Finding Balance and Fulfillment in Your RevOps Career - Danielle Marquis
This week I sit down with seasoned RevOps executive Danielle Marquis to explore the evolving landscape of the discipline and how professionals can find balance and fulfillment in their careers.
Danielle shares insights from her 15 years of experience in the field, discussing how RevOps has changed over time and how the role is increasingly being positioned as a critical function within organizations. We dive into the best practices for structuring RevOps teams, prioritizing work, and aligning internal strategies for maximum impact.
As the conversation unfolds, we also explore some personal aspects of career growth, with Danielle offering candid advice on how to carve out a fulfilling path in RevOps and find your happy place at work.
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About Today's Guest
With 15 years of experience in revenue operations, Danielle Marquis has lead global teams supporting sales, marketing, and customer success functions in achieving their goals and growing the business. Her super power is connecting the dots across various business decisions and technologies to drive and design a more operationalized path to GTM.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemarquis/
Key Topics
- [00:00] - Introduction
- [01:06] - Evolution of RevOps in the past 15 years
- [11:08] - Positioning RevOps internally
- [16:46] - Team structure
- [26:16] - Planning and prioritization
- [30:40] - Finding your happy place at work
- [39:40] - What’s next in RevOps
- [43:46] - RevOps vs. GTM Ops
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Transcript
Welcome to RevOps FM everyone.
2
:We're continuing our series today,
looking at a truly unified RevOps
3
:teams, teams that support all the GTM
functions of the business from marketing
4
:to sales to customer success, and the
goal here really is to understand better
5
:how this unified structure can work.
6
:The advantages it brings and of
course, any challenges as well.
7
:And today we're speaking with
Danielle Marquis, who is VP of revenue
8
:operations at Zappy, where she's been
for nearly five and a half years.
9
:And Danielle, I was studying your LinkedIn
profile and noticed you've actually
10
:been in the rev ops world for 15 years
this month, if my math is correct.
11
:Which is incredible.
12
:so I'm really interested to dig
into how the RebOp space has
13
:evolved during that time as well.
14
:So first off, welcome to the show.
15
:Thanks for joining me today.
16
:Danielle Marquis: thanks for having
me, excited to dig in on this.
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:Justin Norris: Maybe we can just,
start with that place because, I
18
:noticed your first role, I think
sales operations analyst:
19
:now here you are 15 years
later, June of:
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:Talk to me about how the RevOps
space such as it is has evolved.
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:I don't think that term was even
around in:
22
:that journey look like for you?
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:Danielle Marquis: Definitely not.
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:the more networking and events I
go to and folks I meet and talk
25
:about RevOps, the more I realize
I've had a more unique path.
26
:Ironically, it's always been in the
sales, marketing, ops space, but a lot of
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:folks now in RevOps didn't start there.
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:so really I graduated college and
didn't have a job to pay for grad
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:school or my apartment in Boston.
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:So I got this contractor role.
31
:It was moving files from one
intranet to their new intranet,
32
:really sexy, work there, and I
finished that work pretty early.
33
:So they started having me do,
data loads into Salesforce.
34
:And so I was still on an hourly
contractor wage at this point.
35
:And I, probably not a lot of
people tell you they got to
36
:fell in love with Salesforce.
37
:We had doing data loads
and data cleansing.
38
:But for me, I had done an it minor.
39
:I had started grad classes that were
focusing on process optimization.
40
:And I started really seeing
all the pieces come together,
41
:which was fascinating to me.
42
:I always thought I would
get into actual sales.
43
:My, PI definitely always was a sales
indicator, but, for me, I always fell in
44
:love with the backend and how we could
make the workflows, the sales reps were
45
:doing more and more efficient and really
hit on the goals we were trying to drive.
46
:some of those first data loads
I was doing was literally, we
47
:called them blitz Wednesdays.
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:And we would load 20 leads
into each sales rep's queue.
49
:And once they got through those on cold
calling, we'd load more into their queues.
50
:And I was like, this does not seem
like an efficient nor effective way.
51
:we're not capturing what's
happening to these leads.
52
:I'm just, I just keep
dumping more leads in.
53
:so that's where I really got curious.
54
:I joined as many networking groups
as I could that were mainly for
55
:sales management at the time.
56
:And, around that time, marketing
automation started to come to fruition.
57
:Not anything like it is today either.
58
:but you know, the first tools were coming
out and they were taking the concepts of
59
:a sales CRM and applying it to marketing.
60
:And then I think it's a really ironic
thing that we've seen in the past,
61
:probably eight years that come back
to sales as sales engagement tools.
62
:everything we came out with, with
thought leadership and nurture
63
:campaigns is all coming back into
workflow management for sales.
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:So.
65
:It's kind of a fun, cool,
interconnected circle.
66
:but yeah, that's how I got started.
67
:And then as each of those different
go to market teams started realizing
68
:the power of having an operational
minded, tech minded, data minded person
69
:on their team, supporting them to
that, get to those strategic goals.
70
:and the more you saw those spaces
growing and, I think naturally we
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:can talk into like how that fully
came back into the RevOp space.
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:but that's how I at least came up here.
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:Justin Norris: It's funny.
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:I remember vividly in my first
operations job, essentially rebuilding
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:a CRM through CSVs and data loads.
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:And it was one of the most stressful
things I've ever done, like
77
:updating thousands and thousands
of activities and reparenting them.
78
:And so it must be some, kind
of sadistic rite of passage for
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:operations people to have to do that.
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:Um,
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:Danielle Marquis: I'm 15 years in
and I'm a vice president and I have
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:the whole department and, uh, My team
will hear me say, don't worry, I'll,
83
:I'll cleanse that section of data.
