Cambria Moreno

Marketing Operations should fall under the scope of Revenue Operations and that is where a lot of automation decisions are made. If that is not the case at your organization you need to drill into the concerns your marketing leader has for why automation is not their path of choice. Often times this is an issue of control and nerves around where the data sits and how it will be consumed. If you can position the automation as a net positive to their ROMI (return on marketing investment) they will likely be bought in. In the environment we are currently in automation reduces a lot of overhead costs which the company will benefit from in the long run.

This will highly depend on what sort of headcount you have in place. In order to get basic infrastructure built it would take roughly a quarter to map out things like sales methodology, sales process, marketing philosophy, incentive compensation, etc. If you have a quarter to focus on flushing all of this out then you just need to hire to plan and execute.

The best place to start will be with lead scoring or prioritization so the team has direction in how they handle different types of leads. Next I would work on your routing rules and getting alignment with the sales organization. This is usually the hardest thing to build if you want it to be automated.

Salesforce would be my number one answer but probably the answer of everyone. Outside of that you really need a robust and well built analytics tool. At HIghspot we are leveraging Tableau but I have seen various tools throughout my career. I think the key to having a good analytics tool is it helps drive your decision making. The biggest complaint I get from key Revenue stakeholders is RevOps is not proactive enough. I do agree with them as we are originally built to "keep the lights on" but as you grow you need insights early and often. Analytics is a key piece to that and if you don't have a good tool and smart people to stand it up you will probably not provide the value to a company that you should.

Often times this happens due to not really understanding the value of what you have built. Revenue Operations should be a consultant to our stakeholders on best practices but also make sure we listen. I would first listen and understand where they feel there are issues with the strategy you have built. You likely need to find some sort of common ground with your leadership on cost to rip and replace your strategy and pros/cons of changing directions.

Forecasting rigor and hygiene will be critical to your success. If you are just getting this dashboard off the ground I would make sure there is a component of the dashboard that speaks to the last time an opportunity was updated. Additionally, if you are tying stages to a business forecast you should make sure you have a regular live sync or a regular push of information to your key stakeholders to state what you are forecasting. When they come back with a feeling your number is low you can expose the formula you are using and the values going into it. By creating a more consistent cadence you can ensure the stages are updated at more frequently.

This answer depends on what sort of tools you have available to you. I think a google doc with key terms and definitions is always the quickest solve. Wherever you can incorporate these terms will help reinforce aligning the company. Outside of a google doc and sharing it you should take those terms and make sure they show up in all your presentations, your help text in SFDC and your training and enablement of your field team.

Pipeline is a leading indicator of success so I always believe you should start there. You need more time, money and effort in generating pipeline than you do in closing deals as you kick off a revenue engine. I would start by making sure you have a clear marketing strategy, rules of engagement with your incoming interest and a solid development team to prospect. Your first closed deal is going to come much later in your strategy and you will need a decent number of at bats depending on your win rate to accomplish that first deal. Make sure you invest the time into your pipeline generation methodology.

Your metrics are divided into run the business and long range plan. Run the business: * Pipeline generation * Forecasting Accuracy * Win Rates * YoY Growth Long Range Plan: * Competitive Win Rate * Partner Revenue & Growth * Revenue role productivity * Profitability - big one in our current market * Total Addressable Market There are a variety of others but the real difference is what will sustain your business vs meet your annual targets.