Revenue teams spend a lot of time searching for best practices. But what if some of the most commonly accepted RevOps principles are actually holding teams back?
Revenue teams spend a lot of time searching for best practices. But what if some of the most commonly accepted RevOps principles are actually holding teams back?
That's the question Ryan Rich, COO and Co-founder of Accord, posed to a group of revenue leaders during a recent discussion on the RevOps best practices they disagree with most.
The answers challenged conventional wisdom around standardization, MQLs, AI ownership, approval workflows, and even the role of data itself.
One recurring theme was that too much standardization can come at the expense of differentiation. As Sowmya Srinivasan, former VP of Revenue Operations at HubSpot, put it, "Don't standardize your go-to-market. If you are going to standardize, then you are not going to stand out."
Instead of forcing every seller into the same motion, several leaders argued that organizations should leave room for creativity, relationship building, and human judgment.
Others took aim at traditional metrics and workflows. For Luis Villalobos, Director of RevOps at Litmus, the problem with MQLs is that they can focus teams on the wrong outcome. "Ultimately, what we want from those MQLs or top-of-funnel activities is converting to opportunities. But opportunities that are meaningful and will ultimately generate revenue."
Another important takeaway centered on AI. While participants were bullish on its potential, several argued that AI strategy should be owned centrally by RevOps rather than being fragmented across the organization.
The best RevOps leaders don’t just follow frameworks, process, or dashboards; they understand when to apply them and when to adapt. The bottom line is that data matters, process matters, and standardization matters. But the strongest teams leave room for the human judgment, flexibility, and creativity that drive exceptional outcomes.
