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Episode 17: Why tension in GTM isn’t a bad thing

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Look around your organization, and you'll find tension everywhere. Humans naturally focus on what's in it for them, and there's bound to be conflict!

Watch and learn as Niel Hildebrand III reminds us that not all tension is bad, why we should accept that RevOps can't make everyone happy, and why keeping our eye on the company's best interests matters more than frustrating people now and then in this episode of RevOpsAF.

The Four Pillars of RevOps

Before RevOps was declared as a new thing by pundits, Niel was one of the operations professionals out there ignoring silos and taking note of the need for operations professionals to understand go-to-market strategy and how each team should function against that ideal. Revenue operators oversee strategy, analytics, processes, and systems because we need all of these things to work in concert if we hope to hit our goals.

"The concept of a unified revenue operations department hit me when I was thinking about data. It was a bunch of data arms races between the functions, and everyone was arguing over whose data was right. And my thought process was that if we can create a common data layer across the functions, you can have that sit on systems, which helps automate processes, and help generate revenue much more cleanly." Niel Hildebrand III

Jump to the clip to hear how Niel started thinking about revenue operations before it was a thing.

Balancing Tension Among Revenue Teams

Sometimes, we don't like to talk about tensions within a single department, but they exist! Think about any organization with a heavy focus on attribution or even opportunity source. If upper management places emphasis on achieving a certain percentage of opportunities generated per department, they'll start squabbling over how individual opportunities should be "credited."

"You're going to have natural battles within marketing. We talk about marketing as if it's a monolithic thing. The reality is there's some tension within. There's the events team and the digital team and the demand gen team, and they're all actually fighting for the same budget." Niel Hildebrand

KPIs (key performance indicators) have a massive impact on how tension plays out across teams, and revenue operators must become comfortable with speaking up when a KPI is counterproductive to the overall company objective. RevOps can leverage formalized planning and prioritization tools to manage competing demands and set better KPIs. Making shifts in how the business thinks about measuring early indicators can eliminate a great deal of infighting.

Jump to the clip to hear how Niel suggests reframing the problem to find a better goal.

Resolving Marketing vs. Sales Tension

Why is there so much tension between sales and marketing? That list would fill a book. However, a lot of these tensions can be reduced if upper management is willing to work hard to unify the two departments through shared goals and regular feedback cycles.

One alignment tool Niel recommended is to educate marketing leaders about the value of moving to a qualified account model rather than a qualified lead measurement. It's still important to know which people at an account are engaging – so don't throw away the work you've already done! – but marketers should think about the selling process as one motion. Multiple people engaging in an account is an excellent sign, but it's up to sales to find the decision-maker and focus their efforts efficiently.

In other words, hitting sales over the head for not following up with every person at a single account is a waste of time. If marketing can see this logic, they can focus on getting more accounts to engage rather than nitpicking at sales over individual leads.

"I'll ask a marketing person, 'Do you feel like you have to go and talk to all five people at an account, or could you talk to someone and reference those five people?' I think a true marketing person viewing from the sales lens will realize, 'Oh yeah, if the marketing team is engaged, why not just talk to the CMO?'" Niel Hildebrand III

Jump to the clip to hear how Niel has collaborated with marketing and sales to set more productive goals.

Being the Arbitrator During the Annual Planning

Too many of us have witnessed the aftermath of being assigned a goal after the CFO and the board of directors decided on a number without input from the go-to-market organization. Why does this happen?

"The incentives are misaligned. Finance wants the least amount of expenses possible and then the highest quotas possible, because then they get, in theory, the best kind of financial outcome. I think, unchecked, finance goes and makes wild assumptions about what conversion rates and growth are going to be." Niel Hildebrand III

RevOps need to be involved in the goal-setting conversation. Barring that, it's crucial to pressure test the assumptions finance makes and outline the resources necessary to reach those goals. For example, if finance believes lead conversion rates can be doubled, it's worth having a conversation with them about why that isn't feasible, given market conditions or historical productivity metrics.

Jump to the clip to hear how Niel has navigated finance assumptions. 

Managing Relationships to Achieve Tension Balance

RevOps will inevitably have some conflict with the departments they interact with. Different individuals within departments have immediate needs that may conflict with other business priorities. In order to avoid conflict that escalates, Niel recommends aligning with upper management to ensure your priorities are aligned.

"You've got to be okay with having that tension. And the way to do that is to have great relationships with your leaders and be on the same page about what you're trying to accomplish."

It's impossible to make everyone happy, but if you stay focused on overarching company goals, you can rest easy knowing that you're doing the right thing.

Jump to the clip to hear how Niel has experienced and overcome the tension created by territory changes.

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