From Chaos to Clarity: Navigating Revenue Operations
When stepping into a new role as an SVP of Revenue Operations and Enablement a few years ago, my very first team meeting began with a simple yet revealing question: “What are the biggest problems keeping you from achieving your revenue goals?” I wanted the raw, unfiltered truth, free from the polished answers you’d typically hear during your first meeting with the new team.
Immediately, the responses poured in, painting a vivid picture of organizational dysfunction. The first sales leader quickly announced, “HubSpot is broken; I really hope you’re here to fix it.” All eyes shifted awkwardly to our marketing leader, the architect behind our HubSpot setup, whose facial expression resembled discovering a tear in your plastic Walmart bag mid-dog-poop cleanup; definitely not thrilled.
Not to be outdone, the marketing leader fired back: “We generate plenty of MQLs, but sales just isn’t converting them.” The CRO chimed in, lamenting the untrustworthy data in HubSpot that made his critical pie charts and dashboards unreliable and the necessary tools essential for his board presentations. Another sales leader defended their performance, pointing the finger squarely at implementation: “We sell deals, but once they’re handed off, implementation becomes a black hole. Deals vanish, efforts wasted.” The implementations leader, visibly frustrated, countered that they received incomplete information and inadequate resources and faced clients who would often ghost the process entirely due to sales’ lack of handoff efforts.
This initial meeting was a masterclass in the tangled web of blame and confusion that often defines may organizations and exactly why companies elect to bring in a RevOps function to their organization. Each department felt its own pain, yet none saw clearly how interconnected their issues were. And they ALL were pointing fingers at each other! Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
When faced with such complexity, the key is prioritization. The problems voiced ranged from CRM frustrations to process gaps, but it became clear that certain issues carried greater urgency in impacting revenue. And it didn’t take me long to see that while CRM complaints, precious “pie charts,” and reporting demands seemed pressing, the crux of the problem was between sales and implementation. In this case the issues were directly affecting revenue realization.
I decided to focus first where the revenue was truly bleeding: contracts being canceled due to hand-off and struggles between sales and implementation. Although the CRM issues were real and reporting needs critical, nothing was as immediate or costly as losing signed contracts. Addressing this would provide tangible improvements, offering immediate value to the organization. So side note, if you are a RevOps leader, new to a role, determining where to “start” is critical. Proving value, and making a revenue impact right out of the gate is always the recommended route; the challenge is fighting through all the noice and determined what is the MOST important priority.
Digging deeper into implementation, it quickly became clear why the problems persisted. One part of the issue was that the sales teams were incentivized solely by signing deals, not by successful implementations. This meant crucial details often fell through the cracks during the handoff. Other challenges was with the contracts, lack of engagement with the technical and operational leaders on the customer side, and several other root causes. There’s never just one root cause driving a problem, there can be many; it’s always important to keep digging to get a full picture of the scope of the problem to solve.
Cross-functionally with the sales and implementation teams, we worked together and introduced a new process to ensure better alignment: clear accountability for sales reps to provide comprehensive, detailed documentation. This single change significantly reduced the confusion on the implementation side and improved customer onboarding dramatically.
Part of the solution inevitably involved re-tooling HubSpot. Once solutions and new processes are configured, it’s important to align the CRM, in this case HubSpot to the new and improved process. We systematically mapped the workflow, identified breakdown points, and fixed key issues, improving CRM reliability. Suddenly, the CRO had accurate, dependable data for board presentations, turning his pie charts from a source of stress into a reliable source of information. I mean it wasn’t perfect or pretty, it took a lot of hard work and alignment, but you get the point.
For anyone entering revenue operations or attempting to bring order to chaos: You simply cannot boil the ocean. Understanding the organization’s deepest pain points, prioritizing them strategically, and tackling them systematically is key.
A critical step for any RevOps leader to take (or CRO) is establishing clear KPIs across all departments. In this example, each team had its own metrics, often conflicting or overlapping in confusing ways. By standardizing KPIs around the broader goals of revenue growth and customer satisfaction, it can bring alignment and accountability across the organization.
(Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L., 1999)
If you’ve been in the world of RevOps as long as I have, sometimes it feels like seeing the world through the lens of Neo from The Matrix where the solutions become obvious only after you’ve peeled back the layers of complexity (Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L., 1999). Or quite frankly, you’ve seen it all before. When others are lost in the chaos, clarity comes from recognizing patterns, connecting dots, and understanding what truly drives revenue.
In every situation, clarity starts with listening closely to the team’s struggles, digging deeper beyond surface-level complaints, and identifying which problems genuinely affect revenue growth. By aligning efforts around these critical points, any organization can transform chaos into clarity and revenue stagnation into sustainable growth.
The journey from chaos to clarity is ongoing especially in Revenue Operations. The challenges will always be there, but clarity comes from building a structured, collaborative, and transparent approach to revenue operations. With this mindset, even the most daunting challenges can become manageable, turning organizational dysfunction into a pathway toward sustainable growth and success.
References: Wachowski, L., & Wachowski, L. (Directors). (1999). The Matrix [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
Photo Credit (main photo): Joseph Anzolone, https://josephanzalone.com/
