Podcast
January 3, 2025
Episode 22: So, what’s a revenue flywheel?
Uncover the tactics, alignment, and data strategies that Anil Somaney at Island uses to refine the go-to-market flywheel and supercharge RevOps success.
In this episode of the RevOps AF podcast, host Matt Volm sits down with Anil Somaney, the Worldwide Head of Sales Operations at Island and self-described flywheel executive. Anil’s diverse background spans finance, sales leadership, and productively bridging the gap between sales and operations. Drawing on his time at Splunk, Cloudflare, Pluralsight, and Chargebee, Anil has developed a keen eye for refining the go-to-market flywheel for sustainable growth.
In their discussion, they tackle practical concepts such as aligning departmental goals, tightening ICP definitions, and engineering frictionless customer journeys. From identifying “small tweaks” that deliver outsized impact to examining the interplay between people, processes, and tools, this conversation offers tangible steps to boost RevOps performance.
“Flywheels deliver an outsized impact, you put in a dollar and you get $7 back.” - Anil Somaney
Anil likens the revenue flywheel to an engineering flywheel brimming with pulleys and levers, each representing a piece of the go-to-market engine. By fine-tuning these components—whether they be workflows, processes, or money—a minimal input can yield substantial output. A well-structured flywheel uses small operational tweaks to produce large-scale results, uniting all GTM facets under one efficient framework.
Jump to the clip to hear how Anil describes a revenue flywheel.
“The ability to tweak each one of these levers is really high and there are so many different levers.” - Anil Somaney
He highlights system improvements, tools, and automation as one lever in the flywheel. This impacts data, which needs to flow through your tech stack while being appended, enriched, and enhanced in a consistent way.
Organizational structure is another lever. Silos among marketing, sales, and customer success, where teams remain narrowly focused on their own metrics and tool sets, lead to friction. By championing cross-functional awareness and data consistency, RevOps can use the flywheel to develop standard metrics and KPIs across teams.
Jump to the clip for a detailed discussion about levers in the flywheel.
“Pipeline meetings are historically a conflict-ridden zone. Marketing says the pipe is awesome, sales says it's not enough and it's not very good. It's a tale as old as time.” - Anil Somaney
According to Anil, metrics serve as the connective tissue between departments. He advocates for structured meetings in which participants review pipeline health, share core KPIs, and then ask: what happened, why did it happen, and what are you doing about it? Through open, action-oriented dialog, organizations avoid antagonistic finger-pointing and instead focus on solutions that reinforce the entire funnel.
Jump to the clip to learn more about asking the right questions and structuring experimentation to find the right metrics.
“All you're doing is just starting to connect the dots. I think that, sometimes, this doesn't happen naturally. But a few probing questions can ultimately get people to the next level.” - Anil Somaney
When teams haven’t defined and aligned on their ICP across the revenue organization, you end up with customers who aren’t the right fit. Marketing may be chasing one ICP, only for CS to find that they can’t actually service this persona as promised. It’s important to tighten up your messaging cadences all the way through the funnel.
Jump to the clip to hear why defining the ICP is such a huge opportunity for RevOps to make an impact.
“The AE job is a really, really tough one. I think, a lot of times, people don't have an understanding and an appreciation for who's sitting across the desk from them.” - Anil Somaney
Reflecting on his career, Anil points to curiosity, emotional intelligence, and a relentless desire to keep learning as vital qualities for RevOps leaders. He advises leaders to think about how they’re going to dissect a problem and what levers to pull.
When it comes to dealing with people, remember that many of them might have 50% of their commission on the line. Be considerate in how you talk about problems. Finally, be a lifelong learner. There are always different ways of thinking about a problem so go out and find people that you can learn from and hone your skillset.
Jump to the clip for a deep dive into the qualities that make someone a successful RevOps leader.
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