Defining the Business Operations Role

A look inside the business operations role at a high-growth company. 

The demand for business operations specialists proficient in B2B sales and marketing operations has reached an all-time high - and shows no signs of stopping. 

The rise of sales operations is continuing to reshape the way B2B companies structure their organizations. Operations departments are falling in line behind the C-Suite - who began paving the way for a committed revenue operations function by giving the C-Level its own dedicated specialist, the Chief Revenue Officer, a few years back. 

B2B operations departments are now following in lockstep, adding their own cross-functional specialists in the form of Business Operations / Revenue Operations Managers. In this post, we take a look inside the specific duties and core functions of a business ops leader at one high-growth startup.

What is a business operations manager

Business operations managers work cross-departmentally in organizations to streamline and organize processes. Alignment is key to efficiently running or scaling any business (especially sales organizations) and business operations managers are essential in creating the cross-team alignment that allows predictable, systematic growth. In some organizations the business operations manager is responsible for budgeting and financing growth projects whereas at other organizations the role is more about critical thinking and leadership skills to help create frameworks for teams. Some of the most common functions of the business operations manager role are:

• Strategic planning and forecasting
• Analyzing market opportunity and trends within the business
• Monitoring benchmarks and performance data
• Defining end-to-end cross functional process 
• Identifying and tracking financial KPIs critical to the health of teams within the business

What is the role of operations in a business

The role of operations in any business function is to align cross departmental teams and create scalable processes. The business operations team works with the revenue team on budgeting, business intelligence and analytics. Business Intelligence tools are usually leveraged by the business operations team. Attribution modeling and other marketing intelligence may also sit with the business operations team to help affordably scale marketing team operations. If your organization is in a startup phase or is generally a smaller organization, business operations may fall to a single person who is responsible for hiring, finance, and all business intelligence. The role shifts with the size of the organization and maturity of the organization. 

The Leader: Inside The Business Operations Role 

At Aligned 2017, Ambition and our event co-hosts interviewed 50 foremost minds in B2B sales and marketing. Revenue operations was a hot topic in many of those discussions, and in this presentation, HelloSign Revenue Operations Manager Will Clarke took us behind the scenes of his initial 6 months initiating and leading business ops  

How HelloSign Revenue Operations Lead Will Clarke Aligns His Team

B2B Sales and Operations Resources 

Aligned University offers 50 free on-demand videos on B2B business ops leadership. Experts include:

• VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk
• Sales Hacker CEO Max Altschuler​
• Center for Sales Innovation Expert Jill Konrath​
• HubSpot VP Marketing Jon Dick
• TOPO Chief analyst Craig Rosenberg

Ambition Academy offers 15 free eBooks for B2B business leaders. Check out: 

• The Agile Sales Management Guide
• Bridging the Gap: Account Based Marketing & Sales Alignment
• 2017 B2B Trends and Tech Guide