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:I needed something to do this afternoon
that wasn't like totally mind intensive.
85
:Justin Norris: just relax, kick back and
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:It's good.
87
:along that journey, do you recall
perhaps at what point this notion
88
:of like rev ops came about?
89
:Enter the chat.
90
:because it's, kind of obviously as in
all things in this space, sort of like
91
:a rebranding and vendors are using
it, but there is a real thing there.
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:I think whether we call it rev ops
or GTM ops, we can talk about that.
93
:but do you recall when that
sort of bubbled to the surface?
94
:Danielle Marquis: Yeah, I know for,
at least on my path, I had exposure
95
:to those other areas of operations
and as I started taking on new, larger
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:roles, around the time I started at
Carbonite, which, I think that was like
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:2000, maybe 15, around that time, I
came in, they needed a sales ops hire.
98
:I had been working previously for
Iron Mountain doing just Salesforce.
99
:Business analysts work.
100
:So I got exposed to a lot of different
teams and what the needs those teams had.
101
:And I realized a lot of the outcomes
they were trying to drive could be solved
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:with similar workflows or processes I
had been trying to optimize for sales.
103
:So when I moved over to Carbonite
and I had to stand up a sales ops
104
:department, had just gone from B to
C to B to B and they were still doing
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:a lot of consumer purchase tactics.
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:And so I focused on obviously helping
stand up the sales team and what that
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:would look like, making sure the CRM was
actually producing value for the company.
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:And.
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:when I got there, I don't think
anyone had logged into it.
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:They just had this
automated lead flow thing.
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:And then, their manager would literally
Skype the incoming leads to someone
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:else in Skype and have them call.
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:And there was no tracking of any of this.
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:So I got them to actually use
the CRM, use it for their own
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:good, not just more admin work.
116
:And then I started realizing we
were having really a lot of trouble
117
:getting the top of funnel in.
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:And I was like, what?
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:What are we doing on the marketing side?
120
:And there was really no one
focused on B2B marketing.
121
:Strategies or techniques.
122
:They were still blowing a ton of
advertising money on public radio and all
123
:the things that worked really well to make
them the big company as a consumer brand.
124
:And so, I learned everything I could
about marketing automation, thought
125
:leadership, what marketing ops really
looks like and started building that out.
126
:So that was my first clicking moment.
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:Was that carbonite?
128
:And then I started to see that grow
throughout my networking events, talking
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:to other operational professionals who
are having challenges, like I'm doing
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:all this cool stuff over on the sales
side, but I don't feel like I have
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:the same counterpart on marketing.
132
:So it's a disconnected, you know,
we're driving a really great lead
133
:process, but we're not getting the
right volume or the right kind of leads.
134
:And we don't have any insight into that.
135
:So, I'd say around 2013, you
started seeing maybe some bubbles.
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:I really think Covid probably had the
real tipping point for calling it rev ops,
137
:getting people really excited about it.
138
:You saw a bunch of people turn virtually
and having to actually put more content
139
:out versus having events and having
the same people show up to them.
140
:and so, I, I still am seeing folks
just rebranding sales ops as a rev ops.
141
:I think we're gonna start to see that.
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:Smooth out a little bit more over the
next couple of years, because the question
143
:really is, what is the scope of rev ops?
144
:Where should you play?
145
:and I think that's what is on our onus
at the company is we're going into to
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:help just like you're doing thought
leadership for a prospect or customer.
147
:We need to drive that thought
leadership and help the rest of the
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:company get on board with where we
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:could help be the glue for them.
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:Justin Norris: So focusing on that point.
151
:I've noticed, there are some
common paths into this space.
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:Some people, in sales ops in
particular come in through finance.
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:In your case, it feels more like
through the Salesforce CRM world and
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:marketing ops, it's all over the map.
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:It's like theater majors
and, English majors like me.
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:So we're a weird bunch, but, in your
case, it seems more through the,
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:the technical side, how has your
perspective on like what you do.
158
:And what it's for evolved as your
scope has expanded over the years.
159
:Danielle Marquis: Yeah, that's a great
question, and super relevant for how
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:my role even in my last five and a half
years here at Zappy has evolved, but I
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:do take a more technical lens, like my
superpower is connecting the dots between
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:journeys, teams, through that intersection
of technology and data insights.
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:always been enamored by tech, back
to the AIM days and, all those lovely
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:dial ups and burning CDs and everything
I could do to learn about that.
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:And I feel like that was my
way of incorporating that into
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:the value I bring to a company.
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:But it's also really powerful.
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:And especially in this RevStack
space, it has exploded.
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:Salesforce.
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:Really led the charge with all their
partner economy of all these point
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:solutions you needed to buy because
Salesforce didn't do it themselves,
172
:but everyone went to Salesforce.
173
:And then you see now in the last
three years, and you're only going
174
:to see it more expand with those
big name companies is the platform.
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:I ties Asian.
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:I just probably made that word up
and it was very difficult to say.
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:So I'm not going to say it again, but,
uh, you know, everyone's moving to figure
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:back out the platform because you have,
finance teams cutting down budgets.
179
:It's all over the place.
180
:It's a lot easier to sell in a
platform sale than I need five
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:tools to do this one process.
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:And, it just really, it's been more, the
more data and technology out there, the
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:more productivity suck it is for your
operations teams to try to figure out the
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:integrations, keep data hygiene across all
those different systems, keep enablement.
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:Streamlined across all those different
systems, and that's been a challenge.
186
:It's happy even, but it's also because
I've taken that technical insight.
187
:It's helped broaden my horizon of who else
at a company we can help impact change
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:with, and impact revenue or cost savings.
