RevOps 500 Podcast

Today’s guest is an Award-Winning Digital Marketing Pro and has a reputation for pushing the envelope & delivering results. Please welcome to the show Ardyce Taylor, Director of Performance Marketing at Filevine. Ardyce joins host Sajeel Qureshi to talk about how a portion of her time starting out was dedicated to meticulously examining and analyzing data. Tune in to Ardyce’s fantastic advice about how to properly clean up your data!

RevOps Myth:

• There's a difference between ROI activities and brand awareness marketing activities.

Takeaways:

• With technology becoming more advance every day, Ardyce thinks the increasingly seamless ability to track and monitor various aspects through the implementation of cutting-edge software. Tracking within your organization ensures comprehensive oversight across all fronts.

• To effectively monitor trade shows, it is crucial to adhere to the following steps to streamline your trade show tracking process:

• When signing a contract with a trade show, ensure diligent tracking for accurate ROI calculation.

• Define the desired outcomes and activities for which the trade show should be held responsible.

• As your company expands, utilizing diverse platforms becomes necessary in order to consolidate data. Maintaining a proactive stance, staying informed, and maintaining oversight are critical aspects of ensuring strategic success.

• When Ardyce was first starting out, a portion of her time was dedicated to meticulously examining and analyzing data. As time progressed, she realized that data often reaffirms what she already knows.

• With data, you can go over things manually with a fine toothcomb, but once you reach a certain point, that's no longer feasible. To overcome this challenge, using advanced data platforms becomes crucial in identifying any inaccurate data. By using these platforms, you can easily clean up your data, leading to more accurate outcomes.

Quote of the Show:

• “Tracking performance marketing is what I live and breathe for.”  - Ardyce Taylor

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Today’s guest is a global marketing, corporate venture, a strategy veteran, she is a multi-award-winning business development professional, and a brilliant marketer. Please welcome to the show Kelly Owen Grover, Vice President of Marketing at Cloverly. Kelly joins host Sajeel Qureshi to talk about how important it is to build the foundation of trust with your potential clients. Start with having a relationship with the client to build that trust. Tune in to Kelly’s fantastic advice about using the right language when talking to clients!

RevOps Myth:

• It's not about data. It’s about growth.

Takeaways:

• Kelly believes that the spirit of RevOps is to work smarter and not harder. Kelly stresses the importance of having every RevOp unpack and understand how the company makes money at all stages of its customer journey.

• Kelly thinks that most companies have a very generalized view of CAC especially when the company has a diverse customer-based, customer journey, and average order value. Have a new way of strategizing with your customers instead of staying with your old system as the market grows.

• Kelly advises that marketers don't use their marketing language. Use the customer's language. Using the customer's language, you can learn about their wants and needs. 

• The depth of the data that you end up using to show a client, is going to get richer. Kelly mentions that there will always be an element of making sure the story, the take-home message, and the action comes out crystal clear. 

• Kelly says that there are two best practices for making your story crystal clear for your client:

• Be honest about your story. Be disruptive and catch their attention. Set an urgency fact upfront with your clients.

• If there is a big client, connect with them before your next meeting. Pre-align on what the story is and what the action plan is. So, when you go into the meeting, you’ve got everything prepared.,

Quote of the Show:

• “People don't just want to see the numbers and the graphs. They want to hear the story.”  - Kelly Owen Grover

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Today’s guest is an experienced graphic designer, an expert at client services, and she was the 2021 Top Woman in Media Tech Trail Blazer Honoree. Please welcome to the show Nikki Gertner, Director of Product Marketing at Celtra. Nikki joins the host Sajeel Qureshi to talk about why RevOps, marketers, and sales need an expert at storytelling. 

RevOps Myth:

• RevOps is just one team with one specific function.

Takeaways:

• Nikki believes that RevOps is a very cross-departmental team with an array of different functions that culminate in a story. 

