In our Revenue Operations Salary Report, we asked RevOps experts Jeremy Steinbring, Founder at RevOnyx, Jordan Shaheen, Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations at Candid, and Tana Jackson, Global Director of Revenue Operations at Chronicle Heritage, to share their thoughts on factors influencing the current job market.
We asked them:
- Why is salary transparency important in revenue operations?
- Why is diversity important in revenue operations?
- What’s the importance of work-life balance?
- How could a revenue leader build a culture of balance in their organization?
- How is the current job market for RevOps? Do you think the function is at risk of layoffs?
Keep reading to hear what they had to say. Or download the report to see our salary statistics.
Why is salary transparency important in revenue operations?
“I'm overly transparent on just about anything, everyone on my team knows what's being paid to everybody and why. There has to be a why. I think it really builds trust with your employees.
“I'm okay with my team members talking about how much they make, I want them to, because I want people to understand what they need to do in order to get to the next level.
“Ultimately, that's going to help me as a business owner. So, I think transparency is super key.”
– Jeremy Steinbring, Founder of RevOnyx
Rebecca Stewart
“New York companies like mine have to post the role's salary range on every job description, which is based primarily on the experience the new hire is expected to have. So, if you come in with X amount of experience, you can assume your placement within the range will match.
“Consequently, this more transparent and experience-based pay scale also helps avoid (or at least limit) biased pay gaps in the industry. Hopefully, the transparency requirement will be required in more and more states.”
– Jordan Shaheen, Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations at Candid
Why is diversity important in revenue operations?
“I think this is true of any position. It's kind of like dating yourself – that's not interesting. You already know everything about the other person, you date someone who's different.
“You want to learn from experiences, you want new creative ideas, and if everyone has the same upbringing, status, background, heritage, and location, you don’t have that. This could be diversity in everything, from ethnicity to age, from gender, to which country you grew up in.
“The broader and more diverse your team, the broader and more diverse your creative ideas.
“Find people who have a very different situation to you, because they have a different understanding of the world. Diversity is incredibly important, especially when you're selling to a global market.
“I think without diversity you're limiting yourself and your growth.”
– Jeremy Steinbring, Founder of RevOnyx
“Diversity in revenue operations is crucial not just for fostering innovation and creative problem-solving, but also for ensuring equitable salary compensation.
“When a diverse group of individuals brings their unique perspectives and experiences to the table, it helps identify and rectify biases in compensation practices. This leads to a fairer and more inclusive workplace where everyone's contributions are valued and rewarded appropriately.
“Revenue operations salaries should be based on skills and experience, so making sure you have the “right” rockstar and paying them accordingly is key.”
– Tana Jackson, Global Director of Revenue Operations at Chronicle Heritage
What’s the importance of work-life balance?
“I've been trying to change this to ‘life-work’ balance. Why does work come first?
“Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about work-life balance as a lower-level employee. It starts at the top, the expectations come from leadership. The company goals, and what your leaders care about is going to determine your work-life balance.
“One thing you can do is ask questions during an interview process to really understand the company culture. Don’t ask: “How's your work-life balance?” Everyone's gonna say ‘fine’ or ‘great’ when you’re interviewing.
“But if you can ask questions about how to uncover what it's really like, such as:
“Tell me about an unexpected project that had a tight deadline with a lot of work to be done.”
“If they took extra hands from another department and deprioritized what they were working on to support the team, that's a green flag. But if they buckled down, work hard, play hard in a fast-paced environment, that's a big red flag.”
– Jeremy Steinbring, Founder of RevOnyx
Rebecca Stewart
“I think work-life balance is really important, but starting with even just work-balance can make a huge quality of life impact.
“How do you create that work-balance? Start by limiting your mental overload by only checking email a couple of times a day and Slack every hour or so. Let it sit otherwise. This small change allows your creativity to flow more readily and keeps you more focused on the task at hand.
