Why your RevOps tech stack is failing (and how to fix it)

Ever woken up to a text message telling you that you now own your company's entire Salesforce instance? Good luck, right?

That's exactly what happened to me when I was a BDR (business development representative), and it completely changed my career trajectory.

I'm Benjamin Zeitz, Head of Revenue Operations at Sweep, and that unexpected text message launched me into nearly a decade of working in the revenue operations space. We didn't always call it RevOps back then, but in practice, it was the same thing we're doing today.

But here's what I've discovered: while we might have stumbled into this field, succeeding in it requires intentional strategy, especially when it comes to managing your tech stack. The reality is that tech stacks are a very big part of our process as RevOps professionals. Any small change, any small enhancement that we make can have outsized outcomes when it comes to our bottom line.

So how do we design systems that help rather than hinder us? That's exactly what we're going to dive into – starting with the framework that's become the core operating principle of my career.

Let’s dive in.

The RevOps flywheel: Your north star for your tech stack

Before we talk about tech stacks, we need to align on what success looks like. Success for tech stacks also aligns with success for RevOps. Our goal in revenue operations is to enhance the processes of an entire company end to end.

The core operating principle I use is called the revenue operations flywheel. Here's how it works:

We always start with the process – whether it's our end-to-end company process (lead to opportunity to close-won to expansion) or something smaller like handling inbound leads.

Next, we configure our systems to support that process through automation and data collection. Then we run our GTM motion and analyze our performance. How did we do? Is there room for improvement?

If there's room for improvement, we update our process, which means updating our systems, running that play, and seeing how we did. That's the flywheel – and you should be running this for each part of your business.

Systems are absolutely central to making this flywheel turn effectively. So how do we design systems that help?

The five pillars of effective RevOps systems

Based on my experience working with hundreds of prospects and customers, your systems need five critical characteristics:

1. Flexibility: If we're making changes regularly, those changes can't take a long time. We need to get back to making that flywheel turn.

2. User-friendliness: Your end users should not have to fight with the system to get the data they need. If your sales reps are wrestling with Salesforce more than selling, you've got a problem.

3. Data accessibility: You should be able to pull and understand data without blind spots that railroad every assumption you’re trying to make. Trust me, I learnt the hard way.

4. Clear documentation: Crucial for both internal stakeholders making changes and end users who need to know what's expected of them.

5. Collaboration capabilities: We're not just telling people what to do – we need their input on what's working and what isn't, so we can enhance our systems.

Should RevOps own the tech stack?

Here's a spicy question: Should revenue operations own the tech stack?