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RevOps Roundup
Issue 140
Week 41, 2026 · Weekly since 2023
This week in RevOps
RevOps Roundup: Week 41, 2026
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Blog Posts:
Sales Capacity Planning: Start With Productivity, Not Quotas
Why do so many sales capacity plans start with a quota and end with missed targets? This post, drawn from a RevOpsAF London session led by Werner Schmidt of Lative, argues the model should start with productivity.
What you'll find inside
- The baseline: average quota attainment is cited at 48%, against a goal of 70% to 80%.
- The core metric: revenue closed over the trailing twelve months divided by the full-time sellers who produced it, broken out by segment, region and product.
- Efficiency: in Schmidt's Citrix example, U.S. sellers costing $757,700 generated $6 million (roughly 8x), while South African sellers costing $250,000 generated $4 million (roughly 16x).
- Ramp and model inputs: tenure-band productivity curves built from recent-hire cohorts, including those who left, plus regional holidays, working days, seasonality and the lag between hiring and closing.
- The sequence: calculate productivity, estimate capacity, compare it with the target, and only then set quotas.
A practical reference for RevOps and finance teams building next year's plan, especially for making the case to a CFO by showing the work.
Read the full article here for more perspective on productivity-based capacity models, plus more input on building ramp curves from recent hires.
Aim before you automate: How 4 revenue leaders drive measurable ROI
Does buying more technology fix a pipeline problem? Simon Frey, Chief Customer Officer at Gong, argues the teams seeing real revenue performance from AI start with a problem worth solving and aim the technology at it.
What you'll find inside
Frey draws on four leaders from Gong's Celebrate '26 Executive Showcase. Experian consolidated fragmented tools onto a single AI-driven platform after four acquisitions and reports a 25% lift in win rates. Thomson Reuters kept Salesforce as the system of record and made Gong its system of engagement, with high adopters seeing about 12% higher win rates than low adopters. Adyen treated two acquisitions as product launches and used call data to produce a sentiment and positioning analysis within 60 days. Snowflake built a dedicated new-logo team, treats enablement as a real-time experiment, and raised full-year guidance to over $6 billion.
Frey closes with a question worth bringing to planning: which single problem does the team most need to solve next year, and what would aiming AI at it look like?
Discover the full article here for more perspective on how each team measured results, plus more input on starting AI projects from a business problem.
OpsStars 2026 Recap: The AI Reckoning, Run by LeanData, and This Year’s Award Winners
Is AI only as reliable as the data and process underneath it? LeanData's recap of the first standalone OpsStars, held October 5, 2026 in San Francisco, builds its case around that question for GTM operations leaders.
What you'll find inside
- The keynote framing: CEO Katy Keim called 2026 "the AI Reckoning," a shift from unchecked experimentation to asking where AI actually drives business impact.
- The readiness gap: per LeanData's 2026 report, 93% of GTM teams have deployed at least one AI agent, but only 31% say their infrastructure is ready. Among 157 surveyed practitioners, 45% blamed bad data, 37% undocumented processes and 32% siloed teams.
- Product news: LeanData introduced Run, an agentic solution for GTM Ops, and highlighted AI features in its 9.x release.
- Session highlights: Korn Ferry cut speed to lead from over 30 minutes to five, Autodesk reduced routing-change cycles from about six weeks to six days, and Uber for Business built an AI SDR with a human handoff.
- Awards: Nicole Peinado of Uber for Business was named OpsStar of the Year.
A quick way to catch up on OpsStars if you missed it, with AI readiness benchmarks to compare against your own team.
Get the complete article here for more perspective on the AI readiness data, plus more input on the session takeaways and award winners.
Podcast Episodes:
AI Revenue Is Real. But Will It Last? | Amy Konary, Founder & Chair, Subscribed Institute @ Zuora
Is AI revenue durable, or is it experimental spend that will fade? Amy Konary of the Subscribed Institute at Zuora joins the Topline hosts to test the economics behind B2B AI companies.
What you'll hear
Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno and Asad Zaman record their first in-person episode with Konary, asking whether AI company economics are fragile, whether circular financing and double counting are real problems, and why proof-of-concept projects no longer signal pipeline. Konary separates experimental revenue from true ARR, proposes a leverage index for sticky revenue, and scores customers on scope, trust in outputs and how much of their own context they upload. The conversation also covers why pure usage pricing can be as exposed as seat-based pricing, tokens versus credits, and how close outcome-based pricing can get. She opens with her path from ERP sales to industry analyst and how she named SaaS.
Timely for anyone forecasting AI-related revenue: the scoring approach gives a way to separate revenue likely to stick from revenue that is still an experiment.
Listen to the full episode here for more perspective on durable AI revenue, plus more input on usage versus outcome-based pricing.
