Making Sales Ops More Actionable with Ethan Trombley, Director of Revenue Operations at Keyfactor

This week, Ethan Trombley, Director of Revenue Operations at Keyfactor, joins us on the Sales Ops Demystified Podcast. Ethan shares intriguing differences between sales and revenue operations and how to shrink complex problems into smaller, more actionable variables.

• Ethan Trombley’s LinkedIn
• Keyfactor’s website

The journey from finance to revenue ops 

Ethan is passionate about exploring effective KPIs and objectives to enhance sales operations at Keyfactor. He guides his teams’ performance by encouraging cross-department interaction and equips them with the latest technology, resources, data, analysis, trends, and information.

“The admirable quality in a sales ops resource is the ability to shrink large complex problems into smaller and more actionable variables.” 

Ethan believes in establishing meaningful relationships with the employees to encourage flexibility in the workplace. 

Ethan started his career as a finance and accounting professional in 2013, but soon made his way into sales operations in 2016 when he joined Chmura Economics & Analytics as a Sales Operations Manager. 

Ethan’s finance experience helped him succeed in the sales operations role at Chmura Economics & Analytics. 

After gaining experience in sales and rev ops, Ethan made his move to Keyfactor, where he joined as Revenue Operations Manager. He currently works as the Director of Revenue Operations.

At Keyfactor, Ethan coordinates and corresponds with multiple departments, including product, marketing, software development, etc. 

Effective teams build successful companies

Currently, Ethan has a team of three employees dedicated to sales operations and thirty personnel within marketing, sales, and customer success domains. 

Ethan believes that the team members’ roles and responsibilities should be defined clearly to drive maximum growth in any system. 

At Keyfactor, Ethan is primarily responsible for rev ops planning, strategy, and execution, while his boss manages the transformation process.

Remote working 

Ethan’s team are spread out across the country, as a result, they are used to remote meetings and sessions. 

We are already equipped and familiar with the technology, so the transition has been pretty smooth, says Ethan. 

However, Ethan ensured that they practice organizational environmental changes, such as flexible working hours for working parents and rescheduling meetings when necessary. 

Improving forecast accuracy

Keyfactor strongly believes in using multiple methods to forecast accurately. One of these is to ensure that you are on the exact same wavelength as your sales leader:

“Improve your internal alignment with the sales leader to improve forecasting.” 

Ethan’s No. 1 metric: ARR Per Employee

Ethan’s favorite metric is ARR per employee. This gives him a good idea regarding how efficiently the business is growing. It is something that his investors are concerned with as of course, they want Keyfactor to grow in a capital-efficient manner.

Ethan also shares that he enjoys tracking more granular metrics such as lead conversion rate, but overall ARR per employee is his favorite if he had to name one.

Who in the sales operation world would Ethan like to take out for lunch?

• Ellen Kindley – Chief Transformation Officer at Keyfactor 
• Jordan Rackie – CEO at Keyfactor

Ethan mentions that he has learned a lot from Jordan and Ellen has helped him learn about sales, marketing, and rev ops.

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