“In the startup world, and my team specifically, we encourage people to get the job done but are more flexible on the hours they work. If you need to go to a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day or pick up your child from school, no problem! We only ask that you manage your time wisely and deliver well-done projects on time. You're an adult, so you should be treated like one.
“It's important to use the remote work format to our benefit and to create a healthier balance between life and work goals.”
– Jordan Shaheen, Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations at Candid
How could a revenue leader build a culture of balance in their organization?
“Asking your team’s opinion when you have a one-on-one or a team meeting. I like transparency, so I would do this in a team setting. That way everyone feels comfortable to share how they're actually doing.
“I think it's a matter of expectation setting. Very few executives actually set clear expectations for RevOps roles. Because revenue operations isn’t like sales where you have a number to hit, whether that’s a number of dials or number of emails, you have a quota. If you hit your quota, you know you're doing your job, it’s very clear cut and dried.
“RevOps is more fluid. You're doing strategy, you might be doing systems implementation. There's not a lot of data that would determine if you’ve been successful or not. A lot of times it's just based on interactions and how people feel about you, or whether you say yes or no to new projects.
“The interpersonal stuff is how people really figure out if you're being successful, at least in my experience. I think it's just expectation setting, and creating those metrics where you can, so people know where they stand on that at all times.”
– Jeremy Steinbring, Founder of RevOnyx
How is the current job market for RevOps? Do you think the function is at risk of layoffs?
“Here's what happened, especially in the tech and SaaS space, over the last three or four years, especially the Covid years, business boomed. There weren't enough qualified people to do the work. The supply was really low, and the demand was really high, which jacked up the price of people.
“Now the market’s normalized, we’re seeing layoffs, or a strategic thinning of the herd, it's very intentional. In most cases, especially big companies, it's not about the money or their profitability. It's about the fact they overpaid for an asset they can now get at 60% less. Now, the supply is super high, and the demand is lower.
“It's an interesting time, because at the same time that this is happening, we have AI, booming, and we have RevOps as a function booming.
“And what's interesting about that is rather than having a team of 50 salespeople generate revenue, businesses are saying, well, instead of hiring back the 20 people that we laid off, how can we hire two people in RevOps and get some systems and configure it to make those 25 people as efficient as 50.
“What's happening is specific roles that have a lot of repetitive tasks (like BDRs, SDRs, even some account managers), AI and tools will start to come out to replace those functions.
“Rather than having people do everything manually, you're gonna see more lean businesses hiring one or two RevOps folks to automate a process that a human had to do before. I don't think RevOps will ever be automated. But I do think it will become more efficient, you'll need fewer people to run the machine as you move forward.”
“There's a reason why RevOps has become a household name, and people are interested in it, because they're looking to subsidize headcount with systems and the entity that manages the go-to-market motion and all of the tech stack, tools, and process is revenue operations.
“There will always be changes in RevOps, but the function is on the rise, and human labor is on the decline.”
– Jeremy Steinbring, Founder of RevOnyx
Ella Harrison
“I think the more revenue operations and revenue strategy are integrated into the company's projects and initiatives, the more stable it becomes.
“But if you're in a more volatile company market, such as high-growth or early-stage, the company could always go under. That's where it's a little harder to make a decision, but as you get into a mid-stage startup and forward, it becomes more a question of: ‘Are you adding value?’
“From my perspective, as long as you're integrated with those key projects and adding value you’re stable. If you're doing pure sales operations it becomes a little bit more in flux.
“I think ultimately, RevOps is a safe role.
“But the market is very hot for employers. There definitely aren’t as many jobs as people looking for them in revenue operations and revenue strategy.
“I think in this role, specifically, once you start doing well, you stick around, so it's not a job where people hop around quite as much as some of the other roles.”
– Jordan Shaheen, Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations at Candid
Want to benchmark your salary?
Our Revenue Operations Salary Report dives into these salary figures in even more depth than this article, helping you to benchmark your salary and negotiate your next pay rise.
You can get your copy of the latest edition right here and keep your finger on the pulse of the industry.👇