• Another important role that is crucial to the RevOps department is the Data Insights team. Data Insights help navigate and collect data points to help tell a proper story for the marketing and sales department.

• Nikki explains the importance of having a good relationship with not only your small internal production team but with people outside of your group like Data Insights, Analysts, and RevOps. Having a relationship with other departments can build a stronger company. 

• Nikki does not recommend solving problems by starting on a new slate. Starting from the beginning again to make sure you didn’t miss any information can be very beneficial but incredibly time-consuming.

• When starting out with a new system, remember to check with your customers and get their reviews on the product. Getting outside opinions from your clientele is key in order to grow your company in the right direction.

Quote of the Show:

• “Nobody cares about the ingredients. They only care about the dish, the final meal.”  - Nikki Gertner

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Today’s guest is highly skilled in technical SEO and marketing automation. He’s dedicated his entire career basically to designing and executing major initiatives that always perform their target goals. Please welcome to the show Nick Talber! Nick is the Senior Director of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at Crux. Nick joins the host Sajeel Qureshi to talk about what it means to work in RevOps and how companies can better understand what role they play. 

RevOps Myth:

• RevOps represents a set of deliverables 

Takeaways:

• While a lot of people might think that the goal of RevOps is to represent a set of deliverables, it’s actually a constant task to remove friction to bring in more revenue. In any part of the funnel where something is getting stalled out, there is where the RevOps professional goes to work.

• For RevOps to be fully effective, they need to understand and fully measure your entire sales cycle. If you aren’t measuring all the steps in a logical sequence, then you will struggle to find the solution to where the issue lies. 

• A pain point for most RevOps professionals is that the work they do and the connections they make are highly valuable to a certain group of people, but that group isn’t very large. 

• There are plenty of CRM tools out there and everyone understands them, but there are a whole bunch of different types of data which isn’t common knowledge to everybody else. There is no G2 category or journalists who cover what RevOps are doing and who need their help.   

• One way to distinguish who might need your help as a RevOps professional and build a knowledge graph that is based on your ICP and see what common language is being used and find those phrases being used by other people.

• As the role of RevOps becomes more and more prominent, they should be intertwined with the sales team and feeding them all the information they have on their connections so that by the team they get to sales, it feels like a well-established connection for the potential client.

• If Nick could go back in time, he would tell his younger self to study route-based economics a lot because everything in the digital world is a correlation of a market that has a supply and demand side. 

Quote of the Show:

• “Try to eliminate friction, whatever it is.” (22:33)

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Today we have Brooke Fitts, Co-Founder at Jodder. Brooke discusses with Sajeel Qureshi that working in different industries is very helpful. Not only do you learn something new, but you can also usually share some lessons learned. Brooke gives us her tips on how to be thoughtful toward your coworkers and clients. Tune in to this great episode!

RevOps Myth:

•  There isn’t a magic RevOps formula. It is different with every business. 

Takeaways:

• When entrepreneurs and business owners sit down to build up the RevOps process, oftentimes the who is left out, they focus more on the what.

• Brooke believes we often forget to look at who the RevOps are and how they want to work. It is essential to maintain and organize the who in those positions. 

• Business owners should look for people who are the missing piece to their company. They should look for people who want to be a part of the end outcome and what they are trying to accomplish.  

• One thing that keeps Brooke up at night is making sure that her company is being thoughtful to those in her business and making sure that their clients are feeling cared for.  

• What Brooke’s business will do is compare its tools with its competitors. With your business, ask the question, “what are the tools that your competitors are using? Is there anything that you could learn from those platforms?”

• Brooke got her start by working at a startup company. She says that it was an amazing experience since she learned so much. She recommends it to anyone in the marketing field.

• When you are at a startup company, it is important to have a network of connections. Having connections can help expand your company and client outreach.

