If you’re writing a RevOps job description, it’s likely you realized that your company’s top-line growth could benefit from unified marketing, sales and customer success teams. You may have also noticed that data across these departments isn’t quite in sync, or that there are inefficient processes in place that are slowing down business results.
If any of those ring true, then hiring for RevOps is the right decision. Many SaaS businesses grow too fast to set up efficient systems and processes, leaving them with inefficient workflows and disjointed data. RevOps is the solution to this problem – it aligns departments and establishes workflow standards under the shared goal of driving top-line growth.
RevOps Job Description: What Are You Looking For?
Good managers know the importance of hiring the right talent. You want someone who will fit into your business and align well with your goals and culture. These are generic qualifications and make the hiring process sound easier than it actually is. Every role has its own set of intricacies based on the function it falls under and the expectations for the position.
RevOps has only been around for a few years, so hiring for a RevOps position can seem like a shot in the dark. After all, how do you put together a RevOps job description that attracts the right candidates when you’re not exactly sure what the job will entail? In fact, this is a problem that many companies experience, according to this 2018 survey.
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We’re here to shed some light on the subject. RevOps can be confusing, especially for those outside of revenue functions.
So what skills should you look for to make sure you hire the right person for RevOps?
Technical Understanding
For a RevOps role, you need someone who will understand the technical side of your business. At the very least, they should understand the basics of how your product is consumed by customers and generates revenue. For more senior-level roles, a deeper understanding of the technological capabilities of your product is needed.
Analytical Thinking
Another quality to look for is analytical thinking. The person in the RevOps role is going to bridge the gap between your sales, marketing and customer success teams. In the beginning stages of a shift to RevOps, this will require a lot of problem-solving and assessment of the current state of your teams.
Make sure that your candidate has the ability to look at things impartially with an eye for driving efficiency and alignment. Since RevOps is all about bringing teams together under the goal of revenue generation, it’s important that candidates can easily identify inefficiencies in processes or communication and find quick ways to solve for them.
Focused on the Customer
When hiring for a RevOps role, customer focus is imperative. As we’ve mentioned before, the shift to a RevOps focus is ultimately about driving a more seamless customer experience and strengthening customer relationships. Anyone in a RevOps role needs to have a knack for empathizing with customers and putting themselves in customers’ shoes. Their customer-centric approach will be a crucial component of RevOps success in your company.
Communication
Communication is a necessity for virtually any role – so this may seem like a no-brainer. However, it’s doubly important for a RevOps role. After all, individuals within the RevOps team will be the driving force of the movement across the organization. It will be up to them to implement and encourage alignment across teams, work with other stakeholders in the organization to source necessary information or resources and report on progress and results to leaders. One’s ability to influence is equally critical to RevOps roles especially when RevOps is a new model in an organization that will require change and alignment to achieve the right outcomes.
The Different Types of RevOps Roles
RevOps teams can consist of various different roles. While you don’t need to hire for all of them to push your business toward revenue-oriented alignment, they each have something specific to offer in a RevOps environment.
If your SaaS business isn’t quite ready for a full RevOps team, it’s okay to hire just one or two revenue-oriented roles. If this is the case, take a look at these different roles and get a feel for the duties of each. Once you have, you can take those responsibilities and craft a custom RevOps position that is best suited to your business.
Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
The chief revenue officer (CRO) is the C-suite incarnation of RevOps. They are in charge of pioneering the breakdown between your sales, marketing and customer success teams. They head the initiatives to optimize revenue generation and often are the go-between for the RevOps team and your business’ CEO.
Ideal CRO Experience
Because the CRO is at the head of the RevOps department, and ultimately responsible for the implementation of RevOps across your company, it’s good for CRO candidates to have some past experience in all functions that relate to RevOps – marketing, sales and customer support. With this context, they will better understand the common behaviors and goals of each function and will be better able to motivate as well as bridge gaps between them.
