In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS and B2B sales, CEOs and COOs are increasingly tasked with navigating complex challenges to maintain and grow revenue streams. As technology continues to transform how businesses operate, the role of Revenue Operations (RevOps) has emerged as a critical function, ensuring that every aspect of the go-to-market process is optimized for efficiency and effectiveness.

In a recent episode of the Selling the Cloud podcast, Nivedita (Neetha) Ratakonda, CEO of BigLittle.ai, provided valuable insights into the strategic importance of RevOps. Check out key takeaways from the discussion to help your organization leverage RevOps for revenue generation.

1. Eliminate Revenue Leakage with Process Efficiency

• Challenge: Revenue-generating processes are often riddled with inefficiencies—delays, data silos, and misaligned functions. These gaps result in significant revenue leakage, where businesses leave money on the table due to suboptimal operations.
• Solution: Identify and address inefficiencies in real-time. RevOps teams should have the visibility and tools to spot these leaks and collaborate across marketing, sales, and customer success to close them quickly.

2. Leverage Data for Strategic Decision-Making

• Challenge: Many organizations fail to fully utilize the vast amounts of data they generate, missing out on actionable insights that could drive better decision-making.
• Solution: Adopt a unified data strategy that gathers information from all areas of your organization, not just the CRM. Then use AI to analyze all types of data throughout the customer journey, enabling real-time decisions that boost customer engagement and speed up sales

3. Integrate RevOps as the Strategic Connector

• Challenge: Traditional siloed approaches to marketing, sales, and customer success create disjointed customer experiences and hinder growth.
• Solution: Elevate RevOps to a strategic role within your organization. Ensure RevOps has a seat at the executive table, empowering them to align cross-functional GTM teams, optimize budgets, and lead strategic planning efforts.

4. Future-Proof Your GTM Strategy with AI

• Challenge: The rapid pace of technological advancement, especially in AI, requires continuous adaptation. Many organizations struggle to keep up with these changes.
• Solution: Integrating AI solutions in targeted areas of your GTM process can enable your teams to be more efficient.From predictive analytics to automating repetitive tasks, AI can significantly enhance your team’s ability to execute and innovate.

Ready to Optimize Your Revenue Strategy?

RevOps is more than just a support function—it’s the backbone of modern revenue generation. To learn how you can leverage RevOps to drive efficiency and maximize revenue, or to get introduced to leaders like Neetha Ratakonda, reach out to Accelerant Growth Solutions for a tailored consultation.

For more insights and to stay updated with the latest in sales strategies, subscribe to the Selling the Cloud podcast.

Podcast Transcript: 

Introduction

Mark: Welcome everyone to Selling the Cloud, the podcast where we decode the art and science of B2B selling in the ever-evolving world of SaaS. I'm your co-host, Mark Petruzzi.
Kat: And I'm Katarina Ostrovsky. In today's RevOps edition of Selling the Cloud, we guide you through deep integrated market metrics, the science of revenue generation, and how companies are leveraging data and technology to fuel their revenue engines.
Mark: Join us for real-world insights for tech and business leaders, exploring ways to thrive in this new paradigm.

Guest Introduction: Neetha Radikanda

Mark: Today, we are honored to be joined by Neetha Radikanda, CEO of Big Little AI, a revenue optimization tool that continuously and proactively highlights risks to revenue and enables teams to take immediate course-correcting action.
Kat: Neetha, I'm so excited to have you here. Could you start by sharing your career journey to becoming a CEO, what led you to entrepreneurship, and any pivotal moments along the way?

Neetha: Thank you so much, Mark and Kat! I'm thrilled to be here. I started off as an engineer and stayed in engineering leadership roles for most of my career. This is my second startup, and during my first, I was exposed to the world of non-engineering roles—sales, marketing, and customer relations. That experience was a pivotal moment for me.

Discussion on Revenue Leaks and Process Inefficiencies

Mark: Can you explain the concept of revenue leakage and how it impacts companies? How do you work with your clients to address this issue?

Neetha: Sure! Revenue leakage occurs when inefficiencies in revenue-generating processes cause businesses to leave money on the table. These inefficiencies might include:

• Delays
• Lack of prioritization
• Poor data flow between functions
• Bad processes

One of the most rampant inefficiencies is the delay in hand-offs between teams, particularly marketing and sales. These functions often work in silos, leading to gaps in communication and lost opportunities. By optimizing this, businesses can reclaim a lot of lost revenue.

Examples of Revenue Leakage

Kat: Could you provide some specific examples of where revenue leakage occurs, like in lead conversion or retention?

Neetha: Absolutely! For instance, marketing often nurtures leads and passes them to sales as MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads). But if the sales team doesn’t act quickly enough, or if the lead wasn’t nurtured well enough, you get inefficiencies. Sometimes, high-quality leads are not worked on, while unnurtured leads get sent back to marketing.

Another common issue is the lack of collaboration between marketing and sales. Data about how stakeholders are interacting with marketing materials often doesn’t get passed on to the sales team. This creates a gap in the customer journey.

Strategic vs. Tactical Approaches in RevOps

Mark: Neetha, you mentioned both tactical execution and strategic planning. How do you distinguish between the two in the context of RevOps, and how do you balance short-term tactical gains with long-term improvements?

Neetha: We’re currently more focused on the tactical side—identifying inefficiencies in day-to-day operations, highlighting risks to revenue, and taking immediate action. However, the long-term vision is to get into strategic planning, aligning the go-to-market strategy with business objectives for more sustainable growth.

Emerging Technologies in RevOps

Kat: What emerging technologies do you think will have the biggest impact on RevOps in the next few years, especially with the rise of AI?

Neetha: The biggest shift is in how we leverage data. We’ve moved from just collecting data to using AI and machine learning to analyze it, predict outcomes, and prescribe actions. Large language models and neural nets are allowing us to extract insights in real-time from structured and unstructured data—such as emails, voice conversations, and documents. This will fundamentally transform go-to-market strategies.

The Evolution of RevOps

Kat: We're seeing RevOps professionals play a more central role in organizations. How do you see this role evolving over the next 5 to 10 years?

Neetha: RevOps is evolving into a critical function that connects marketing, sales, and customer success. In the future, I see RevOps leaders moving beyond tactical tasks like setting up dashboards to becoming key players in strategic decision-making. They’ll need to have a seat at the table when discussing go-to-market strategies and revenue optimization.

Rapid Fire Questions

Mark: Now for some rapid-fire questions! What was the first product or service you worked on in your career?

Neetha: I’ve always been involved with startups. Early on, I worked on figuring out what technology best solved customer problems. As I transitioned into my second startup, I dove headfirst into sales and marketing—completely different from my engineering background!

Kat: Who’s your favorite CEO to follow?

Neetha: Satya Nadella. His ability to change the culture of a massive company like Microsoft is incredible. I also rely heavily on my community of startup founders for inspiration.

Mark: What’s your favorite sales book?

Neetha: Mark Roberge’s The Sales Acceleration Formula and Matt Dixon’s The Challenger Sale. Both offer great insights into the intersection of data and sales strategies.

Mark: Neetha, thank you so much for joining us. This was an insightful conversation. We look forward to speaking with you again!

Neetha: Thank you both! I had a great time.