How to recruit for RevOps leadership

More and more, companies are realising the importance of revenue operations (RevOps) in their overall growth strategy. Fundamentally, having a RevOps structure results in better alignment between go-to-market teams. It's about looking at people, processes, and technology, and how to better optimise these areas for the best results. 

The very first step is deciding to incorporate RevOps into your business processes. Once that decision is made, the next step is to put the right people in charge to implement it. You may be lucky enough to have the right people in your organisation to take on this responsibility as it is. But more often than not, because of its newness, RevOps leaders may have to be sourced externally. 

So, how do you determine what you need in your RevOps leadership team? Keep reading to find out: 

1. Choose someone who values team alignment.  

Your people should be at the heart of your revenue operations strategy. Go-to-market teams often find themselves operating in silos, but RevOps structures prove that working together towards the same goal is the best way to optimise and foster company growth. 

With this in mind, you need to get your people bought into this new way of doing things. You'll need to have someone interested in motivating your team and bringing people together at the helm. You need someone with a team first attitude, who is skilled at painting a picture of what can happen when everyone joins together, shares data, has open discussions, and takes consistent steps over time to improve on their processes. 

2. Make sure they're data-driven in their decision making. 

As with any new ways of doing things, processes will have to change and it'll take some time for people to get used to it. When you're looking for someone to lead the charge with your RevOps strategy, ask about how they use data when it comes to making decisions. These decisions don't have to be massive or result in some sort of huge spend, but they do need to be justifiable. 

With all of the changes that'll come at once with implementing a RevOps strategy, be sure that whoever you bring in isn't afraid to be accountable for their decisions. If they are comfortable with data, chances are they'll have no problem supporting the rationale behind a decision they make. Not only is this important for the business and understanding how certain moves affect it directly, but it also gives you a way to field comments around skepticism or backlash from your team members. 

3. Gauge how tech-savvy they are. 

As the business world moves more and more towards a digital-first mindset, it's rare that a new process or idea comes to fruition without considering the best technology to ensure its success. When it comes to your RevOps tech stack, don't think that you have to start from scratch. However, you should be prepared to audit what you have. Make sure your RevOps leadership is comfortable with not only evaluating the technology you already have, but also looking ahead at what might be needed to fill any gaps following the initial audit. 

Once a decision has been reached around the ideal tech stack, your RevOps team also needs to have a plan for onboarding everyone in your go-to-market departments on the new tools, or any changes that have been made to the use of more legacy technology. 

Long story short...

If you are bringing in external leadership to focus on your company's RevOps strategy, be diligent in understanding how well they piece the aspects of people, processes, and technology together. If they are willing to build stronger ties between your go-to-market teams, use data to decide each step of your new processes, and are comfortable with choosing technology for team success, then they might be a great fit.