We interviewed some of the pros from Revenue.io’s Top 25 RevOps Leaders of 2022 for a new Day-in-the-Life series. In this first post, Demar Amacker, Director, Revenue Operations with Zift Solutions, tells us about a typical day – though is there a RevOps day that’s really typical? Yes! Demar has definitely created some enviable structure that other RevOps leaders can learn from.
This is where Demar Amacker’s day starts.
Early.
As the Director, RevOps with Zift Solutions, a channel marketing platform that helps optimize partner contributions, he’s up at around 6 am and starts the day by cleaning up any of the overflow work from the day before.
“I like to start the day with as much of a clean slate as I can so that I really can tackle anything that comes in,” he says. “Obviously, every day is different, but I like to be prepared to handle things.”
This means he’s big on making sure what needs to be done in a day, gets done.
But John Lennon said it best: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” So, when the inevitable happens, and work flows into the next day, Demar uses the early morning to get it cleared up, giving the day a kind of “do-over” feel when everyone else is just starting theirs.
Most of us have background noise while we work, but Demar has a vinyl record player in his home office. That’s how he actually starts his day, firing up an LP.
(Even typing that makes me realize how exceedingly cool it is. Now I want a record player in my office…)
And what could be cooler than that?
His choice in tunes.
“Some easy listening, some smooth jazz,” he says. “Music is a big part of my day-to-day. I like to spend that first two hours of my day doing those things I may not have time for during the rest of the day.”
The Zift team is a hybrid workforce with a small co-working space in Hoboken, New Jersey. With everyone working from their home space, preferred coffee shop or other remote locale, coming together in-person once a week is important for team connectivity.
“A small contingent of our team will meet usually weekly, on Thursdays, for more of that social camaraderie,” he says. “We try to clear a couple of hours during the day just for lunch and that water cooler kind of experience.”
The other person he looks forward to sharing lunch with is his fiancé who is a pastry chef.
“She always comes up with some amazing creative lunch options,” he says. “When I’m lucky enough to have her at home to share lunch with me, it’s nice.”
But pastries? Doesn’t that lead to a need for exercise? Demar has that covered too. He uses a standing desk at his home office and will walk around the apartment when he’s on non-video calls.
“I’m just staying active, staying loose,” he explains. “The older we get, the more we need to focus on flexibility and good posture and all of those things. That’s something I’ve been mindful of as I’ve set up my home office.”
The meat of Demar’s day is coaching the SDR team he oversees. He will review past coaching calls and notes earlier in the day so that he’s prepared for productive conversations with the team in the afternoon. This type of prep work may be done in a blocked spot on his calendar where he needs focus.
“We’re constantly getting pulled in a million different directions in RevOps across multiple functions and multiple teams,” he says. “So I need to be able to really dedicate a couple of hours to myself to work on those truly ‘heads down’ projects.”
Afternoons are check-in time with the team. Demar watches activity levels and looks for places where he can jump in and make things easier, more efficient or more effective.
“That’s what I spend a lot of my afternoons doing, quarterbacking different projects,” he says. “I try to make sure that I’m timely with my responses to my team because I’m that person that serves as a connector throughout the rest of the org.”
Slack is the dominant tool for communication and they are a Salesforce shop, so between Slack messaging, Demar might be scoping out KPIs on the various Salesforce dashboards that he manages. He needs to understand how the team is performing while also providing metrics to the leadership team. That visibility is key in their decision making process.
“So, you know, how much pipeline are they creating? And is it really aligned with everything that we’re doing from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top?”
At the end of the day, like so many of us, Demar may have a tendency to use personal time to check in and see if questions need to be answered. Even on a day off, he likes to stay in the loop and manage things rather than letting them build and turn into what he calls a “pile of unknown.”
“I try to be as available as I can,” he says. “I support multiple time zones and multiple continents at this point.”
But, there is flexibility and an appreciation of being human so when he finds some time to leave the work side of things alone, he’ll make his way to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
“It’s an amazing park that doesn’t get a lot of credit,” he says. “It’s a beautiful place to take a stroll, really clear the head after work and you really set that evening for being personal time.”
COVID has made a lot of people realize that they never want to go back to the office. It has also made some realize that they really miss the office experience. Demar is the latter.
“I find myself being more social in a sales kind of revenue role and that team morale is often driven by the team culture,” he says. “I think that you can really move the needle more whenever you can shake hands with someone. During COVID it’s a challenge, but we are obviously finding ways to bridge that.”
It’s clear his vinyl collection brings joy to Demar’s day. He wants to see others find joy in those same types of mini-moments.
“Whether it’s going on a walk, reading a few pages from a book, or whatever it is that brings you joy for the day for five or ten minutes. I say do it. You’re not going to regret it.”
Be sure to stay tuned as we continue our Day-in-the-Life series with other pros from Revenue.io’s The Top 25 RevOps Leaders of 2022 list.
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