Building a Successful Career in RevOps: 7 Expert Tips

With more than 17,000 SaaS platforms supporting today’s digital buyers, it’s no wonder that Head of Revenue Operations is the number one fastest-growing job title for 2023. 

Revenue operations (RevOps) owns the customer journey.

This rapidly growing career oversees a company’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy, tech tools, and customer data from the moment someone visits their website all the way to renewal. 

Like many RevOps pros, I didn’t start my career in RevOps, but rather, sales. I was the sales rep everyone turned to when they needed something done in Salesforce — run a report, build a dashboard, load leads, etc. My passion for sales and revenue operations ultimately led to roles at great companies like Yammer, data.ai, Salesloft, and now, LeanData.

After 25+ years in tech, 14+ different roles, and more conferences than I can count, I’ve noticed some patterns in building a successful career in RevOps. 

So, below, please find my seven best tips that will take you from RevOps rookie to RevOps rockstar.

#1 Actively Participate in a RevOps Community

One of the best places to learn new skills, chat about tech, and network with other RevOps pros is in communities. Whether it’s Modern Sales Pros, Pavilion, Wizards of Ops or OpsStars, communities are a great space to accelerate your career. In these non-competitive environments, you can ask specific, diving-in-the-weeds questions without having to provide a five-page backstory. 

In RevOps-focused communities, you’re guaranteed that someone else is having the same challenges as you. And, in my experience, RevOps pros are more than happy to provide a solution. 

#2 Obtain Relevant Professional Experiences

There are typically two disciplines in which someone has worked before they transition to RevOps: sales or finance. People who’ve worked in sales have the empathy of knowing what it’s like to try to close a deal. They also have experience using many different sales technology platforms. 

On the other hand, people who are financially-minded are also a good fit for RevOps because they are usually great with data and analysis. Finance pros understand the business operations that drive the revenue machine. To advance your RevOps career, you’ll ideally have a strong sales or finance background.

#3 Acquire Certifications

Certifications are generally not required to work in RevOps, but they can certainly help. Hubspot, Pavilion, RevOps Co-op and others offer RevOps courses and certifications. Having a certification in platforms like Salesforce or LeanData can be a notch on your resume that makes you stand out from other candidates. 

#4 Show Initiative and Strategic Thinking

Revenue operations is never stagnant. There’s always something happening. So to advance your RevOps career, you need to be willing to take on projects that flex muscles you don’t already have. Look for opportunities to jump in and say, “Why don’t we do this a little differently? Here’s an idea I have. Can we try it?”

When seeking RevOps leadership roles, it’s also important to demonstrate strategic thinking skills. You’ll have to articulate the long term vision of what revenue operations looks like at your organization as it spans across marketing, sales, finance, customer success and potentially product development. 

#5 Develop a Working Knowledge of Tech Tools

RevOps leaders not only own the customer journey, they also own the tech stack. Being tech-savvy is a good start, but to really advance your RevOps career, you need to understand  (to varying degrees) every piece of technology that impacts the customer journey. Based on today’s average tech stack, that could mean 130 SaaS apps. A good RevOps community will keep you up-to-date on existing software platforms as well as what’s hot and new in the market.  

Equally important, to make a tech stack effective, you need the ability to orchestrate the system as a whole so that platforms work together to create a seamless buyer experience. 

#6 Be a Problem Solver

Anyone who is considering you for RevOps leadership role wants to know how you think. Be prepared to talk about how you approach a revenue operations problem, what you did to learn how to solve it, and how you actually solved it. Include measurable results when possible.

People want to hire problem solvers. Technology is constantly changing, and as technology evolves, existing GTM processes tend to break. When processes break, you need to demonstrate the wherewithal to solve the problem.

Further, because revenue operations has a really good view of data, they’re often the first to notice problems. They know when meetings are falling through the cracks, when sales reps need coaching, or when a particular region is underperforming. Good RevOps leaders proactively propose business strategies based on the numbers they see. 

#7 Find a Mentor

As you network in RevOps communities, seek a mentor with revenue operations knowledge and experience. Once you’ve identified potential mentors, reach out and explain why you’re interested in working with them. Be specific about what you hope to gain from the association.

Mentors are a great source of feedback and advice. They’ll help you identify areas to improve your skills. Plus, having a mentor is often a confidence-booster. Knowing that you have someone in your corner who’s invested in your success can help you overcome self-doubt and stay motivated.

Say Goodbye to the Digital Janitor

With the rise of the pandemic-accelerated digital buying journey and thousands of SaaS tools to support it, revenue operations has moved miles past “digital janitor” status, cleaning up dirty CRMs, to playing a central role in driving revenue growth. RevOps leaders are in a unique position to notice problems, propose an investigation and put forward a solution.

Advancing in RevOps is not rocket science, but like most rewarding careers, takes effort, experience and ambition. Follow these seven recommendations and you’ll be well on your way up the ladder of success.