This article comes from Avi Ryan’s insightful talk at our San Francisco 2024 Revenue Operations Summit. Check out his full presentation and our wealth of OnDemand resources.

What’s the difference between a company that grows fast and one that scales successfully?

Many businesses assume growth and scalability are the same thing—but they’re not. Growth is about increasing revenue, often at any cost, while scaling is about growing revenue efficiently without dramatically increasing costs.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve worked in revenue strategy across companies of all sizes—from early-stage startups to pre-IPO unicorns to large enterprises like Google.

I’ve seen firsthand how businesses struggle with scalability, and through trial and error, I’ve learned what works—and what doesn’t.

This article isn’t about how we do things at Google. Instead, I want to share frameworks and insights that any company—no matter the size—can adopt to drive scalable growth. 

So, in this article, I’ll walk through four key drivers that can help revenue operations teams scale efficiently:

  1. Optimizing sales territories and aligning incentives
  2. Building a strong product strategy for existing customers
  3. Leveraging company resources for smarter sales enablement
  4. Developing a strategic and proactive RevOps function

Let’s get started.

1. Optimizing sales territories and aligning incentives

One of the biggest challenges in scaling a sales organization is territory planning. Without a clear strategy, you’ll find sellers overloaded with too many accounts while others have untouched opportunities just sitting in their books.

Depth vs. breadth: Striking the right balance

A common mistake is assigning too many accounts to an account executive, especially in the strategic segment. I once asked a VP of Sales how many accounts their strategic reps managed. Their answer? Between 250 and 500. Then I asked, “What’s your sales cycle?”

“About six months.”

At that moment, it became clear there was no way sellers could engage meaningfully with that many accounts in such a short time. That’s when I started focusing on depth vs. breadth analysis to optimize these territories:

  • Depth play: For complex, high-value accounts, sellers need multiple touchpoints over time. Assigning too many accounts dilutes their ability to go deep.
  • Breadth play: For smaller, high-volume accounts, automation, and scaled outreach make more sense.

Steps to optimize sales territories

  1. Assess the right territory size by analyzing engagement data—how many touchpoints sellers are making and which accounts are being ignored.
  2. Align headcount with coverage needs—if accounts aren’t being worked, it’s a signal to either redistribute territories or hire more sellers.
  3. Tie incentives to the strategy—depth-focused sellers should be rewarded for multi-touch engagement, while breadth-focused sellers should be incentivized on volume.

Sales enablement also plays a key role here. For depth-focused teams, enablement should provide research and tailored messaging. For breadth-focused teams, automation tools and one-to-many outreach strategies are essential.

2. Product strategy for existing customers

Another key shift in scaling is moving from a heavy focus on acquisition to driving revenue from existing customers. In fact, in most scaled businesses, the majority of revenue comes from customers who are already in the door—not from new logos.

Why product strategy matters for existing clients

In many companies, the product team hands off a new feature to sales and says, “Here, go sell this.” But without a structured approach, sellers are left guessing which customers would benefit most. That’s where product sequencing comes in.

Building a scalable product strategy

  1. Define product sequencing—map out the ideal journey for customers, helping sellers understand which product should be the next natural fit.
  2. Align incentives with product adoption—compensation plans should reward sellers for upselling and cross-selling based on the defined journey.
  3. Leverage product specialists—these team members act as the bridge between sales and product, ensuring feedback loops help refine the strategy.

At scale, this process answers four key questions:

  • How should we commercialize each product?
  • How do we prioritize product opportunities for each client?
  • How do we drive the adoption of new products?
  • How do we collect and implement customer feedback?

By treating existing customers as a long-term revenue stream rather than just an initial sale, companies can drive sustainable growth.

3. Smarter sales enablement: Leveraging company resources

Sales enablement is often limited to training and collateral—but it should be so much more than that. The key is aligning enablement with client business objectives, ensuring sellers have the tools they need throughout the sales cycle.