
Many enterprise sales processes are robust with account plans, relationship mapping, and playbooks. Utilizing tools like ClosePlan, Quip, or Prolifiq allows your team to take advantage of these features without having to add another tool into your tech stack.
Below are a few insights from leading RevOps pros throughout our awesome community:
Clay Bentley, VP of Sales, Metadata.io
Q: When scaling a sales organization, what are the most important operational processes to implement in order to ensure you are setting your team up for success?
A: When scaling a sales organization’s operational processes I first look at our product-market fit and do an analysis of closed won/lost opportunities to identify which processes can be adjusted to add more ARR and less churn. Based on the findings, I try to identify ways we can automate our processes to aid our sales efforts.
I also use that data to build comp plans, hiring profiles, playbooks, onboarding guides, skills training, and competitive battle cards. This allows us to use the insights gathered to make decisions that will align our GTM teams based on shared objectives.
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Slava Kovelman, VP of Operations, Threekit
Q: What changes are we going to see in Operations over the next 3-5 years?
A: The shift to work from anywhere is here and it’s here to stay. This means that offices, office locations, work hubs, sales territories, sales support, and customer support all are primed for a facelift. I can see a world where more collaborative workspaces sprout and are used for sales and team meetings. I can see a world where sales teams and their supporting teams are no longer bound by physical locations and support multiple territories.
From an operational perspective, this means that we have to be more flexible in our thinking to allow for change. We also need to be able to create an environment (both physical and virtual) that allows for collaboration and productivity no matter where our colleagues work from.
Did you know that…
Why Revenue Operations Matters…
Moving to a Revenue Operations Model that aligns revenue teams and optimizes the commercial architecture to reflect the new economics of selling can contribute five to ten points of bottom-line profit contribution in the short term, or if reinvested, can improve long term growth prospects by over 50%
Leadership is taking note…
In one poll, 85% of leaders say sales and marketing alignment is the largest opportunity for improving business performance today.
In another study, over 80% of the executives are redefining their commercial architecture, consolidating the operations that support selling, and reconfiguring the roles on their revenue teams.
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