Likewise, a strong ability to communicate complex topics is invaluable to this position. After all, RevOps is an adjustment that aims to streamline your go-to-market teams (that is, sales, marketing and customer success) strategies. RevOps itself is a rather complicated topic that many are still unfamiliar with – trying to introduce new strategies, systems and processes to teams who don’t fully understand RevOps is a difficult task that requires strong communication skills.
What to look for in CRO Candidates
Sylvia Kainz, former VP of Global Revenue Operations at Eventbrite, said in an interview with the Operations podcast, “A RevOps leader should have a vision of what is the best impact that RevOps can have for top-line growth.” Their job is to take that vision and run with it. They are responsible for executing that vision and making it into a reality.”
So when selecting a CRO candidate, look for one that has vision. They may not have a full plan for your business immediately, but they should have several ideas of how they could go about starting the RevOps alignment – ideally based on past firsthand experience.
Vice President of Revenue
While the CRO is the C-Suite RevOps leader, the vice president of revenue is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the strategies that the CRO comes up with. They often work closely with the CRO to analyze, optimize and expand revenue. This role oversees the go-to-market teams and makes sure that each team stays in alignment with RevOps goals. Usually, they are on the same seniority level as the VP of marketing and VP of sales.
Ideal VP of Revenue Experience
An ideal VP of revenue should have experience in either sales, marketing or operations at a senior level. Regardless of which revenue-driving function they have deep experience in, it’s imperative that they also have experience in collaborating with the other teams.
It’s a big bonus if they have senior level experience with RevOps, but it’s not required. However, while the candidate is not required to have senior level experience with RevOps, they should have some sort of experience with it before.
Like the CRO, a candidate who has demonstrated the ability to communicate complex, strategic topics to varying audience types is ideal for the VP of revenue position.
What to Look for in VP of Revenue Candidates
Very similar to the CRO, the VP of revenue should have some sort of revenue operations vision. While it may not need to be as “big picture” as the CRO’s vision, candidates should be able to articulate how they will drive alignment across go-to-market teams.
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Sales/Marketing Operations
You may not be at the point of building out a separate RevOps function and hiring the positions above to drive it – and that’s okay. Most businesses start by hiring operations roles within the revenue-driving functions: marketing, sales, customer support.
As you start to introduce RevOps as a concept within your business, (rather than a separate function) these roles ensure that strategies within the teams are aligned to the revenue goals set for all the functions, as well as help work out the more granular problems that come with implementing strategies – like broken workflows or inefficient processes.
Ideal Experience for Operation Roles
Candidates applying for an operations role should have significant experience in the function of their choice. So anyone applying for a sales operations role should have experience being a contributing part of a sales organization. Likewise, a marketing operations role would require someone with experience in a marketing team. Ideally, they would have managed a team within this function.
Because this role is primarily focused on helping go-to-market teams with the transition to a RevOps mindset, an elevated understanding of typical sales/marketing team processes and structures is needed.
What to Look for in an Sales/Marketing Operations with RevOps
When interviewing a candidate, look for the ability to think critically. While this trait is necessary in all RevOps roles, it is especially important to consider here. Since both sales/marketing operations roles need to assess their teams’ performance and look for inefficiencies, the best way to ensure they can do this is to make sure they are analytically minded.
It’s also important to look for tool familiarity in these roles. For example, sales operation candidates should have experience with CRM tools, while marketing operation candidates should know their way around digital marketing tools and marketing automation systems.
Start with RevOps by Hiring the Right Talent
Not every business needs a full RevOps team to start. Often, a RevOps team eventually grows, but it can all start with one or two motivated individuals who bring revenue operations into focus.
Implementing RevOps is a journey. Just like the market is always changing, so are strategies and revenue goals. If you have someone who is devoted to revenue operations, your processes and systems will become more efficient and more oriented toward your revenue growth.
So when making a conscious choice to implement RevOps, do your research and choose the right candidate. And, remember to look inside your business, too. Sometimes the perfect candidate is right under your nose, already committed to your company and looking to grow in new ways.
Stay tuned on the Maxio blog as we continue to explore what true, revenue-focused alignment means for SaaS companies.