Progression in a Sales Ops Role with Susan Metz, Senior Manager, Sales Operations at Turnitin

In this episode of Sales Ops Demystified, Tom Hunt is joined by Susan Metz, Senior Manager, Sales Operations at Turnitin. They discuss why a salesperson might transition into a sales ops role, the lessons she learned during her career in sales ops, and how TurnItIn handles acquisitions from a Sales Ops perspective.

Transition into a Sales Ops role

A Salesforce Admin certification is a great way for busy salespeople to transition to a less hectic and more peaceful lifestyle in sales ops. This is particularly useful for those who wish to work remotely and want to avoid traveling. You may not become a Sales Ops manager right away, but a transition to sales ops that begins in an analyst role will help solidify your work experience.

Susan had previously traveled as a Google Apps trainer and Salesperson, but it became more difficult to do after having two children. She completed her Salesforce Admin certification and Pardot certification with hopes to move into a calmer lifestyle with remote work.

Turnitin sales team structure

Turnitin has close to 250 people in the sales group across eight different teams: six of them being regional sales teams and two being product-focused sales teams. 

They are supported by ten sales ops people in a globally distributed remote team. 

Susan’s observations in her Sales Ops career 

Over her career, Susan has realized the core difference between sales enablement and sales ops. She has helped her team at Turnitin to also understand this difference. 

It’s important to decide where you want the Revenue Operations team to function. They could work from a sales perspective, a finance perspective, a customer success perspective, or an IT perspective.   While sales is a natural home for revenue ops, its partnerships with other teams are also crucial.

Merging several Salesforce instances after major acquisitions

Turnitin has had three major acquisitions over the past eighteen months. This has resulted in the need to merge and integrate the sales ops teams. 

The biggest challenge is to ensure the teams can still access their data and that work doesn’t stop during the transition. A secondary but major challenge is to create a singular Salesforce instance for additional sales processes, record types, languages, and currencies. 

It’s a fun and interesting transition, but the team must ensure they follow timelines.

Major focus of Turnitin Sales Ops team in 2021 

They just migrated their customer-facing and internal collateral to HighSpot, which will also function as their Sales LMS for training and product certification. They spent quite a bit of time planning their architecture which helps them focus on building the excitement for the product.

Going forward, they will have to go through many data cleanup tasks as they integrate several instances. Their sales process will also change in this period.  

Recommended episodes 

Subscribe To Sales Ops Demystified:

Posted in ,
Logo Icon (White)@2x

Newsletter Signup

Share this article

Related Content

Using Feedback Loops to Drive Revenue Growth with Rusty von Waldburg, President and Founder at Spokes Group

In this episode of the Revenue Insights Podcast, host Lee Bierton is joined by Rusty von Waldburg, President and Founder at Spokes Group, a consultancy in the SaaS Revenue space. Rusty brings twenty-six years of product and revenue experience to the conversation as he discusses different revenue touchpoints, including GTM strategies, improving market fit by implementing feedback loops, and creating targeted buyer personas. He also shares tips on tracking AE productivity and leading revenue metrics you need to monitor. Rusty also builds the persona of a typical high performer for the listeners, something to keep in mind when you hire.

The Four Pillars of Revenue Operations with Jake Hofwegen, VP of Global Revenue Operations and Enablement at Contentful

In this episode of the Revenue Insights Podcast, host Lee Bierton is joined by Jake Hofwegen, VP of Global Revenue Operations and Enablement at Contentful. Jake shares how the function of revenue operations (RevOps) has evolved over the past decade. He breaks down rev ops into four pillars and shares his experience in scaling tech companies from 220 million to over a billion in ARR. Jake also shares the benefits of pivoting to a six-month planning cycle while finding the right balance between planning and implementing.

How to Deliver Better Lifetime Value from Customer Insights with Rouzbeh Rotabi, Chief Revenue Officer

In this episode of the Revenue Insights Podcast, host Lee Bierton speaks with Rouzbeh Rotabi, Chief Revenue Officer and revenue leader at Orum, Marqeta and more. The free-flowing discussion pivots around staying engaged with your customers and using the insights to tailor your go-to-market strategy. Rouzbeh explains how feedback from customers and prospects can identify pain points that can be addressed with messaging and positioning. A quick caveat, they can vary from market to market. Lee and Rouzbeh also discuss implementing feedback loops and engagement metrics to identify risk and shape strategy. There’s a brilliant piece on leveraging revenue efficiently for sustainable growth, a paradigm shift from the growth at all-cost strategy—“Slow down to speed up.”