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:So I've worked our support teams to try
to figure out, they're interacting day to
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:day with our go to market frontline teams.
191
:How are we making sure their interactions
and workflows and technology are up to par
192
:Justin Norris: And you mentioned
some of the thought leadership and
193
:evangelizing what you do internally.
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:How do you try to position your
team to the rest of the company?
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:Danielle Marquis: Yeah, always
the beautiful challenge.
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:I think the big topic in RevOps space is
like, how do you get a seat at the table?
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:Right.
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:I'm not gonna stand here and
say we've nailed it and it's
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:a constant growth journey.
200
:we just had our RevOps
offsite here in Boston.
201
:So it was an onsite, but, we had a bunch
of people from all over the country
202
:and London come in and just really talk
about some of that exact challenge.
203
:And, for us, we have set up special
meetings where it brings all the
204
:go to market leaders together
to talk about tough topics.
205
:And we work through solutions
with those go to market leaders.
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:So we're helping to make a name
for ourselves that we can guide
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:them through problem statements.
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:What is the impact of that problem?
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:What's the optimal solution
to drive the optimal outcome?
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:And just trying to even reframe from,
I'm sure a lot of folks listening might
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:have the same challenge where you have CS
leader come up to you with their solution.
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:To the problem they
perceive that they have.
213
:They haven't really identified what
the root cause of the problem is,
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:but there's a lot of chatter going
on and it's gotta be a big problem.
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:We just, here's how we solve it.
216
:So our challenge and how we're trying to
get that seat at the table is reframing
217
:those problem statements with the leaders.
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:So, Hey, I hear you.
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:I can imagine you're having a
really frustrating time here.
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:Let's try to understand why
that's happening before we just
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:change an account team structure.
222
:and sometimes, unfortunately
it's us bringing the.
223
:not saying I told you so, but
bringing a failed experiment back to
224
:leadership and saying, Hey, here's how
we were recommending to approach it.
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:Had we gone down that route?
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:Here's what we could have
done differently or avoided.
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:here's how we recommend
to fix the problem.
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:So something like
account structure, right?
229
:a great example of that is, you know, you.
230
:Might have most of your revenue
coming from your existing customers.
231
:Most classic SaaS thing.
232
:It's easy because you know the
people and it's easy to do that job.
233
:It's harder to go find new people
to make more money and expand
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:that share of wallet at a company.
235
:And so we had that challenge
and it was like, okay, we, are
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:really bad at expansion revenue
in these existing customers.
237
:And we know that's a warmer path than
trying to get a bunch of new logos.
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:So we're going to just
create an expansion team.
239
:And then one of the problems we already
had was how does account management
240
:and CS work really well together?
241
:So now you've added a third player into
that account team and within a quarter,
242
:we were quickly able to see, okay, that
adding another person to an existing
243
:problem was not the proper solution, but.
244
:Maybe there was some skillset challenges.
245
:We need to address that with enablement.
246
:You know, maybe there was some
prioritization issues with what
247
:we were giving those teams for
insights or what to focus on.
248
:We can address those things.
249
:So, hopefully that answered a little bit,
but those are some ways we're trying to
250
:build that trust and build that value.
251
:And build the confidence
in coming and working with
252
:us versus like,
253
:I think a lot of teams I've
dealt with that have never worked
254
:with RevOps, you step in and ask
some discovery questions, right?
255
:And they're like, Oh God, this
is slowing everything down.
256
:Avoid Danielle at all costs.
257
:She's going to slow down any progress.
258
:And I was like, no, I'm actually
trying to ask some important
259
:questions so we can move
260
:Justin Norris: It's, it's a retraining,
261
:I think, especially if you have leaders
that are more in the like rev ops is here,
262
:like, you know, generate my report for me
263
:and, load
264
:those CSVs.
265
:And can you get me a coffee while
you're at like, viewing the
266
:team as a service provider and
changing that dynamic to, want a
267
:partnership and sort of consultative
collaboration, have you found that
268
:once you have Broken the ice there
that people are generally receptive, or
269
:is it a significant change management
cycle that you're going through?
270
:Danielle Marquis: I would say it has
been a significant change management
271
:cycle, but we are seeing progress.
272
:the other thing is the team was
a lot smaller in previous years.
273
:So when you don't have the bandwidth to
pick up all those challenges, you are
274
:slowing down progress on some areas.
275
:so we were able to make more of an
argument to leadership team that we
276
:needed folks to support some of these
other areas that, the classic thing,
277
:when you start bringing operations
into a rev ops combined team, we still
278
:actually have a CS ops person, a sales
ops person, a marketing ops person.
279
:Um, The idea is that they're non bias.
280
:They're sitting with us
because they can see all
281
:sides of what's
282
:going on with the
283
:data, the
284
:insights,
285
:and the subjective side
of all that, right?
286
:And they're not necessarily running at
whatever the head of sales wants, the
287
:head of CS wants, the head of marketing
wants without talking amongst each other.
288
:And so we have been able to Adjust
the majority of those leaders, but
289
:then you have a new leader come into
leadership team That's learning the
290
:company learning your teams learning How
to adjust how they're used to working
291
:and what made them successful and hired
at this company And you have to kind
292
:of start from scratch again, right?
293
:So From our perspective our job's
never done And it's always going to be
294
:a component of our job description is
ensuring that we are working towards
295
:being that strategic partner, not a
296
:customer support.
297
:I think I joked at a,
the last conference I
298
:went to that someone asked us
to say what we did without using
299
:the word sales or marketing.
300
:And I said, babysat, which sounds a little
rude, but when you look at some of the,
301
:the things that come into that point, if
302
:Justin Norris: it's a, it
is a perennial challenge.
