Every year, your executive team retreats to a fancy offsite, emerges with an annual revenue goal that’s… well, how can we put this nicely? It’s a heady mix of aggressive ambition, boundless hope, and a sprinkle of delusion. Yes, that’s right—your revenue plan is part miracle, part wishful thinking, and part “we’re definitely going to hit it… eventually.” 😅
While RevOps might love to propose alternative, reality-based models, more often than not, we’re handed the plan on a silver platter (or at least a sticky conference room whiteboard). Refusing to work with it isn’t exactly a career booster when leadership is dead set on moving forward. That plan becomes the blueprint for everything—from departmental objectives to compensation structures, hiring schedules, and bonus models.
But here’s the silver lining: even if you can’t control the plan’s creation, you can definitely control how you mitigate its risks. Let’s break down our two-pronged approach to making lemonade out of lemons (or at least, avoiding a sour end-of-year review).
The beautiful thing about being in revenue operations is that there is always more that can be done to increase efficiency and efficacy. In other words, we have job security!
Getting really good at reading analytics trends and then sleuthing out why those trends are happening can mean identifying fixes that make those aspirational goals a little more attainable.
The following are some common symptoms of larger issues and where to look next to determine the fix.
NRR Performance is Weak?
If your Net Revenue Retention is more “meh” than “marvelous,” it's a red flag screaming for a major deep dive. Start with internal stakeholders, interview front-line customer representatives, and then roll up your sleeves.
When customer retention and expansion are at risk, it’s worth scouring through online reviews and developing a list of questions for customer interviews.
We realize that customer success and sales are VERY protective of their accounts. To help them feel more comfortable, be extremely transparent about your process and desired outcomes.
These projects can make a huge difference for your company’s bottom line. You have the potential to uncover and fix sluggish time to value, onboarding process inefficiencies, opportunities to prove customer value, and ways to identify customer growth opportunities.
Acquisition Slowing Down?
It’s not uncommon for market changes to impact a company’s ideal customer profile (ICP). Unfortunately, it’s even more commonplace for companies to neglect reassessing their ICP. It’s a bad combo.
Dig into market analysis—find out what’s changed. Is it competition, economic shifts, or just that your product is now as outdated as last year’s meme? (Hopefully not that last one 😅)
We also recommend taking a more nuanced approach to ICP analysis. Spend time to figure out which customer profiles are the most likely to churn and least likely to purchase expansions. You may need to update your marketing team, enablement team, and sales managers when it comes to what actually makes a great customer target by updating them with a post-sale analysis.
Other Red Flags to Investigate:
As much as our executives would love a silver bullet — one answer solves all – fix, it’s rarely the case! Doing deep dives and educating different departments about their respective gaps can mean the difference between a company’s success and failure.
Early adjustments mean you’re not just patching leaks when the ship’s already sinking; you're proactively ensuring that business units can pivot before issues become irreversible. Think of it as preventative maintenance for your revenue engine. 🛠️
Let’s face it: leadership loves their plan like a kid loves their favorite toy. They hesitate to divert until it’s glaringly obvious the plan’s on a crash course. Your job is to frame those adjustments as smart, strategic moves—not as panicky, reactive measures.
It’s important to know your audience and understand which communication tactics work best. Some leaders need their ego intact while others will only act if it’s an all-hands-on-deck emergency. Using the wrong communication strategy can set everyone back.
For more on data storytelling, check out our article with an illustrative example.
Some executives are resistant to being challenged, but most react poorly when bad news is delivered because they don’t know how to fix the problem. Do the research to figure out exactly what is going wrong and bring the receipts. They’ll appreciate your ability to offer them a way to improve performance in the long haul.
And who knows? Some of those prong one projects above they didn’t want to invest in may get the green light. Failure is a big motivator.
Missing goals never feels good and the point isn’t to rub in what they should have done differently (that you recommended ages ago 🙄). However, discomfort creates the opportunity for change. Even the most resistant leaders can come around with the right motivation.
RevOps isn’t just about crunching numbers—it’s about ensuring that even a plan born from a cocktail of aggression, hope, and delusion stays grounded in reality. By identifying risks early and championing necessary adjustments, you’re not just saving the day—you’re carving out a path for long-term success and demonstrating your ability to manage up like the savvy pro you are.
So, next time the execs roll out their masterpiece of optimism, remember: RevOps is here to turn that “maybe” into a “heck yes!” Keep those KPIs sharp, those dashboards updated, and always, always let the bad news travel faster than the good.
Stay smart and keep dominating the revenue game! 🚀
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