I'm lucky I get to speak with some of the sharpest business leaders in the world. It's one of the biggest joys of my job. I'm constantly learning about their approach to running revenue and taking that inspiration back to my team to inform our thinking. For the first time, I'll be sharing these learnings publicly in the hopes that many more people can benefit.
A recent conversation with a CFO is a perfect example. He walked me through the steps he and his company had taken recently to find the right balance between cutting costs and mastering revenue. The result? $750k in savings and a more efficient revenue process. Here's his advice in a nutshell:
- Talk to your high-leverage employees about where they're losing time
- Find ways to automate the lower-level tasks
- Redeploy those employees to more strategic projects
This process allowed the CFO to spot several different areas of revenue leak. Not only with his employees losing productivity but also with the systems they were subscribed to. Exploring his team's day-to-day led to scrubbing some unused licenses in their BI tool and consolidating capabilities with Clari's platform.
Most of the execs I speak with know that revenue leak is pervasive but have a tough time identifying and stopping it. It's the biggest problem that's hiding in plain sight. This is frustrating for execs, who have worked tirelessly to achieve product-market fit and go-to-market fit.
But revenue doesn't just happen. Like any other business process, it needs to be understood, inspected, and optimized. Companies and teams who do this well and treat revenue like the most important business process are thriving through this economic uncertainty.
A huge "aha" for me happened in a series of customer conversations, where CEOs told me about all the people who use Clari every day. My original thesis in founding the company was that it would be transformational for revenue teams.
That's come to fruition in many respects, but my definition of "revenue team" was too narrow. Customers tell me that up to half of their employees are using Clari to collaborate and run revenue. Not just quota-carrying people but marketers, product managers, executives, SDRs, SEs, etc.
The tools they used before Clari simply didn't allow for true collaboration. Disparate systems, outdated processes, and stale data. These teams couldn't work together seamlessly, which prevented them from running revenue.
This leads to the next big insight. There's a shocking lack of governance around the revenue process at many companies. It's not a people issue! Same as above, it's a technology issue. The tools teams rely on (BI tools, spreadsheets, CRM) weren't built to govern the revenue process.
Clari was purpose-built to run revenue. Our Revenue Platform is the first and only solution that empowers companies to stop revenue leak and achieve revenue precision.
I'm excited to continue conversations with customers to understand their focus areas and make our platform even more comprehensive. And I'm excited to continue to share these nuggets with you. Follow me for more.
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