Revenue Operations' Role on Forecast Calls
Overview
Whether you're new to Revenue Operations or just new to Rev Ops at your organization, it can be challenging to establish Rev Ops role in the key moments in your revenue operating cadence, such as the forecast call(s). In this article, we'll walk you through:
- Owning your Revenue Operating Cadence
- Earning Rev Ops a Voice
- Enforcing Timely Forecast Submissions
- Establishing Rev Ops Role in the Forecast Call
- Best Practices
Owning Your Revenue Operating Cadence
Your Revenue Operating Rhythm is the set of key moments during the day, week, month, quarter, etc. that define how your revenue team executes. A well-sequenced cadence can drive global alignment, simplify everyone’s life, optimize performance, drive operational efficiency, and focus on the right things at the right time.
Revenue Operations has the unique opportunity to take ownership of your organization's revenue operating cadence. This can seem like a daunting task, so we've gathered some resources below to guide you.
Resources
Below, you'll find a description of each of the related resources that we have attached to this article. These resources are designed to help you establish your revenue operating cadence — or iterate on your existing process, or simply articulate the existing process to your Sales organization.
Establishing Your Revenue Operating Cadence Webinar Slide Deck: This deck comes from the first webinar in our series focused on the path to Connected Revenue Operations.
In this webinar, we focus on how to establish your revenue operating rhythm. We dive into what it is, why it’s valuable to establish, a few different options for what best-in-class operating rhythms looks like, and strategies to implement your own.
Okta: Forecasting and Pipeline Management: A case study on building a repeatable, scalable forecasting process to help drive pipeline and revenue growth. Our VP of Customer Success, Amy Johnson, carries copies of this one around in her Clari bag!
Earning Rev Ops a Voice
Set a regular meeting cadence with Rev Ops and your CRO.
You don't necessarily need to meet every week, but it's critical for Rev Ops and your CRO to be on the same page in order to guide your forecast call(s) and all of the other key moments in your revenue operating cadence in the right direction.
Try answering the following questions to guide you through this meeting:
How has the forecast changed since last week?
Check Pulse for changes to the primary forecast call (i.e. Commit) of your CRO, VPs, etc. week over week. If you spot significant changes, look to your pipeline and see what's changed.
What's our pipeline coverage for the current quarter?
It's also super easy to check your pipeline coverage in Pulse — in fact, pipeline coverage is one of the KPIs listed at the top of the Chart in Pulse.
Have any deals slipped in the last week?
If you see a noteworthy amount has slipped from your pipeline in Pulse, then check Flow to identify exactly what happened to the deals in your pipeline. If some deals slipped, for example, then you can identify them and figure out if you can pull them back into the quarter.
How are our top deals progressing?
You can review our top deals via a Top Deals Widget or even your Opportunities Module. We definitely recommend that you walk through our 4-Point Deal Inspection process for your key deals either before or during this meeting.
Enforcing Timely Forecast Submissions
There are several tools in Clari designed to help you ensure that everyone submits their forecast call(s) on time.
Forecasting Period
Your organization can choose a specific forecasting period and rollover date. For most customers, the forecasting period is a week long, and that means you expect everyone to update their forecast every week.
You can pick a specific rollover date, or the day of the week that the forecasting period ends and the new one begins. We suggest that you base this on when you have your global forecast call. If your global forecast call is on Monday, for example, then Clari can set the automated rollover for Monday night every week.
Forecast Status
In the Forecasting Module, Each call field (i.e. Most Likely, Best Case) is assigned a status of Incomplete, Overdue, or Complete. This status is based on your organization's regular forecasting period.
The Forecast Status is a quick and easy way to identify whether each call is up-to-date or not in real time. If you're not familiar with how to look at the forecast statuses, check out this article on the Forecast Status functionality.
Analyzing Your Forecast Export
If you want to identify who hasn't updated their forecast for the week, then you can use the forecast export tool. Check out this article for steps to identify who has not updated their forecast for the week.
Establishing Rev Ops' Role in the Forecast Call
Step 1: Attend!
Attending the forecast call(s) for the various regions or teams at your organization provides Rev Ops with visibility.
Observe the strengths and areas for improvement in each team's forecast call. For example, if one team has a creative solution to a problem that all our teams experiencing, then Rev Ops ought to know!
Also, keep an eye out for changes to the configuration that you might want to make in order to better support the team. Perhaps you have multiple quote fields in Salesforce, for example. You might notice that Sales is struggling because you're pulling the wrong one into Forecasting. If you notice something that looks off in Clari, call it out and/or reach out to your CSM.
Step 2: Observe and Communicate
Use your observations to make direct suggestions to regional or team leaders on what works well for other teams. Over time, Rev Ops can take ownership of the forecast call flow itself, and make sure each team on each call is following the process.
Finally, start pointing out where their team is leading and lagging based on what CRO is inspecting. For example, maybe a team's pipeline coverage looks great, but a lot of deals are slipping—and show team leaders how to identify slipped deals and their owners in Flow!
Step 3: Follow Up
Follow up on the suggestions that you make and the areas for improvement that you observe during the forecast call(s).
For example, Rev Ops can assist sales leaders in enforcing proper preparation, such as ensuring that Stage, Forecast Category, and sales methodology (i.e. MEDDIC) fields are updated to ensure that your forecast call(s) aren't just "reporting the news."
Depending on the size of your Sales team, you might send notes to individual reps to point out deals that are out of compliance with your CRM hygiene goals—we recommend that you create Saved Views to identify deals that have not been updated. If you're partnering with a large sales team at your organization, on the other hand, then you might build a CRM Hygiene Dashboard to enable sales leaders to monitor their team's CRM hygiene practices.
Best Practices
Set expectations with your CRO on Rev Ops' involvement in the forecast call.
It's important that you and your CRO are on the same page about the role of Revenue Operations on the forecast call(s). Your relationship should be a partnership that allows you to help your CRO drive a more connected, efficient, and predictable forecasting process. Hint: it's a great time to have this conversation as you implement Clari!
Inspect the pipeline and perform sanity checks ahead of the forecast call.
In order to coach managers and reps (or even your CRO) and inspect key deals, you should be familiar with our 4-Point Deal Inspection process. Check out this 4-Step Deal Inspection Cheat Sheet.
Set expectations with attendees on what to do to prepare for the forecast call.
To ensure everyone is prepared for a productive conversation, you might instruct all attendees to check these items off their to-do lists before going into the forecast call:
- Make sure deals are in the correct Stage & Forecast Category.
- Ensure that sales methodology fields (i.e. MEDDIC fields) and Next Steps are filled out as appropriate.
- Make sure to have the proper quote selected/amount showing.
- Be prepared to speak to any roadblocks you have and the resources you need for any of your deals.
