TLDR: MOps and RevOps directly fuel the success of their leaders, but they often feel disempowered to speak up for greater input and influence. To get on the map, show how your work impacts the bottom line. When leadership sets strategies and goals, chooses tools, and establishes KPIs, these are opportunities to use your data, research, and expertise to manage upwards. Suggest solutions and best practices based on sound logic and data, and C-level will trust and seek your input.
The top goal of many C-Suite executives is to optimize revenue. MOps and RevOps are in a unique position to help leaders accomplish this. You sit on a treasure chest of data about business performance. You surface reports, track meaningful metrics, and interpret insights. Without the contributions of people with these skills, leadership struggles to make effective strategic and investment decisions.
In this way, MOps and RevOps directly fuel the success of their leaders. Still, however, there’s a limited understanding at the C-level of the true impact and value of these disciplines.
And compounding the problem of recognition, MOps and RevOps people often feel disempowered to speak up and advocate for greater input and influence, even when they have the expertise to steer key decisions successfully.
Your leaders want to solve problems. They want to know better and do better, but they can’t read minds. And they want to hear well-evidenced proposals over complaints. In this Tough Talks Made Easy, you’ll learn strategies to gain recognition, influence, and input by speaking up with leadership the right way.
Talking impact
The key thing to boost your visibility is to show how your work impacts the bottom line or otherwise contributes to the specific goals your execs care about.
You might feel like you don’t have much of a voice within the company, but hard evidence is difficult to ignore.
Get to know the particular results leadership wants (e.g. customer retention, attraction). Capture the relevant data to build a business case to support a course of action. Luckily, with all the data you work with on revenue generation and optimization, you have the ingredients to be persuasive.
C-Suite wants data-driven solutions to pressing business concerns. That’s true whether you’re advocating for a particular tool or suggesting a strategic change at a particular point in the sales cycle.
These are the kinds of questions your execs are interested in, and you’ll gain respect by investigating and proposing answers.
- How will that new tool cut campaign deployment time?
- How do the changes you’re testing impact conversion rates and revenue?
Win greater investment into the team
This approach also helps with winning greater investment into the team.
As with many things in business, there are no quick fixes. Some MOps/RevOps projects can seem like daunting investments of time and effort, particularly if leadership isn’t sure what the business stands to gain. Highlight the inefficiencies that are consuming time and resources, then show how certain investments can help to eliminate those issues—value add vs. cost.
In order to give C-Suite the insights and metrics they need to drive good decisions, you need to be properly equipped to do that job. Back up your arguments with data to illuminate the connection between C-Suite and MOps/RevOps: when you’re better, they’re better.
Educate upwards
Many C-level execs don’t fully grasp the nuances and minutia of Marketing Operations. They may want you to take on a particular tool, for instance, without your in-depth knowledge of the martech scene and the most suitable capabilities to achieve your objectives. They may base KPIs on vanity metrics rather than data points that can meaningfully steer decisions. Or they may not realize the demands of implementing a platform, and the time it takes to build, test, and tweak until you get the results you want.
There’s a great opportunity for you here to manage upwards. If execs don’t consult you frequently enough at the onset of big projects and decisions, speak up to be heard. You have the evidence to create better outcomes and win credibility. While leadership is in the process of setting strategies and goals, choosing tools, or establishing KPIs, proactively flag the risks and consequences of taking a suboptimal path. And whatever you think is the right course of action, put forward your vision with a rationale based on data, research, and expertise— “I advise X because of Y.”
You are your best advocate
You are your best advocate, so don’t be afraid to start conversations.
Problem-solving is an important part of your job, and that extends to speaking up when you know better. Leadership will appreciate any reality checks and better approaches that you contribute, but they’re especially interested in why. So if you want a say in where strategies and investments go, take advantage of the massive amount of data at your fingertips—it gives you more power than you realize.
Get on the map
Your reasoning makes you a credible voice. Offer your perspectives proactively to make yourself heard— if you display the ability to suggest solutions and best practices based on sound logic and data, C-level will trust and seek your input.
Need more guidance on taking strategic decisions in Marketing Operations? Let’s chat.
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