Quote of the Show:

• “Many business owners are looking for that magic formula with RevOps.” (01:29)

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Today we have Saurabh Sanganee, Director of Revenue Operations at GoBolt. Saurabh discusses with Sajeel Qureshi what the four pillars of RevOps are. The four pillars are people, process, technology, and data. Saurabh gives us his tips on how to ensure that your RevOp strategy is not just implemented in a silo. Tune in to this great episode!

RevOps Myth:

• RevOps Leaders are just CRM or Salesforce admins.

Takeaways:

• Revenue Operations is a new space for most companies. In this line of work, take control and manage your inputs.
• It is key that your responsibilities are taken care of in Salesforce. It is critical to double-check that all of your fields are up to date.
• Saurabh thinks the most important part of what a RevOps does is ensuring that their data is clean to help provide all the insights and analytics to make recommendations.
• As a RevOp, you want to make sure all of your teams have the right strategic alignment. It is crucial to keep your team up to date.
• Make your goals simple. Overcomplicating your goals can make it seem impossible to achieve. By simplifying your goals, it will become easier to achieve them. Go one step at a time.
• Saurabh says that RevOps has four pillars. The four pillars are people, process, technology, and data. Saurabh expresses having those pillars supported equally is key to keeping lasting relationships with your customers.
• The first thing you should do when tasked with building out a function in a new organization is to build relationships. Once you build that relationship, you can dive into the sales aspect.

Quote of the Show:

• “It is leaders like us who have to build towards a goal like it’s the north star.” (11:45)
• “At the end of the day, it is all about revenue.” (14:54)
• “People are the most important piece to a business.” (16:23)

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How do you become the unicorn of RevOps? We have just the episode for you! Today we have Darryl Praill, Chief Marketing Officer at Agorapulse. Darryl discusses with Sajeel Qureshi his two myths on RevOps, one is that not every RevOp have the skills to optimize operations and two, that RevOps tend to implement the tech that they are biased towards. Darryl gives us his tips on how to understand and optimize both sales and marketing. Tune in to this great episode!

RevOps Myth:

• People think RevOps have the skills to help you optimize your operations, and often they don't.

Takeaways:

• Often leaders of marketing assume that RevOps understands business, how marketing works, how sales work, and how sales reps but they don’t understand the roles of sales and marketing.
• When bringing on a RevOp to your company, you want to make sure they understand both sales and marketing. If you have a RevOp that knows sales, they won't understand the marketing side but the RevOp that knows marketing, won't understand the sales side. It is key for them to understand and optimize both.
• Another RevOps myth is that revops implement the best systems and tech to meet the needs of their circumstances. They tend to implement the tech that they are biased towards. They often provide the best tools that fit their comfort.
• When there is a problem, Darryl finds himself getting up close and personal with the issue and the people involved. Solving the problem in person and face-to-face can promote a faster resolution.
• Darryl believes that in the future, RevOps will have a seat at the executive table. They won't report to sales, and they won't report to marketing. They will be the neutral arbiter reporting to either the president or a CEO. Compensation for quality people will increase and authority and influence will increase.

Quote of the Show:

• “Building consensus is at the core of the foundation of getting any project done which is what RevOps is all about.” (30:06)

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Want to know how to focus on your value proposition as a RevOp? We have just the episode for you! Today we have Jeremy Woolf, Chief Executive Officer at First Domino Marketing. Jeremy discusses with Sajeel Qureshi the measures you should take in order to become a great RevOp. It is important to ensure you are well knowledgeable about data integration, management, goals/priorities of the company, and optimizing your business needs. Jeremy gives us his tips on how to give yourself time to learn. Tune in to this great episode!

RevOps Myth:

• RevOps is only for large enterprises.

