Captain’s Log: Setting the Course for RevOps Structure

The previous section discussed the RevOps mindset and the three-legged stool of RevOps empowerment based on delivery, trust, and truth. With this understanding of purpose combined with knowledge, expertise, and swift execution, many RevOps professionals have succeeded and delivered immense value for their GTM organizations. However, the business world has changed dramatically in the last several years, and a new reality is now upon us. The speed and rate of change, combined with the latest technologies, have increased dramatically.?

Why Now? How RevOps Solves Post-pandemic Revenue Challenges

What RevOps could respond to previously in a matter of days or even weeks now expects a response in hours, minutes, or even real-time. The critical needs of the business are both urgent and complex, requiring RevOps to be up on the bridge and ready to respond in a crisis. How do you structure this role and function in this new world to set you and your GTM organization up for success??

Why RevOps Needs a Strategic Seat at the Table

To illustrate this vision of a new way to structure the RevOps to address the world of today, let’s take a voyage to the final frontier—to seek out new life and new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before. Let’s take a look using a science fiction vision of the future: Star Trek.

Like the Starship Enterprise, companies today are moving at seemingly warp speed as they embark on a mission to achieve their strategic and corporate objectives in uncharted territories. For instance, 68 percent of companies lack a plan for every GTM launch. Yet, companies that took the time to define their launch process—just defining it—experienced a 10 percent increase in GTM success rates.?

As you will see, the similarity is less strained than you may think, particularly regarding the ship’s structure and crew and how they operate effectively in the face of obstacles, the unknown, and continuous optimization while learning while on the go.

Understanding the Enterprise Framework

The Enterprise is powered by the ship’s engine, which supports all life on the ship and propels it via warp drive technology. By comparison, revenue fuels the GTM engine in today’s companies. It’s backed by the tech stack, which converts revenue into power and operational support for the company and its crew.?

The ship’s speed and the life-supporting services it maintains for the crew—including shields, weapons, etc.—are delivered by the engine using a full range of power from lower impulse power to high, white-knuckling warp speeds.

As for the crew, many crew members play an integral role in the ship’s functionality, but for the purposes of this analogy, let’s focus on three primary characters: the captain, the chief engineer, and the computer.?

• The ship’s captain (Captain Kirk) is the chief revenue officer. This may be your organization’s CEO or CFO, but this role commands the ship.
• The chief engineer (Scotty) is the revenue operations (RevOps) leader, a senior member of the leadership team, with primary responsibilities for the ship’s engine and warp core.
• The ship’s computer is AI. It takes orders from the crew and can be directed to control everything on the ship, including the ability to travel at warp speed.?

The similarities of the challenges and pressures associated with charting a powerful starship and driving toward revenue and strategic goals are worth noting. For instance, like Captain Kirk, the CRO/CEO sits at the company’s helm, charting the course and keeping everyone on the ship safe and on track in support of the mission. Like the chief engineer, the RevOps leader keeps the GTM engine working smoothly to deliver all the services needed for the ship and its crew. The Enterprise is dead in the water without the ship’s engines propelling it through space, just like a company cannot function without revenue and the successful operation of the GTM engine. The ship’s (your company’s) propulsion is delivered via a GTM engine powered by a set of complex systems and processes where people can take the guesswork out of their GTM journey through configuration, optimization, and maintenance.

An advanced technology stack allows companies to automate many processes and functions. However, that also requires an increasingly sophisticated RevOps function that manages, maintains, and improves this tech stack in an ever-increasing partnership with AI.

AI Engaged

When I was growing up, I read a lot of science fiction. I was fascinated by technology. Isaac Asimov’s I Robot was one of my favorites, with its brilliant Three Laws of Robotics and the challenges of navigating a world with advanced technology (intelligent robots) and humans working and living together. I loved thinking about the implications of technology on people’s lives. How will it change and transform how we work as new and exciting technologies are invented daily? How will we make it all work together? Then, I would imagine intelligent robots and machines we could communicate with directly to achieve greater and more significant improvements in the world around us.?

Here we are today with AI showing up everywhere, including RevOps!

Although it may seem daunting to learn a new way of working, AI provides an opportunity to transform the way we work and engage with others. Eighty-eight percent of marketers rely on AI. A recent RevOps report found that 82 percent of revenue professionals see the long-term benefits of AI, but only half have deployed it for more than one use.

I would argue that AI is coming at just the right time to assist when we need it most, given the rate and speed of change that is happening around us. However, how do leaders in GTM organizations engage with AI to ensure that this technology works to our advantage? Will it slow us down, complicate our lives, or take over without us realizing it?

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