Taking control of your operating cadences

Don't just "wing" meetings

Operating Cadences

The operating cadences serve as the rhythm of the business. If you have a standing meeting, that's an operating cadence whether you recognize it as such. These meetings differ from Communication and Engagement cadences in that they focus on execution. The forced accountability determines whether an executable path is on or off track and how to proceed further.

A Weekly Business Review (WBR) might focus on examining activity and productivity metrics from the week prior. A WBR for SDRs may look at the following metrics:

• Active SDRs per day

• Total activity (calls, emails)

• SLA %

• Email productivity (open rates, reply rates)

• Call productivity (volume, connects, connect rate)

• Meetings Set

• Meetings Held

• Pipeline created

Other operating cadences may include:

• Win Loss Reviews

• Top Deals

• Forecast

• Pipeline Review

• Campaign Execution Review

Interlock Cadences

Information tends to flow in silos, but innovation and productivity demands that it circulates across wider audiences. That's because siloed information introduces greater upstream and downstream risks. These risks don't just remain at the tactical level, but also cascade out to strategic issues as well.

An interlocking cadence is designed to mitigate these types of risks. A few examples:

• Sales enablement <> Product Marketing interlock

• Marketing <> Sales interlock

• Sales <> Professional Services interlock

An interlocking cadence is held at monthly or quarterly intervals. The audience is typically held to senior leadership. Post interlock, a Communication and Engagement cadences is used to broadcast outcomes to the field.

Interlocking meetings can be run as such:

• Group One shares project roadmap that may influence or need inputs from Group Two

• Group Two asks questions

• Group Two shares project roadmap that may influence or need inputs from Group One

• Group One asks questions

• Ideation

• Formal requests between each group

• Action Items assigned and follow up sessions set

Running the Cadence

However you run your cadences, adding structure will yield greater results over the long term. Adding simple things such as early communications and agendas signals that RevOps means serious business. For your cadences you might include the following:

• Communicate to audience for topics to include

• Set the agenda

• Set purpose of meeting

• Set ground rules

• Keep time

• Capture Action Items

• Give time back by ending early

Let's break each one down.