303
:and so you touched on your, team
structure and why don't we go there?
304
:Maybe you can just outline for us
quickly, like what is the structure today?
305
:And I'm curious where it evolved from.
306
:Was there a unification at
some point, like a big change
307
:Danielle Marquis: the last unification
actually happened this year.
308
:So five and a half years ago I came in,
it was myself in a Salesforce admin and
309
:it was kind of figure out what we need
for rev ops before we go give you a
310
:bunch of hires or buy a bunch of shit.
311
:And so I appreciate that because the
previous company I'd been at, I came
312
:in, I had the same directive and
within two months, I I must have shown
313
:enough value because all of a sudden
they wanted me to hire ten people.
314
:And I was like, I don't have
enough clarity on what those
315
:ten roles would do just yet.
316
:I could tell you two people right
now what we need, but it's probably
317
:another quarter of doing Discovery and
trying to fix some of the stuff that's
318
:already there before I could confidently
say what to do with the other eight.
319
:And it was like, nope, we're hiring them,
you got the roles, if you don't hire
320
:them, you lose them, and so we hired and
we figured it out, and it Had some chaos.
321
:But we worked it through.
322
:And when I came to Zappy, that was
something that I was really excited
323
:that they maintained the, like, Hey,
get a lay of the land and really be
324
:the recommender of what we need here.
325
:So the next hire was an enablement hire,
which actually we took over from sales.
326
:It was a sales manager that.
327
:Quite frankly, just loved onboarding
new reps and would rather help
328
:upscale the reps around him than sell.
329
:And so that was a, an easy transition.
330
:And so he ended up heading up our
enablement for the last four years.
331
:And so from there, we were a
really lean team for my first
332
:good two and a half years here.
333
:And around the fall, 2020, I finally got.
334
:an influx of folks to join.
335
:So when we were able to get those
roles approved, because we tracked
336
:all of the incoming requests and
projects and, bandwidth that we needed
337
:for each of these areas, we decided
to split our rev ops into pillars.
338
:So with our RevOps team, we have a
performance pillar, which is your
339
:analysts, they're analyzing everything
around our funnel metrics, sales
340
:metrics, your CS revenue metrics,
marketing metrics, and then we have our
341
:systems team, which is focusing on
342
:the whole, how do we optimize, integrate?
343
:And, ensure fit for
purpose of our RevStack.
344
:and then we also have our
enablement team, which is,
345
:designated around our fails CS space
346
:Justin Norris: and within those
347
:pillars,
348
:are there kind of like a stack bar chart?
349
:Do you have
350
:like marketing
351
:ops, sales ops, CS ops
within them, or are there
352
:people that
353
:cover multiple
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:scopes?
355
:Danielle Marquis: Yeah.
356
:So we have a few folks
that, can do it all.
357
:So to say, not a lot to be honest.
358
:And that's actually one of our
topics of our offsite of like, does
359
:our structure still make sense?
360
:Are people getting the most out
of the structure, even on our
361
:team for professional growth?
362
:Because we do have a dedicated
CS ops director, right?
363
:And he was sharing that, you know,
I used to do a lot more technology
364
:focused stuff in my last job.
365
:And here I'm focusing more on
reporting and analytics and some
366
:program management for our CS team.
367
:And he just thinks, like, I don't
have time to do the tech stuff, and
368
:we have a team that is dedicated
to it, so I don't really need to.
369
:but he wants to flex those muscles, right?
370
:So that's the evolution for our own
team we're trying to work in, is how do
371
:you create more of those cross skillset
sharing and enablement for our own team?
372
:So that no one feels like they're like,
Zappy is now gonna be atrophieding, right?
373
:but then I, my marketing ops hire came
from a bit more of a diverse background
374
:and came in and he really wants to
focus on the marketing side, but then
375
:eventually get more generalist rev ops.
376
:I will admit it's been a
challenge to figure out how best.
377
:To support turning someone that's
been pillar focused or team specific
378
:focus into a more generalist rev ops,
because their inclination is to first
379
:think about a sales metric, right?
380
:Or I need to get this out and
then CS is an afterthought.
381
:But what I've been trying to add to our
team's dynamic is, Hey, director of sales
382
:ops, you want to roll out this process.
383
:Have you connected with our
director of CS Ops to see where
384
:there's a CS synergy there?
385
:Or, hey, we want to roll out a CSQL.
386
:That's only going to be successful if we
also bring along the account management
387
:team because what actually happened
when we launched it was we launched
388
:CSQLs To our cs team great idea, right?
389
:They're talking to these users all
the time they're gonna get more
390
:of those tidbits that of Sales
triggers than a sales rep might get
391
:having an actual sales conversation.
392
:So that was our way of saying.
393
:Hey A little alley oop for our sales
team because the more they bring in,
394
:the more revenue CS can burn down.
395
:And so it's a like nice synergy
there, but then it was like an
396
:afterthought to tell the AMs about this.
397
:So they started getting these CSQL alerts.
398
:They had no idea what to do with them.
399
:They were close losing them,
400
:creating their own opportunities.
401
:it was more chaotic, but
402
:the idea was correct.
403
:but we needed to ourselves
have that synergy better.
404
:And so those are, that's like my favorite
example to use with the team of like, Hey,
405
:had we worked together to launch this, we
could have seen a lot more value earlier
406
:Justin Norris: I love that you have
407
:a performance pillar and you call it that.
408
:Like people often
409
:have
410
:analysts, but I find
411
:that the way that at least that
412
:they're positioned And
413
:talking about
414
:it.
415
:It's kind of, you know,
they will run reports.
