Decalcifying hardened systems and processes in larger orgs
This week let’s discuss what RevOps can look like at a larger scale company. One where you have over 500 employees. Years of technology buildup. The business has been successful to date. You know this because very few companies get to a place where they have that many employees.
RevOps leaders at these companies are asked to navigate technology complex landscapes, marked by substantial technological investments often lacking cohesive governance and strategic coordination. Now that’s very different from an early stage company that does not invest in headcount or systems. They bootstrap their revenue operations. In fact, they might even wonder whether it is worth the investment to even bring in a revenue operations organization.
At these larger companies, operations find themselves wrestling with fragmented systems, data silos, and decentralized teams. It’s an evergreen theme of revenue operations. One that I’ve been shouting from the rooftops when I started writing content back in 2019. These issues foster misalignment, delays in decision-making, and operational inefficiencies, significantly impacting scalability, agility, and market competitiveness.
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Let’s imagine that you’ve just been hired. One idea you have is to create a 30-60-90 day plan. And you’ve been given the instruction to create a 6 to 12 month roadmap of how to not only fix the company’s structural issues, but also to identify new levers of efficiency.
From a previous article
The first you thing you do is map out the Current State: Diagnosing the Challenges
Several specific challenges frequently emerge within organizations:
Fragmented Systems: I’ve noted that individual teams acquire different point solutions independently, creating a patchwork of tools without cohesive interoperability. The sales teams use Salesforce, marketing uses HubSpot, and customer success teams Gainsight without clear integration strategies. I have yet to find to find one systems map that shows the workflows across these systems. I’ve seen a Salesforce mapping, and a Hubspot mapping; but not one between the two! Ugh!
Data Silos: Customer data is scattered across multiple systems without a centralized data warehouse, resulting in conflicting data definitions and metrics. A simple metric such as "customer lifetime value" may differ dramatically between sales, marketing, and finance departments. You find that the VP of Marketing and VP of Sales discuss a metric but they have completely different definitions.
Decentralized Teams: Data and analytics resources are spread thin across multiple departments without a central governing body. For instance, marketing analysts, sales operations analysts, and product data scientists all work in isolation, duplicating efforts and missing opportunities for holistic insights. Or worse yet, some teams do not even have analysts.
Underutilized Investments: Powerful software features and capabilities remain unused due to inadequate onboarding, insufficient training, and lack of a clear adoption strategy. Organizations might invest significantly in advanced tools like Tableau or Looker but only use basic reporting functions, leaving advanced predictive analytics untapped.
These challenges typically result in:
Cross-functional Misalignment: Teams like Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and Product operate independently, lacking regular communication and shared objectives, resulting in inconsistent customer experiences and lost opportunities for synergy.
Decision-Making Bottlenecks: Without standardized definitions (data dictionary anyone?) and shared metrics, decision-making slows considerably. Executives question the data. Their interpretations are left to guesswork. All of this hinders agile responses to market changes.
Competitive Disadvantage: Compared to your peers who do not have as much calcification from these issues, you find yourself moving slower relative to the market. The market is growing but you are not growing as quickly. In fact, you’re losing market share.
Finally, in your presentation to the executives you showed them this fishbone diagram to convey the current state.
And now you have to walk in to the executive room with something. So you put together frameworks and then you end it in a practical note with next steps and timelines. Now let’s walk through some frameworks.
Your goal is to drive business-led Digital Transformation, not technology led
Senior leadership recognizes that addressing these challenges requires a business-led approach to digital transformation. Success hinges on robust governance, clear strategic oversight, and measurable business outcomes rather than mere technology adoption. Too many revenue operations teams lean on their technology chops as solutions. But I think that’s the tail wagging the dog. What we need is…
Revamp your Revenue Operations skillset today
Strategic Governance and Oversight
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