Welcome to REVolutions: a new blog series dedicated to showcasing the stories of people who moved into RevOps from different roles, industries, and backgrounds.
In this post, we'll share Antonio Worner’s story on how he went from working as an SDR to becoming a Sales Operations manager. He shares how he found his way into the world of RevOps and how others can use their existing skills to find a professional path that works best for them.
Sweep: What was your previous role/career (before you started in RevOps)?
Antonio: I've held roles as an SDR, Channel Partnerships, BDM & Account Manager and Sales Manager.
Sweep: What inspired you to switch careers?
Antonio: I often found myself touching RevOps related projects at previous start-ups as there was never a RevOps manager. At a certain point in my career, I knew I didn't want to carry a quota because I didn't feel like I was valuable enough to an organization or company, but having experience with RevOps projects I knew they had a large impact on many areas of the business, so I went head first into it.
Sweep: What lessons from your former career did you apply to your RevOps role?
Antonio: Having been in Sales, I was taught that "Why?" was one of the most powerful questions that can be asked throughout the sales cycle. I still carry that today with every project I work on, trying to get to the root cause of a problem and how the proposed solution will combat the original challenge.
Sweep: What has been the biggest challenge in changing your career path?
Antonio: Honestly, getting into RevOps is hard, especially in Australia. It's a relatively new concept so many companies don't understand the value. On top of this, most GTM tools (HubSpot, automation platforms, etc) position themselves as tools that don't need expertise so many orgs have their sales leaders or execs handle operations. It's common for orgs to hire either an analyst with no commercial experience or promote from within for Operations
Sweep: Where do you see the biggest opportunity for folks looking to get into the world of RevOps from different backgrounds?
Antonio: With RevOps becoming more common, I think the individuals from different backgrounds can really move the needle because they have a unique viewpoint which translates to new methods with the revenue funnel.
Sweep: Who (if anyone) helped you transition careers?
Antonio: My former GM really helped pave the way for me as he was pitching the HQ for a RevOps person as our regions performance was stagnating and he didn't have the permissions within the CRM to automate through friction points. DataCamp was also a blessing to learn SQL particularly Data Models and how a CRM is actually configured. Lastly, I would recommend Trailblazer for Flows.
Sweep: What’s the best piece of advice you can share with someone looking to move into RevOps?
Antonio: Learn the fundamentals of Databases because that's what a CRM is but also be the expert in your current orgs process and where the friction points are. From there, try and map out a way to bypass those friction points. Be a sponge.
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