416
:They'll provide
417
:information
418
:sometimes as requested, sometimes
419
:proactively, but having the autonomy or
the responsibility to proactively attempt
420
:to drive performance is not always there.
421
:It seems more rare.
422
:Talk about how that works.
423
:and the sorts of, how they think
about their job relative to
424
:performance and driving impact.
425
:Danielle Marquis: We definitely have
an element of the reactive and I
426
:will say our, sales ops director,
I think they thought at offsite
427
:was our head of sales golf caddy.
428
:which actually you could compare the
two cause he should be, supporting
429
:the strategy to sink a hole in
one, but, uh, anyways, yeah.
430
:And the performance element of that.
431
:It's not just building reports and
dashboards and delivering what's asked
432
:to them, or even saying, Hey, I'm, I
want to get ahead of this metric over
433
:here, but it's looking at what are our
company strategies, where are our pain
434
:points, what are we doing really well,
everything that might not even be like,
435
:okay, here's our marketing funnel.
436
:But, you know, we're seeing poor
engagement rates on our outbound team.
437
:an easy thing to do and a bunch of people
have is point at the technology or a point
438
:at our domain credibility or all these
things that aren't something that's more
439
:subjective, which is, and that's what our
performance pillar does start to look at.
440
:Okay.
441
:What are we looking at for subject lines?
442
:What titles are you reaching out to?
443
:So look deeper, not just the numbers
you're looking at, but really what are
444
:the things that are beyond the numbers?
445
:and how are those
contributing to the numbers?
446
:So, okay.
447
:look at the cohort of titles you're
reaching out to and how frequently
448
:and if we adjust these titles More
towards our persona over here.
449
:Are you
450
:going to see higher engagement rates or
451
:hey?
452
:We just implemented six cents in q4 that
has some account scoring we could be
453
:utilizing to prioritize which contacts
at those accounts you reach out to
454
:rather than blasting all 50 contacts
455
:Justin Norris: And to me, that
456
:example is a good case
457
:in point of why a
458
:unified structure can work, or at least
one in which there is a division of labor.
459
:Because if you are responsible
460
:for
461
:systems and bug tickets and, daily
support requests, like that sort
462
:of stuff is always a problem.
463
:More of a luxury unless there's like a
really pressing fire and you know Somebody
464
:is an executive is really making it a
priority But otherwise it tends to get
465
:pushed to the side and here you have
people that it sounds like have the mind
466
:share and the time To actually really
focus on that which I think is great
467
:Danielle Marquis: yeah, time
management, I think, is a challenge
468
:for any role, to be honest.
469
:Especially RevOps.
470
:I like to think of RevOps as, I
always used to train sales reps
471
:and say, Hey, you're a book of
business, you're a little, you're a
472
:GM of this portion of Zappy, right?
473
:You are the CEO or GM of this.
474
:Like you have control.
475
:You need to keep your house clean.
476
:You need to show revenue on this
and just like operating a company.
477
:But I really truly believe a RevOps
team is many departments at a company.
478
:We are the marketers.
479
:We are the BDRs.
480
:We are the sales reps.
481
:We are customer success and
training, implementation, we're
482
:product, we're BI, so time is,
the most precious element for us.
483
:and that's something that I
think is always a constant
484
:battle that we're trying to work
485
:towards.
486
:I think the biggest thing our
487
:team has, um, Um, and just like taking
back control of your calendar, some
488
:are better than others, I actually
kind of suck at it myself, I'll
489
:time box it and then I'll just take
a call with whoever needs help.
490
:Justin Norris: So coming to time it
brings us to planning and prioritization
491
:and when that sort of thing happens
492
:And you mentioned, you know,
one of the benefits of the
493
:unified structures that the
494
:team
495
:could kind of plan
496
:together, at least discuss things together
rather than just being solely responsive
497
:to the head of their functional area.
498
:How do you approach that process?
499
:maybe how often, and, finding that
balance between having that centralized
500
:planning process and then still ensuring
that those functional leaders feel
501
:heard, feel that their needs are being
taken care of and that sort of thing.
502
:Danielle Marquis: Yeah.
503
:So we have members of our team that
actually sit in to the different, uh,
504
:departmental leadership team meetings,
and then enablement actually joins in and
505
:does specific rep level trainings as well.
506
:And, feedback loops.
507
:and then we also have a biweekly, what we
call the go to market, leadership team.
508
:Where we do start to say, okay,
here's our go to market roadmap.
509
:Here are the things we really need
to land in Q1, two, three, four.
510
:here's where we are around it.
511
:Here's what departments
really need to own it.
512
:We live and die by the DRI,
direct responsible individual.
513
:We really try to ensure there is
a DRI on any initiative that gets
514
:put on that board with a solid
understanding of what are we trying to.
515
:Drive is an outcome.
516
:So if you don't have a desired outcome
or clear aligned problem statement,
517
:It's likely not getting on to our go to
market roadmap Until you work together
518
:with who you need to to actually make
it an item And we're constantly having
519
:those prioritization conversations
Whether or not they're in one of those
520
:already planned meetings, or if we have
to jump on an ad hoc meeting and be
521
:like, Hey, there's a fire over here.
522
:if we need to solve it right now, that
means we're going to drop these other
523
:things we were working on currently.
524
:it doesn't mean it's the same as a sales
adage of no, doesn't mean no forever.
525
:It means no for now.
526
:so it's working through how to.
527
:Hey, these things will get done, but
probably a month later than you were
528
:expecting so that we can solve for this.
529
:Is this really is big of an issue.
530
:Here's the data we ever had.
531
:We try to do as much discovery
and have as much evidence behind
532
:why something should trump another
533
:priority.