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results: Building Franchise Systems That Scale | Matthew Kunz
Which signals tell you a franchise system is healthy, and which ones mislead? Matthew Kunz, President and CEO of Fastest Labs, shares what nearly three decades in franchising taught him about scaling repeatable systems, in conversation with host Brendon Dennewill.
What you'll hear
- Balancing data and emotion when supporting franchisees.
- A "quality communication" standard that builds accountability without eroding trust.
- A phases-of-development coaching model that matches specialized coaches to each stage of an owner's growth, extending coach tenure from two or three years to five or six.
- Why franchisee profitability is a better health signal than average unit volume (AUV).
- Leading franchisees through software and system changes, and what emerging franchisors should secure first when growth outpaces process.
A change of scene from the usual SaaS conversation: a franchise operator's view on coaching, communication and measuring health that operations leaders can compare against their own approach.
Discover the full episode here for more perspective on franchisee coaching and system health, plus more input on leading owners through software changes.
Marketing Measurement in the AI Era: Identity Resolution & Data Quality
If buyers now find brands through AI search, what happens to attribution? Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Strategy Officer at GNW Consulting, explains how AI is changing marketing measurement and customer discovery.
What you'll hear
Joined by host Jessie Lizak and co-host David Welborn of BDEX, Lechner-Becker explains how generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) are changing how brands reach potential customers. She argues marketers should rethink traditional attribution, embrace transparency and focus on accurate, actionable data, and she recommends prioritizing experimentation over perfect attribution. The conversation also covers why identity resolution and data enrichment are getting harder as interactions spread across more platforms, practical ways to track AI visibility and how large language models represent a brand, and the marketing and AI tools she favors.
A counterpoint to the chase for perfect attribution, with a case for experimentation and cleaner data as the basis for revenue decisions.
Hear the complete conversation here for more perspective on measuring AI visibility, plus more input on identity resolution and data quality.
Webinars:
How to Design a Performance-Driving Comp Plan
By: RevOps Co-op ft. Quotapath
Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 1:00 PM ET | Speakers: Ryan Milligan (QuotaPath), Meghan Crosby (LucidLink), Brent Werbeck (Kisi)
Does your comp plan drive the behavior it was designed for, even when commissions calculate correctly? Speakers from QuotaPath, LucidLink and Kisi look at what separates a plan that just pays reps from one that improves revenue performance.
What you'll see
- Why comp plans fail to drive the intended performance: incentives that do not match company priorities, reps who cannot see how to earn more, and plans too complex to understand.
- A 3-point diagnostic for assessing existing role-based plans in 10 minutes.
- Five principles for designing a performance-driving comp plan.
- A live walkthrough of three plan examples showing how the principles apply.
Worth a calendar hold for teams reviewing an existing comp plan, since the 10-minute diagnostic offers a quick way to test it before anyone redesigns it.
Register for the full session here for more perspective on comp plan design, plus more input on diagnosing an existing plan.
From Operator to GTM Architect: The Skills Redefining RevOps
By: Revenue Operations Alliance
Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET | Speakers: Curtis Schroeder (Varicent), Natascha Garmendia (Dell Technologies), Simon Mitchell (AWS Global Sales)
Is RevOps moving from operating the machine to designing how a company goes to market? New research from Varicent and the Revenue Operations Alliance looks at the skills behind that shift.
What you'll see
The session covers which RevOps skills are now baseline and which set top teams apart, and how AI is changing the role and the capabilities it requires. It also looks at shifts in hiring, team structures and talent development, and at how compensation, career growth and organizational influence are trending, including which capabilities command a premium.
A useful benchmark for RevOps leaders mapping their own team's skills and career paths against new research, with practitioner views from Dell Technologies and AWS Global Sales.
Save your seat for the full session here for more perspective on the operator to architect shift, plus more input on hiring and team structure.
AI in Sales Compensation: Live Agent Building for RevOps
Tuesday, October 27, 2026, 1:00 PM ET | Speakers: Grayson Morris, Jonah Turcotte and Harshit Kumar (Performio), Matthew Volm (RevOps Co-op, moderator)
What happens when being almost right is not good enough for sales compensation? This RevOps Co-op session with Performio builds AI agents live around RevOps workflows, using sales comp as the main example.
What you'll see
- AI agents built live for RevOps and sales comp workflows.
- How to connect information across disconnected systems and data sources.
- Ways to cut manual work and the time spent hunting for answers.
- Where accuracy, governance and specialized systems still matter.
A hands-on format: with the agents built live, it is easier to judge where AI holds up for compensation work and where dedicated systems and human review still matter.
Join the full session here for more perspective on AI in sales compensation, plus more input on accuracy and governance.
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