SaaStr Annual 2024: A CRO's Guide to Rev Ops and Operational Excellence with Owner's CRO

Understand how an operating system drives predictable revenue growth
Learn what operating rhythms you need to drive alignment, visibility and action across your GTM organization
Take away a step by step framework that you can implement immediately

1. A CRO's Guide to Rev Ops and Operational Excellence Kyle Norton CRO Owner.com

2. Over the next 40 minutes, you’ll learn a proven system to drive predictable results in your revenue organization

3. What is a Revenue Operating System? Why do you need one? Key principles Core components of a ROS Keys to victory Agenda

4. What is a revenue operating system?

5. A computer operating system acts as an intermediary between the user and the computer hardware and software It’s like a computer operating system for your rev org

6. A revenue operating system (ROS) acts as an intermediary between revenue leaders and their organization What is a revenue operating system?

7. It’s your Iron Man suit as a revenue leader When it’s right, it should feel like you have super powers Said another way…

8. Measuring Dashboards and reports Managing Cadences for written updates and meetings Planning Growth model and strategy Communicating Rituals, standards and comms templates It’s the set of tools & rituals with which you run the business

9. Where does a ROS fit in my stack This is how I think about company building: Company Mission Company Values Team Vision Strategy Principles Organizational design Operating system Training, playbooks and guides Tools

10. Why do I need a revenue operating system?

11. I know what you’re thinking

12. Why build a Revenue Operating System We’ve all been “in the vortex” which is a word we use to describe when things are disorganized, unpredictable and out of control The vortex is what happens when you don’t have a system Building startups and our jobs, generally, are chaos. An ROS can bring some order to that chaos It’s all about seeing things before it’s too late

13. Key principles

14. 1. Use the minimum effective dosage Key Principles 2. Measure what you want managed 3. Match the system to your business

15. It’s easy to over-engineer your business and spend more time talking about the business than building the business Only keep the rhythms that are most useful Every rhythm has a cost → preparation, meeting time, cognitive load Build things that enable your team instead of audit them 1. Use the minimum effective dosage

16. 2. Measure what you want managed You want visibility of the output metrics (of course) but you’re most interested in driving behavior of the input metrics You need to know today if you're going to have a problem tomorrow That's why you need to build on inputs Offering that same visibility to your team will drive the behaviour change Keep the main thing, the main thing

17. We’re SMB so there are daily & weekly rhythms that are not relevant for an enterprise business That said, you need to manage inputs What you are involved in as a CRO will evolve as your leadership team evolves Early days, you’ll be running the front line rhythm When you have great second line leaders, you can handoff front line rhythms 3. Match the system to the state of your business

18. 1. Use the minimum effective dosage Key Principles 2. Measure what you want managed 3. Match the system to your business

19. Core components

20. 1. Measuring Your heads up display

21. Measuring: your heads up display What: The cadence by which you check-in on input and output metrics and the tools you use to do it This is how you understand what’s happening in your business and take action

22. Measuring: Critical tools Control towers (dashboards for exec and functional leaders) Scoreboards (rep facing dashboards) Ensure that ICs can understand at a glance if they’re winning or losing and why Monthly Business Review Target setting process It doesn't have to be perfect, but defining it is critical

23. 2. Managing Your arc reactor

24. What: The rhythms you use manage the team and projects day to day Your management rhythms are how you drive action day to day Checking in on projects, progress and coaching priorities Managing is how you translate plans into measurable action Managing: your arc reactor

25. Weekly update ritual MAPLE: Metrics, Advanced, Planned, Learnings, Emergencies Coaching rhythm Dedicating coaching time (not 1-1s) with a shared template Meeting rhythm I opt to keep my as light as possible and rely on written communication 1-1s Provide a structure but enable your reports to own the content Team meetings Meetings should be used for brainstorming, collaborating or making decisions Managing: Critical tools

26. Weekly MAPLE Update

27. Team & 1-1 Meeting Templates

28. 3. Planning Your co-pilot, JARVIS

29. Planning What: This is how you pause, evaluate and plan for the next period This is generally a monthly cadence but in mature or long cycle businesses, it’s monthly check ins nested in a quarterly decision making cadence

30. Planning: Critical tools Growth plan Planning cadence Month in review and game plan Project cadence How you decide on what is getting resourced and, just as importantly, what is not How you check in on the progress of critical projects to keep them accountable and address any blockers and make decisions This can sprawl into meeting overload so MED here Prioritization framework

31. Planning tool: Monthly game plan

32. 4. Communicating Your thrusters

33. Communicating & deploying change What: How you communicate to and educate your team and deploy changes in the business Components Knowledge hub Standards for rollout (red/yellow/green) Templates

34. Clarity: Be as transparent as possible and assume your team can handle it Context: Start with why. Educate them on how the business works and how decisions are made. Consistency: (1) People need predictability. It lowers stress, builds confidence and connects them to the business to know that they'll get a download of the state of things regularly (2) You're training them on how to interpret results Components Update template and cadence All hands AMA Communicating the basics

35. Communicating tool: Monthly review

36. Your ability to change behaviour is a major determinant of success Great strategy and plans are useless unless you can effectively implement them How you deploy change will determine if you can change behaviour If you don’t have a defined process, rollouts will be mediocre Deploying change

37. Communicating change

38. Communicating change

39. Keys to victory

40. Keys to victory Build it up over time Start with the basics Standardize formats and tools Document everything Use technology to automate

41. Build it up over time You don’t need massive robustness across the board as a startup so start slow It takes time for the organization to metabolize new things

42. Start with the basics Measurement rhythm Without sound measurement, it’s extremely difficult to manage or plan Growth model Use lead/opportunity volumes and conversion rates and not (AE * Quota = ARR) Team rituals MAPLE 1-1 and team meeting templates

43. Standardize formats and tools Reduces cognitive load Remember: every ritual has a cost Spend 60 minutes up front to save 30 minutes every week Replicate the look and feel of frameworks across use cases The weekly MAPLE update structure is also a project update structure Ask people to commit to a common set of tools Don’t forecast in SalesForce then communicate to exec via spreadsheet

44. Things that don’t have clear instructions, don't get done or get done poorly As much as you can, build standard formats for thing that will recur Document what good looks like Provide clear instructions and examples for your leaders to follow Set aside time each week to write 1 thing out Document absolutely everything

45. You can run many of your rituals on autopilot by using triggers and notifications Things you need to audit and check should be pushed to you Momentum.io is my secret weapon here Have the information you need delivered to you in Slack Use technology to automate & assist

46. Keys to victory Build it up over time Start with the basics Standardize formats and tools Document everything Use technology to automate

47. Key Takeaways

48. A ROS can bring order to chaos Apply the minimum effective dosage because every rhythm has a cost The flywheel has 4 key pieces: Measure, manage, plan, communicate Start with a basic measurement rhythm, growth model and team updates This is hard and this is critical Key takeaways

49. Find downloadable versions of my template and frameworks at: TheRevenueLeadershipPodcast.substack.com If you want more

50. But wait, there’s more! I’m excited to announce my new podcast in partnership with Pavilion The Revenue Leadership Podcast dives deep into the details of how to succeed as a revenue leader.

51. UP NEXT: 2024 GTM Survey Tomasz Tunguz General Partner Theory Ventures