534
:we
535
:also have a leadership team
where if things are really not
536
:working out here, they
hash it out and then.
537
:Do a top
538
:down of, Hey, this is
539
:where we're going to
540
:go with this initiative.
541
:This
542
:initiative is going to
drop off till next quarter.
543
:Justin Norris: It's one of the
pushbacks that I typically see against
544
:unification of operations on LinkedIn
is, the functional leaders feeling
545
:that their
546
:ops
547
:isn't
548
:responsive to them, and then maybe they
549
:try to claw it back or, you get to
sort of the ITification if you like.
550
:have you dealt with that at all?
551
:Like with leaders feeling that way,
552
:Danielle Marquis: Oh, for sure.
553
:especially at Zappy where we didn't have.
554
:I mean, RevOps was me for a few
years, and then we actually had
555
:functional operational support.
556
:And it's interesting, our head
of customer, I joke with him all
557
:the time about this now, because
now we actually have a dedicated
558
:CSOps person, he feels a lot.
559
:But my first three years here,
he was like, damn, I just feel
560
:like all you do is give your time
to sales and it's just not fair.
561
:And I don't, what do I
need to do differently?
562
:And I was like, I think it's more
what I need to do differently.
563
:I wasn't properly communicating all
the things I was doing for the CS team
564
:because they weren't super visible.
565
:So when I got to Zappy, the CS
team were glorified CRM admins.
566
:So we're consumption based SAS.
567
:So all the projects that we're running
on our platform, which would be Revrec,
568
:so CS reps were asked to manually input
those as opportunities in Salesforce.
569
:So that's a massive time suck.
570
:So I was spending a ton of time,
more time probably than with sales,
571
:working with product on how do
we, we have this Cadillac of a CRM
572
:that integrates across technologies
pretty easily at this point in time.
573
:Um, And why are we not utilizing
the benefits of those integrations?
574
:Can we automate some of these tasks?
575
:They're definitely automatable.
576
:So it was really, I wasn't making my
roadmap or Where I was spending my time
577
:visible enough or communicating enough.
578
:So that's the one piece of advice.
579
:Like you're think you're
communicating enough.
580
:You're not.
581
:Justin Norris: how have you
582
:found
583
:it?
584
:Like you were an IC for a while.
585
:it sounds like wearing all the
586
:hats and I, know what that world is
like, and then transitioning from that
587
:to being executive, having a team.
588
:It was totally different mindset, totally
different scope of responsibilities.
589
:Has that been a, like, a
challenging journey at all?
590
:Or how have you found it?
591
:Danielle Marquis: It is, I'm
the type of personality where I
592
:think I'll always be in a size of
company where I get my hands dirty.
593
:I just, I've done a lot of soul
searching in the last couple years
594
:and I'm like, I just want to focus
on strategy and delivering on that.
595
:And at the end of the day, we also
had a riff last year, so I went
596
:back to being a bit of an icy, just
for bandwidth's sake, if we were
597
:going to keep up with the, road map.
598
:I, struggle sometimes to get
my head out of the weeds a
599
:little bit more than I should.
600
:Um, actually, I had an executive coach
last year who really helped me try to
601
:rebrand myself internally because you, I
mean, I have sales reps who think I sit
602
:on finance team right now because we don't
have a deal desk and when people struggle
603
:around the structure of their deal or
getting it through the system or whatnot,
604
:they tag in our team and, and I'm the only
one on our team that knows the intricacies
605
:of the billing and financial side.
606
:most of my initiatives are on
the strategy side, but then I can
607
:dive down and actually solution
build from those initiatives.
608
:I can QA, I can help guide a solution.
609
:and I usually get tagged
in when my team gets stuck.
610
:And I, put that out there
to them all the time.
611
:I, We have a very open
communication and that's something
612
:I've always enjoyed with managers I
had and what I always want to be for
613
:my team is just as hyper transparent
as I can be and I'm available i'm
614
:available but transparent with that time.
615
:So if I really can't pick something
up, or I can't be there for them,
616
:they're aware of it ahead of time.
617
:or if they're going through something,
they know I'm there to step in.
618
:Maybe they're hitting a roadblock, I'm
619
:happy to come be the bad guy for a little
620
:bit.
621
:I don't want my team to ever feel
like they're on that pushback
622
:side of the stick too far.
623
:they have to push back, because, you know.
624
:With ops, if we didn't push
back, we'd literally never sleep.
625
:but yeah, just trying to be the right
amount of coach to that team, the right
626
:amount of strategic vision for the
high initiatives and the right amount
627
:of being able to get my hands dirty.
628
:I don't have a great answer
for how I do it successfully.
629
:Justin Norris: You
mentioned soul searching.
630
:It's interesting.
631
:like
632
:I entered the professional world.
633
:It looks like around the
634
:same,
635
:year as you.
636
:So similar kind of length of career.
637
:And I also have, I've
like thought a lot about,
638
:over
639
:time, what makes me happy?
640
:Like the
641
:sort of
642
:work, you know,
643
:where you, you don't feel like it's work.
644
:You're just really enthusiastic and
645
:engaged, the sort of work where
it doesn't feel like that.
646
:And when you, start out,
647
:you're like,
648
:You don't really
649
:realize that working for a 10, 000 person
company is just a completely different
650
:thing than working for a, three or 400
person company or a 20 person company.
651
:And I've kind of seen all those
sizes for people that are listening.
652
:Maybe just, it could be useful to talk
about like what that soul searching
653
:process was like, how you sort of
identified your happy place because
654
:maybe not everyone has fully like
made become self aware, I guess,
655
:of those things within themselves.
656
:Danielle Marquis: No, it's a great
question and done a lot of that.
