EPISODE SUMMARY
Scaling is the equivalent of a dream come true for software founders, which is why they tend to invest in revenue operations. However, going with a blind process usually means hitting obstacles and potentially injuring the company’s growth. This is where expert agencies like RevOps come into play.
In this week’s episode of Scale Your SaaS, Iceberg RevOps Founder Taft Love expounds on the intricacies of revenue operations with Host and B2B SaaS Sales Coach, Matt Wolach. He also explains how RevOps can catapult your company to the top while you develop your in-house revenue operations team. Make sure to watch the video to win more revenues and level up your SaaS faster!
PODCAST-AT-A-GLANCE
Podcast: Scale Your SaaS with Matt Wolach
Episode: Episode No. 270, “Why RevOps Might be Your Answer to Scaling – with Taft Love”
Host: Matt Wolach, a B2B SaaS sales coach, Entrepreneur, and Investor
Guest: Taft Love, Founder of Iceberg RevOps
TOP TIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
Know When to Choose Agency Versus In-house
RevOps has the potential to be the game-changer that you are looking for. However, it is essential to know how to execute revenue operations properly. Companies can definitely create their in-house departments. However, startups or newbies are better off outsourcing revenue operations to competent agencies.
Tackling revenue operations is similar to confronting the wild west. Even if you are a pro in your field, entering new territories can prove to be dangerous to your business. You can make choices like overspending in revenue operations without understanding how to measure the KPI’s properly. Coordinating with veterans would mean that you protect your capital and learn faster.
Always be Ready to Adapt
It goes without saying that the software business landscape is constantly and rapidly changing. You never know when the next innovation that will reinvent entire industries, just like GPT-4 did, will hit the market. As great as your current offers are, they would likely become irrelevant after five years.
That’s why growth should not only be seen in terms of your ARR. It is imperative for your company to grow along with your stakeholders. It wouldn’t matter how much progress you’ve made if your services become obsolete because you need to keep up with the market. Strengthen your position in the industry by upgrading your products to suit the evolving needs of your customers.
Enlist the Aid of Experts
The fastest way to finish a game is to follow a walkthrough and have access to a cheat sheet. The same can be said for businesses, as experts can help you navigate the terrain and reach the dotted line faster. But the help of experts is much more than just being spoon-fed solutions to your problems.
Experts help you focus on what truly matters for your business and personal life. You have more time to work on honing your product or enjoy the process by playing to your strengths. While this may seem obvious, time is money. The more time you spend figuring out some technicality, the less time you have to sell or improve your product.
Spend More Time Talking to Your Customers
One of the gifts that RevOps offers to SaaS founders is the opportunity to communicate with the customers. Founders tend to become busier the further a company grows. They need more time to properly solicit customer feedback resulting in a disconnection from their own user base.
Love strongly advises founders to frequently communicate with customers as this is pivotal for R&D. Not only does it help the company maintain product market fit, but it also helps the company have a better vantage point on upcoming market trends. In fact, founders can discover potential income streams for the business just by reading customer complaints.
Keep Initial Operations Simple
A common misstep among software startups is the tendency to swallow more than they can chew. This is exemplified by companies that try to operationalize everything and deplete precious resources that would have been better utilized had they focused on a few areas, usually product development, sales, and marketing.
Operationalizing everything means spreading out the budget and potentially burning it out faster. After all, the more ventures you have, the more investments you need to exert. This can be deadly as funding is the lifeblood of all companies. Running out of capital before you can even receive your ROI would decrease credibility amongst lenders and investors.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Operations Are Conjoined with Iterations
Love remarks that operational processes should be grounded on iterations. This means that operations should always be active. The process, strategies, and key performance indicators should regularly evolve to fit the current circumstances. He also notes that what works right now may differ from what would work in the future.
Bigger Company Means More Siloes
When a company scales in revenue, it usually leads to an increase in its internal departments to maintain both its financial trajectory and competitive edge. However, a more extensive network also creates a more complex communication process. This is why some businesses have a lack of contact between departments as an issue.
Careful Budgeting is Needed for 2023
Having an effective and optimized revenue operation is more crucial due to the current economic climate. While companies used to be able to afford to burn money in advertising and marketing, the impending recession led to a sharper awareness of expenditures. As a result, executives need to be more compliant with revenue operations.
TOP QUOTES
Taft Love
[4:41] “I think perfect is almost always the enemy of good.”
[11:01] “I used to tell founders: Hey. Go ask your VP of Marketing, how many leads they created last month? Now go ask your VP of sales how many leads they got last month. And don’t tell them that you just asked the other one. And if that number doesn’t match, call me back.”
[19:47] “Don’t operationalize everything early. Not everything has to scale. It’s okay to keep things simple.”
Matt Wolach
[18:53] “Don’t try and figure everything out on your own. You may eventually figure it out. But it can take you a long time. It will probably cost you a lot of money.”
LEARN MORE
To learn more about RevOps, visit: https://icebergops.com/
You can also find Taft Love on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taft-love/
For more about how host Matt Wolach helps software companies achieve maximum growth, visit https://mattwolach.com/
