The Pros and Cons of Remote Forecasting with Bradley Strite, Revenue Operations Manager at Kobiton

This week we are talking to Bradley Strite, Revenue Operations Manager at Kobiton. Bradley shared the pros and cons of remote forecasting, challenges of remote operations, and his top-rated tech stack. 

• Bradley’s LinkedIn 
• Kobiton’s website

Bradley’s journey into sales ops 

Bradley is the first in his family to go to college. He started studying at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) and got a BS in accounting. 

After completing his bachelor’s degree, Bradley joined MicroEdge as a Jr. Staff Accountant but soon got promoted to the position of Sales Operation Analyst. 

During his seven years in sales operations, Bradley has worked for renowned companies such as RITE AID, Vertafore, Insurity in accounts, sales operations management, and analysis functions. 

He is currently working as Revenue Operations Manager Kobiton.

Passion for sales ops

Bradley joined MicroEdge as an Account Manager but always found himself drawn to do something more challenging. Bradley eventually applied for the position of Sales Operation Analyst. Bradley shares that he signed up for ToastMasters to help him improve his communication skills. Bradley acknowledges his team leads contribution to his sales ops career advancement. 

Bradley’s tech stack 

At Insurity, Bradley used Salesforce as central CRM, Marketo as a marking tool, and Oracle for integrating the finance system. 

Challenges in remote operations

Being an office person, Bradley faced difficulty dealing with remote operations in the beginning. But, after working remotely during COVID-19 at Insurity, he found remote operations equally interesting as managing operations physically. The key factor that excites Bradley in remote operations is the reduction in utility, space, and resource costs.

Bradley credits his team leaders for their smooth transition to remote operations. 

Being a software solutions provider; Insurity’s operations already had an element of remoteness even before COVID-19 as most of the team members used to work on their laptops. 

Bradley shares that he had faced a hard time working from home because he had to question his team frequently on deliverables. Remote working provides you with two primary disadvantages; 

1. Decisions can’t be made over unreliable data 

2. You lose control over teamwork and coordination 

Bradley believes that coordination and meet-ups are mandatory for building a strong and beneficial relationship with customers and co-workers. Therefore, he suggests that companies should frequently arrange and hold remote events. 

Targets and objectives planning strategy 

Bradley did not make any adjustments in targets and objectives during COVID-19 because the clients of Insurity do recognize the importance of being covered through insurance, especially during life-threatening pandemic (COVID-19)

Bradley shares that while stock market swings had a deep impact on several clients’ earnings, they still wanted to keep themselves insured with Insurity. 

Pros and cons of remote forecasting

Bradley found remote forecasting efficient, as it makes the overall forecasting and operations process fast. He shares that with remote forecasting; 

Pros: 

1. You can share bottom-line revenue plans with the teams in seconds 

2. You can keep connected with teams 24/7 

Cons:

1. You have to frequently follow up with the teams on given milestones 

2. Increased coordination is required to create an error-free forecast, as the data can be unreliable

For Bradley, remote forecasting is efficient, but it makes carrying out routine tasks difficult. 

Bradley‘s influences in sales ops 

• Stuart Kaplan – Vice President, Sales at Insurity
• Michele Shepard – Chief Revenue Officer at Insurity

Who in the sales operation world Bradley Strite likes to take out for lunch?

• James Jetchick – Director of Strategic Systems at International Decision Systems. 

Key resources 

• Salesforce
• Marketo 
• Oracle 
• ToastMasters

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