The scope of a RevOps leader can be overwhelming – not least when Revenue Operations is a new or recent focus for your company. That's why almost every RevOps leader has their own recipe for success. If you haven’t developed yours, or you’ve open to new ideas, then it’s time for you to gain a fresh perspective. Or rather, three fresh perspectives. Below, we share the top three books every RevOps leader should read. Read these to gain insight on how to grow your company, connect teams, and a treasure trove of other revenue-boosting strategies.
1. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't By Simon Sinek
A difficult hurdle for many RevOps leaders is connecting previously siloed teams to achieve the most optimum revenue results. Ideally, the entire revenue workforce – not just sales – work together to create a revenue engine, with different teams connected via the same incentive structure. But without thoughtful and careful leadership, these previously disjointed teams are doomed to fragment and fail. That’s where this book comes in! It’s brimming with fascinating examples of the opposite – where teams that range from government to banking and even the military are connected through thoughtful leaders who put themselves last. And it’s not just theory: the book offers up practical behavioral suggestions any RevOps leader can implement to get the most from their teams. This includes:
- Inspiring action
- Creating a circle of safety
- Telling the truth
- Leading people instead of numbers
- Choosing to eat last
At the bottom line, to connect teams, it falls on you to cultivate an environment that allows everybody to thrive. This book is an invaluable resource to keep you on a well-trodden path to do so.
Key quote: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
2. Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine
A key tenant of any Revenue Operations strategy is a laser focus on CX – and not just as an operational overhead, but as a fundamental driver of revenue in itself. Outside In comes from fourteen years of research by the customer experience leaders at Forrester Research, and offers a complete roadmap to maximizing every customer interaction and touchpoint. It introduces the idea of the Customer Experience Ecosystem and asserts that the heart of customer experience issues lie beyond customer-facing teams like sales and customer service, but to core employees such as those in finance or IT, in addition to the technologies and policies your employees encounter during their working day.
It focuses heavily on the importance of CX for revenue growth (a topic we’ve previously written about in-depth), and suggests valuable ways to reorganize your teams to prioritize revenue. It also offers up a plethora of real-world examples from companies who are nailing their customer experience strategy and reaping the benefits as a result.
The writers focus on a three key areas:
- The value of customer experience
- The six disciplines of customer experience
- And how CX transforms companies and generates revenue
Key quote: “When you treat it as a business discipline, Customer Experience leads to profits.”
3. From Impossible to Inevitable: How SaaS and Other Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin
This book is already an instant RevOps classic and will no doubt become a dog-eared essential on the bookshelves of business leaders for many years to come. It breaks down the growth strategies of companies like Salesforce, EchoSign, and Zenefits — the latter of which catapulted revenue from $1 to $100 million in only two years. It’s also packed full of actionable advice on creating consistent growth and offers up a path to predictable revenue through seven key principles, these include:
- Knowing if you've nailed a niche
- The importance of doubling your deal size
- How to create ownership amongst your revenue workforce
- Discovering the difference between early adopters and mainstream buyers – and why it matters
- How to scale sales
Key quote: “Success can be a system…Revenue and growth can be (mostly) predictable.”
Conclusion: Successful Revenue Leaders Are Well Read
We’re not all born natural leaders. But even those of us who are can benefit from the collective years of experience and insight from the above three books.
Interested in a deeper dive into RevOps? We wrote a whole series breaking down everything you need to know. Check out part I here.