Revenue Operations Predictions for 2024

I know that everyone and their mother’s boyfriend’s sister-in-law’s cousin write predictions these days, but yet here I am being part of the deluge of predictions. There is a lot that has already been said, and of which is valuable, so, instead of adding to the cacophony of voices and creating more noise and distracting from the signal, I’ll only add what I believe has not already been said. The last thing we all need is another person ‘predicting’ that AI will have an impact on GTM teams in 2024. Woof. Spare me. 

#1. AI will become more operationalized and formalized. 

It’s not insightful to say that AI will have an impact on GTM teams, especially sales + customer success. What is important to point out is that like in the early stage of any new technology, it's not properly operationalized, organized, or formalized in the processes. It is still sort of the Wild West, where different people are using it in different ways to get different results. Sounds sorta like the opposite of what Rev Ops should be helping to iron out no? I think the usages will be in playbooks, custom GPTs enablement, and existing tech tools with AI-enhanced features will create an organized formal impact rather than prompt-wielding individuals.

#2. GTM tech stack is going to get very homogenous + mediocre.

This is a small piggyback from point #1, but also a rising trend I noticed last year that I believe will only accelerate next year. Major GTM system players like Outreach, Gong, Apollo, etc are all driving right toward the middle. They are all launching their own version of; pipeline management, action insights, AI, conversational intelligence, and company or contact data. 

what this means is that there is less differentiation between systems and each player is making a ‘compelling’ case for a greater share of your wallet and to consolidate your tech stack with them. 

Unfortunately, I believe this will drive a lot of competitive selling, but not on value or capability, only on price. It’s going to be hard to tell which system is more capable, instead, you’ll likely be forced to compromise on some functionality by selecting a single vendor or absorbing a higher cost by hiring multiple systems (and individuals to admin them). From what I’ve seen no single company has done all of these well, they’re each good at a single thing and selling the idea of another. It’s unlikely their core competency will extend to all these different products well, especially this quickly. Likely the switching cost will be twofold, once to consolidate systems and then again when you realize it's not working the way you’d hoped/the way they promised. That does not include the time they spend convincing you that product updates are coming quickly, those useful changes are almost always ‘one quarter away’. 

#3. The term GTM will begin to overtake Revenue, in the operations world. 

While some might see this as a very persnickety and pedantic change, I think it's sort of important. 

I think that the terms; Go-to-Market Operations, Go-To-Market Systems, and Go-To-Market Enablement are a much more accurate term for what the teams do + what they support. Revenue is a financial term by definition and it’s my humble opinion that GTM is a more accurate term. 

#4. Companies will continue to de-risk their sales hires by investing in Operational organizations. 

This is likely a reaction and adaptation to the fact that CROs + VPs of sales have had far too much weight, responsibility, and expectation put on their shoulders for the last 10–15 years. They’ve been expected not to jacks of all trades, but instead masters of ALL. 

Investing in Operational organizations earlier, VP of operations, revenue operations, enablement, etc are all ways of de-risking their sales leadership hires. it takes all those areas of expertise that used to be the sole domain of sales leadership and diversifies them to other teams. For example, what about sales methodology or qualification criteria? by allowing Rev Ops to own these, it removes the need for a sales leadership hire to be the sole expert, and also opens up the role to a broader pool of candidates who might not have those skills, but are great at motivating sales teams and getting deals closed. 

This also builds on an observation I've noticed growing in the last few years, traditionally Rev Ops rolled up to CRO or VP of Sales, 90% of the time. Now, in 2023 + 2024 I am observing a 50–50 split between CRO/VP of Sales + COO/VP of Operations. I think this represents a major and important shift for Rev Ops, having a different seat at the table. It forces the Rev Ops function to be a different type of stakeholder for GTM teams, more as a check and balance, rather than fully focused on enabling the team. That’s not to say that rolling to a CRO is a bad thing, but I think the fact that there are more paradigms to choose from makes building a team easier with more choices. in addition this leads me to my point #5. 

#5. The Revenue Operations skillset is expanding and looking more like a hybrid between COO + CFO. 

It’s becoming more clear that to have ample growth opportunities, Rev Ops leaders will have to look more like a COO/CFO. That means that skills like SQL, BI tools, financial modeling, and MBA’s are the clear path toward the best opportunities available. Even potentially understanding data clouds/lakes to be able to pull in all sources of data for near real-time decision-making. 

Whereas traditionally, it has been more focused on: sales experience, sales methodology and process, GTM tech stack expertise, it now seems to be more about strategic decision-making than tactical execution in these areas. 

There will continue to be subject matter experts in these areas, as there should be. The specialization is still important and valuable, but the the most ambitious among us will need to be much more strategic about the philosophy about growth, structure, project management, etc than ever before to be considered for the best opportunities.