657
:Like I said, recently, a little bit
more actually helping my little sister.
658
:she got laid off in November
and had to do the same thing.
659
:Do I stay in, in this tech space?
660
:Do I go back to pre med?
661
:Do I, you know, where do I go?
662
:And it always comes back to me now.
663
:in my twenties, I, chased success.
664
:throughout my twenties and early thirties.
665
:It was like, how can I continue to.
666
:Evolve my career, whether that
be pay, title, contributions
667
:to a company, whatnot.
668
:my sweet spot is around that, like.
669
:150 to 400 person company.
670
:I will say that Iron Mountain
was a little bit of a, I had no
671
:idea how that thing was set up.
672
:I don't think they do.
673
:Um, but, just really thinking
about, it sounds so basic, but
674
:what gets you up in the morning
it's the people I'm working with.
675
:How motivated are they?
676
:Are they as passionate about the
success of the company that I am?
677
:Because if not, I'm going to burn the
crap out and I'm going to feel more
678
:negative emotions versus like dopamine
rush around the things I'm contributing.
679
:Like, and I have gotten to that burnout.
680
:I will say like Zappi has had
several evolutions in the last
681
:five and a half years, we are not
the same company that I joined.
682
:And so with that, inevitably
you're going to have.
683
:Different people you're working with,
with different motivational drivers
684
:and really trying to come back to
what motivated me in the first place.
685
:Culture is huge.
686
:how people first is a company
and is it just marketing or
687
:are they actually people first?
688
:Zappy is people first, probably to our
detriment at some points, because there's
689
:probably some people we, we should have
parted ways with along the path, uh,
690
:that were low performers that, we are
people first and we give people the
691
:benefit of the doubt, work life balance.
692
:And this could just be me getting older,
but life is way more important than work.
693
:I mean, money is great and it helps
you afford a life that you want.
694
:but at the end of the day, if.
695
:You have to skip two meetings to go see
a recital or you, have a gorgeous day
696
:and you've been working 60 hour weeks
and you want to go to the beach for the
697
:afternoon, like log off and go do it
and take care of your mental sanity.
698
:those are things I know I'm never going to
be chastised or judged at Zappy for doing.
699
:I mean, if I did all the time,
yeah, I'll be judged for it.
700
:but you know, it's, it's something
where we're really people
701
:first and that's important.
702
:The work I'm doing, I like the
balance of being able to make
703
:strategic recommendations,
704
:plan out a roadmap, but also actually
pick up some of those initiatives myself.
705
:some of the soul searching was like,
okay, if I were just sitting in a C
706
:level position and not really getting my
hands dirty, will I be satisfied enough?
707
:And I am,
708
:no longer a competitive athlete, but
I came up as from age three doing
709
:gymnastics, competitive athletics.
710
:Like.
711
:Whatever I put my all into, I needed
to see a tangible result around.
712
:And so for me, keeping some of that
hands in the game helps me feel that rush
713
:Justin Norris: Oh, it is.
714
:I mean, I think it's super important
715
:because
716
:yeah, there's certain things like It's
717
:fine to want a title.
718
:It's fine to want higher income.
719
:but you have to understand what
720
:actually makes you happy in the job.
721
:And
722
:there's one thing that I really
appreciated about being in
723
:the consulting world was you
kind of got a rotating tour of
724
:duty through companies of all sizes.
725
:And sometimes you saw that
726
:like, Oh, these cool brands, it
727
:would
728
:like, look so cool on
a resume to work there.
729
:And then you see inside.
730
:How like a 10, 000 person company
731
:works,
732
:the chaotic and the pace of change
is so slow and everything's about,
733
:you know, the meeting for the
meeting, for the meeting to make
734
:the PowerPoint for the next meeting.
735
:Like
736
:I was like, okay, I see that I actually,
for me, and some people thrive at
737
:navigating in that environment.
738
:And that's, it's, that's a
skillset that I respect very much.
739
:But you kind of learn
where your happy place is.
740
:So
741
:I think it's cool to like
consciously do that process.
742
:Because I don't think I did for a
743
:while.
744
:Danielle Marquis: Yeah,
and I think it's healthy.
745
:I did not do it, I burnt out
multiple times in my career of just
746
:literally burning the midnight oil.
747
:I would wake up, 5.
748
:30, work out, get to work, come
home, have dinner, open my laptop,
749
:turn on the TV, and work until 1am.
750
:And then I would do it all again.
751
:I'm not gonna lie, doing that didn't
get me the opportunities I got.
752
:the opportunities I've achieved in my
career could have happened without working
753
:80 hour weeks on some of these things,
and setting better boundaries up front.
754
:That's the other thing I have learned is
755
:like, be in an environment where
756
:you can set those boundaries and you can
stick to them and people respect that.
757
:and that's something where, again,
I didn't really think about culture
758
:or how those folks around you care
about how you show up or whatnot.
759
:And like here, I have people I've been
760
:working with
761
:for five years that will see me on a call
and I'll get a slack and I'll get a hair.
762
:Is everything okay?
763
:they just no, no, like a facial change
or I wasn't talking as much cause
764
:I don't know how to shut up, you're
really quiet on that call, everything.
765
:Okay.
766
:and just like those little things you
wouldn't get yet at a bigger company.
767
:Not
768
:necessarily.
769
:I
770
:mean,
771
:Justin Norris: That's really nice.
772
:Danielle Marquis: work friends, but,
yeah, it's, taking stock and taking
773
:stock continually, because again,
especially if you're in a faster
774
:moving company, that company that
You started with is not the company
775
:you're probably currently at still.
776
:the hard part
777
:is
778
:if all of a sudden You look at
that list of what gets me up and
779
:doesn't get me up in the morning.
