If you’ve followed our content for a while, you’ve seen us hammer on about the wide variety of mistakes most SaaS companies make while scaling from $1M ARR up to $50M ARR and beyond. These structural mistakes usually go completely unnoticed… until eventually your growth stalls out.

There are so many of these mistakes that, as of writing this article, we have months of content lined up for you (and there will be even more after that).

But every single one of these operational oversights would be found, fixed, or prevented entirely if companies did this one thing:

Make RevOps a strategic advisor.

That’s the crux of everything we teach, yet it can be:

• A complicated idea to get everyone on board with
• And an even harder one to implement.

In this newsletter, we’ll show you how to do both.

Why RevOps Deserves Needs to Rank Higher in Your Company

Imagine you’re on a submarine out in the ocean. The captain is your C-suite, the people in charge.

Then there’s the XO (executive officer), who acts as the “Number Two” person in charge. The XO needs to know what’s going on throughout the entire vessel so they can make thoughtful, educated decisions when trouble comes – and be an extra set of eyes to warn the captain of problems on the horizon.

In your company, the XO needs to be your Head of RevOps.

If your RevOps person is reporting to the Head of Marketing, it’s like taking the XO and putting them in the engine room to report to the head engineer.

At that point, they’re a mechanic.

This is what happens in virtually every company I’ve consulted. RevOps is so often viewed as a “mechanic” – a CRM operator and systems admin.. Managing systems, while also very important, is just half of the job.

And that’s why unsustainable growth practices go unchecked.

For example, let’s say your CEO and VP of Sales want to double revenue next year. To do this, they decide they want to double the sales team.

• Who is doing the math on this?
• Who’s building out territories for these new reps?
• Who’s checking that there’s enough inbound lead volume?
• Who’s making sure there isn’t another problem holding sales back?
• Etc., etc.

This is one of the most common issues I come across when consulting businesses (we wrote a whole newsletter on it).

You need someone in the control room with the oversight and authority to connect the dots between process, tools, data, go-to-market strategy, and revenue.

How to Make RevOps a Strategic Advisor

All of this sounds wonderful and amazing, but you’re probably wondering, “how the heck do I do this?”

If making RevOps a strategic advisor was an obvious, straightforward thing to do, we probably wouldn’t be in business! The reality is that, since RevOps is commonly seen as a systems admin function, it can be tricky to find talent that calls themselves “RevOps” while specializing in go-to-market strategy.

We’ve compiled some tips to help you add that crucial strategic pillar to your RevOps team:

Hiring a Strategic Head of RevOps:

1. You want Strategic RevOps piloting the team, not systems-only
2. Signs of a good candidate include:

• • They have a background in GTM strategy for SaaS
  • They have worked in and/or led other functions in the past
  • They can connect your processes to your tech functionality

For example, your Head of RevOps should be able to take the data coming from Sales and use it to advise Marketing on how to better target their ICP, or speak in the language of the Product team to help advise their leaders on what innovations the market is asking for.

Training for the Role Internally:

1. Don’t try to make a systems expert double as a strategic advisor

• • Have separate people running the different roles
  • One person doing both simply won’t have the bandwidth

2. For a lateral hire, good candidates might come from:

• • Sales Ops
  • Business Ops
  • Marketing Ops
  • Product Management
  • Customer Management

Need training for your internal hire? Our Weekly RevOps Coaching is the perfect option for getting professional development in the Strategic RevOps role while immediately benefiting from the guidance of an expert.

Fast-Tracking to an Expert: 

1. It takes time to ramp this role up, but time is the enemy in Ops…
2. We offer multiple resources to help you accelerate the process:

• • Weekly RevOps Coaching
  • Standalone GTM Strategy Service
  • Standalone Systems Admin Service
  • Complete Strategic Revenue Operations

TL;DR

• Your Head of RevOps should report directly under the C-suite
• When hiring a Head of RevOps, look for:
  • A background in running GTM strategy
  • Experience leading other departments
  • The ability to communicate between departments
  • The ability to translate tech functions in layman’s terms
• When training a Head of RevOps internally:
  • Do not make your Head of RevOps a systems admin
  • Good candidates usually come from an Ops background
• Use Union Square Consulting to fast-track your RevOps capabilities