Takeaways:

• In smaller companies, the RevOps position is a much easier goal. Smaller companies have easier control over their processes compared to larger companies.
• Jeremy has seen all of the functions with RevOps that are now combined into what is a best practice for their organization. By experiencing this, Jeremy believes that companies need to get a shared vision of the customer journey to understand the touchpoints, content, and channels.
• Jeremy expresses how important it is to make sure that you’re using your business lens and using that shared understanding of that pathway to drive decision-making. Having an informed decision will help your customers make that purchase choice.
• In order to make a good RevOp, it is important to ensure you are well knowledgeable about data integration, management, goals/priorities of the company, and optimizing your business needs. Most importantly, being prepared for change management because for most companies, having a RevOp is a new way of working and learning.
• One of Jeremy's biggest challenges as a RevOp is collaboration and communication. It is challenging due to the change the business will have to go through in order to work with its RevOps needs.
• Jeremy thinks one of the critical things is if you have a change management program, make sure to agree on the goals and have all the right players involved in the various departments.

Quote of the Show:

• “RevOp is not only for large enterprises, it’s for companies of all sizes.” (02:13)

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Want to know how to make sure your data is constantly up-to-date? We have just the episode for you! Today we have Srujan Joshi, Revenue Operations Lead at EventMobi. Srujan discusses with Sajeel Qureshi the importance of taking a step back to understand what your strategy is. It is so important to know the strategy you are trying to go for. Srujan gives us his tips on how to map out your buyer's journey. Tune in to this great episode!

RevOps Myth:

• RevOps is only for start-ups.

Takeaways:

• Revops was developed for startups on startups only. Today you're seeing businesses of all sizes and ages adopting the Revops role.
• You tend to see a lot of Revops working in Saas industries but lately, more businesses have been incorporating the Revops role in their company.
• It is always important to ask yourself, what are our priorities for this year? Write down some ideas and then based on those, break it down into what are your quarterly priorities for the company. Once you have gathered all this information, meet up with your team leaders to plan and discuss.
• When you're in Revops, you own the tech stack. So if your company is having customer-facing tech issues or any problems that they run into, you will be depended on to help fix those problems.
• The challenge that Srujan is facing is that the problems are identified by someone else and then they pass it on to you as Revop to help them. Ideally, what he would want to see is Revops figuring out what the problems are on their own.
• A big piece of advice that Srujan gives is understanding your customer's journey. Draw out a line from where they first started to how they ended up with your company. Understanding their journey will make it easier to advertise to more clients.

Quote of the Show:

• “Not everybody is a decision maker.” (15:08)

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How do I map out my company's work process? What does it mean to be strategic? We have just the episode for you! Today we have Casey Cheshire, Founder & CEO of Ringmaster Conversational Marketing and Podcast Host of The Hard Corps Marketing Show & Creating The Greatest Show. Casey discusses with Sajeel Qureshi how important it is to have a strategy. Strategy is all about having a goal and how to get there. Having a goal in mind and figuring out what actions you can do to get there is key. Casey gives us his tips on how to listen to your customers and how to step out from behind your computer in order to grow a relationship with your clients. Tune in to this great episode!

RevOps Myth:

• Marketing does not inherently matter.

Takeaways:

• For marketers, just because your technology stack is big. It doesn't mean you're making a difference in your company. You have to put yourself out there and actually make yourself busy rather than making it look like you’re busy.
• Learning technology is normally the first step marketers learn when it shouldn’t be. Learning about the process of the company should be the first thing marketers should learn.
• Try to implement training for the companies that you’ve worked with. When doing this you will find gaps within the company that you can correct such as stuck leads and communication issues.
• Figure out what it means to be a strategic marketer in your company. Marketers will tend to overuse the word “strategic” without knowing what it means. Strategy is all about having a goal and how to get there.
• It is very important to figure out what goal you want to set for yourself and your company. It is always good to have some goals in mind for yourself and your business. To solve this, ask yourself some questions, where's this company going exactly? Where does the CEO wanna take it?
• It is always important to step out from behind technology and go out to talk to customers. Build that personal relationship with them. Listening to them can create trust between you and your client.

Quote of the Show:

• “I want people to do marketing automation right.” (18:35)

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