780
:and what doesn't get me up
781
:is getting higher, right?
782
:It's hard to leave that situation, but at
783
:the end of the day, I'll say it again,
the life side of it, the mental side
784
:of it is so much more important.
785
:Justin Norris: You can only drain those
786
:reserves for so long And then you
know you crash and burn at some
787
:point We've talked about the last 15
788
:years of
789
:RevOps.
790
:Let's talk
791
:about
792
:the next 15 years, or probably
793
:nobody
794
:knows
795
:what's going to happen in the
next 15 years, but even the
796
:next five years would be
797
:interesting.
798
:And I'm curious for your take, and you
can take it in any direction you want,
799
:whether it's the technology, the role of
RevOps within the company and how it will
800
:expand or perhaps diminish, what are you
seeing and what are you thinking about to
801
:prepare yourself for the
next phase of your career?
802
:Danielle Marquis: from an aspect
of evolving where RevOps sits at a
803
:company, I truly do believe it will
get more of a seat at the table.
804
:you see the PE firms really focusing
on how strong your operation teams are.
805
:they're just as.
806
:and involved with how your rev ops teams
are set up and what they're doing and
807
:what they're producing as they are with
what target numbers, your sales and CS
808
:teams and marketing teams are hitting.
809
:so I think especially in this kind
of like, I guess mid market ish
810
:world of a lot of PE firms are buying
up a lot of these, SAS companies.
811
:You're going to see that push more towards
RevOps getting a larger seat at the table.
812
:They're even having RevOps advisors
start joining in and, being contributors.
813
:So, that's something I'm
excited to see because it's been
814
:missing and it's, been a slog.
815
:It's been really hard to sit
in front of a, CEO and make a
816
:business proposition about why.
817
:they should listen to our
recommendation versus just having
818
:the head of sales yell louder.
819
:Right.
820
:so that's something I'm excited to see.
821
:I'm not even going to touch the AI
subject because I think everyone's
822
:still trying to figure that out.
823
:Like I know that every single
webinar and event is like AI, AI.
824
:I've been playing around with a lot.
825
:Everyone's still figuring it out.
826
:It's TBD.
827
:I like what Gong's doing with their AI.
828
:I'll say that.
829
:I think it's intentional and actually
blending into the already processes you're
830
:doing around deal reviews or call reviews.
831
:So I hope to see it more
embedded into what we're
832
:already focused on a little bit.
833
:We're introducing new things that,
maybe RevOps wasn't the leader on.
834
:and we can actually use that to
get more of a seat at the table.
835
:on a technology standpoint of like how
we're managing, I think you're seeing
836
:a lot more tech savvy RevOps folks.
837
:Probably coming in more from the
Salesforce admin into more of a
838
:generalist RevOp space because they see.
839
:All of the requests coming in and they
start to learn what a good and bad
840
:process looks like, and they start
to learn what good or bad metrics
841
:look like, how to actually analyze
a dashboard, not just create one.
842
:just naturally, in a seeing, I think
RevOps take on more of that go to
843
:market stack, and be the voice of,
that technology stack a bit more
844
:vendor management, all that piece.
845
:like even at Zappy, we just
kicked off a big tech audit.
846
:And it's really incredible to see the
different people from the, different
847
:departments that have been nominated to
join this tech audit and the tech audit
848
:is, yes, auditing all the tech we have at
the company, but is it fit for purpose?
849
:Do we have redundancies?
850
:Do we have the proper, security
reviews on the, cause some things were
851
:brought in five years ago before we
really had a strong data privacy team.
852
:Now that team is like probably our most.
853
:Standard operating procedures have
some really cool stuff and they're
854
:like super easy to work with,
which I know most people probably
855
:don't say about their data privacy.
856
:I love them.
857
:They're one of my favorite
partners internally.
858
:but with that, you're starting to see
even like folks on our it team that don't
859
:know any, the first thing about picking
a technology or, true vendor management,
860
:they're very tech savvy and they can,
861
:troubleshoot a bunch of technology
862
:issues, but actually.
863
:evaluating what the right tech for your
company at this time in your journey is
864
:and how you might evolve with it or not.
865
:and then also the ongoing relationship
and vendor management, how are we
866
:getting the maximum out of this as
we evolve Are we evolving with them?
867
:I really have felt like rev ops folks are
so much more ingrained in that these days.
868
:Cause like that's been
a core piece of our job
869
:, Justin Norris: I, I,
I, think you're right.
870
:I'm seeing all those things too.
871
:I think it's a good time to be in RevOps.
872
:maybe last thing, just, to weigh
in on this RevOps, GTM ops.
873
:there's a, a push for another
rebranding going on and I'm
874
:curious for your, take on that.
875
:Danielle Marquis: you
know, I had a LinkedIn
876
:post
877
:about maybe a year ago, actually.
878
:It might've been like last April.
879
:I was trying to get
people agitated by that.
880
:Like, what do you think about GTM ops and
that being the next evolution of RevOps?
881
:I'm very bullish that
882
:that's where it's going to
883
:rebrand
884
:next.
885
:My
886
:post
887
:got
888
:no
889
:engagement, which means I
just actually need a better
890
:personal
891
:Justin Norris: You're so, far
ahead of your time that people
892
:were just like, I can't
even understand this yet.
893
:Danielle Marquis: Like, what's GTM?
894
:but yeah, I do think that would be
895
:a
896
:natural, for that.
897
:Justin Norris: Well, such a
pleasure to speak with you today.
898
:Thanks for sharing about your journey.
899
:And yeah, hope we'll stay connected
and touch base again soon.
900
:Danielle Marquis: Thanks for having me.