Revenue operations (RevOps) is more than just a support function — it’s the connective tissue that ensures marketing, sales, and customer success operate as a cohesive system. Brian Kotlyar, VP of Marketing and Growth at Hightouch, joined RevOps Revolution podcast to share insights from scaling go-to-market functions at companies like Intercom, Sprinklr, and New Relic. His key takeaway? RevOps isn’t just about process and technology; it’s about building trust, aligning incentives, and making data work for you.
The Disconnect in the GTM Supply Chain
Every revenue leader knows the pain of broken handoffs between teams. Marketing generates leads, SDRs qualify them, sales closes, and customer success retain. But without shared goals and a unified data strategy, friction is inevitable. Kotlyar explains his view that these misalignments often stem from two core issues:
- Cultural and Incentive Misalignment – Example: Marketing teams focus on long-term brand equity, while sales teams are pressured to hit quarterly pipeline targets and sales wins. If these competing priorities aren’t balanced, frustration mounts.
- Fragmented Data and Systems – Example: Even the definition of what's a "paying customer" can be seen differently by sales, marketing, and finance, he said, leading to wasted time reconciling data rather than driving strategy.
"Find me an organization with a clean, perfectly usable CRM — it doesn’t exist," said Kotlyar. "Now throw in modern data warehouses, and suddenly marketing, sales, and finance each have their own version of the truth."
RevOps’ job is to eliminate these barriers by creating a common language, standardizing processes, and ensuring that data-driven decisions fuel growth.
How to Fix Alignment Issues
One of the most impactful alignment exercises Kotlyar led was while he was at Intercom, where there was a full-scale effort to document how revenue flows through the business. He and his colleagues spanning sales and marketing — including podcast host Jeffrey Serlin, who is now Revcast's Chief RevOps Officer — found an unfinished conference room that offered both whiteboards and a space to focus without interruption. He and Jeff reminisced about how they covered the whiteboards in definitions and mapped out the lifecycle of an opportunity, from MQL to closed deal to renewal.
The results?
- The established clear handoff criteria between teams, reducing finger-pointing.
- They arrived at a standardized framework for reporting, ensuring that everyone saw the same reality.
- Trusted increased across their functions, due to the collaborative effort and commitment.
"If you can’t confidently predict next quarter’s revenue, it’s time to bring teams together and align on the truth," said Kotlyar. "The board doesn’t want guesses; they want reality-based targets."
Podcast host Jeff Serlin emphasized the impact of this type of collaboration: "It’s amazing how much conflict disappears when teams actually sit down, align on definitions, and agree on the same metrics. Suddenly, you’re arguing less about what the data means and [discussing] more about how to improve performance." [Recommended eBook: The Metrics You Can't Ignore]
RevOps as the Translator (and Reality-Check) Between Strategy and Execution
A well-functioning RevOps team doesn’t just report on past performance. It stress-tests the company’s growth model. According to Kotlyar, RevOps should validate leadership’s assumptions about growth by providing real-world data. But it shouldn't stop there. Insights from and analysis of that data must also surface bottlenecks and inefficiencies that might not be obvious.
From there, RevOps and revenue team leaders can determine if resource allocation aligns with the highest-impact opportunities. Too often, leadership teams set ambitious targets based on hope rather than data. RevOps provides the reality check that prevents companies from overcommitting, or worse, under-investing in the right areas.
"Hope is not a strategy," Kotlyar cited a well-worn adage. "Yet I’ve seen too many organizations set their goals based on optimism rather than reality. That’s where RevOps comes in, to keep everyone grounded in the actual data."
The Future of RevOps: Expanding Beyond Sales Ops
Historically, revenue operations was a rebranded version of sales operations and administration. But today, RevOps touches every function in the go-to-market machine. This shift is drawing in professionals from marketing ops, finance, and even engineering.
So what practical advice does Kotlyar offer to those looking to transition into RevOps:
- Hard-Skill Development: Learn SQL. "If you don’t know SQL, you’re not effective," he said. "The world isn’t just SalesForce anymore. It’s data warehouses, business intelligence tools, and marketing platforms." SQL gives you the ability to manipulate and make sense of the data that's needed to inform decisions.
- Soft-Skill Development: Deeply Understand Each Function. "Go sit with SDRs, shadow sales reps, and learn their workflows," he said, while also advocating to some of marketing's language and perspectives. "RevOps isn’t just about optimizing systems; it’s about understanding the humans using them."
Final Thoughts
"RevOps isn’t just a reporting function. It’s the bridge between strategy and execution," host Serlin emphasized. "The best RevOps teams aren’t just analyzing the past; they’re shaping the future of their business."
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Listen to the full 26-minute podcast episode here, or visit the RevOps Revolution show page to browse more episodes!
