Forget the Tools—Talk Strategy, Instead.

Your old GTM playbook will not win today’s deals. Buying behavior changed, AI raised the bar, and siloed teams slow everything down. In a recent episode of The Go-to-Market Podcast, host Dr. Amy Cook sat down with Roee Hartuv, Senior Pricing Advisor and Head of Go-to-Market Expertise at Willingness to Pay, to get practical about what needs to change.

Roee moved from computer science to sales to GTM advisory, and he uses that systems lens to fix the handoffs that break growth.

He argues the way most companies split marketing, sales, and customer success creates rework and a poor customer experience. His fix is simple to say and hard to do. Redesign how you work, and give real authority to the one team that sees the full journey: Revenue Operations.

What RevOps Leaders Need to Do Now

The blame game between marketing, sales, and customer success is not a people issue. It is a design issue. As Roee notes, each team does its job, then the handoff fails, which is exactly why RevOps exists.

Borrow a play from manufacturing. Map the journey as connected stages like awareness, education, and selection. Define inputs and outputs for each stage so teams agree on what “ready” means, which tightens accountability and speeds growth, a core of RevOps and GTM alignment. This is also the key difference in the RevOps vs traditional operations debate, since it shifts focus from department wins to the health of the whole revenue system.

Position RevOps as the End-to-End Journey Owner

Right now, no single leader owns first touch through renewal. Roee is direct about the gap. Someone needs to be accountable for the whole flow, whether that is a CRO, a CMO, or a Chief Customer Officer.

Within most org charts, one function already sees the full picture. Roee argues it is RevOps. Unlike sales ops or marketing ops, which are built to focus on a slice, true RevOps has visibility across the entire lifecycle, a crucial distinction in RevOps vs Sales Ops.

To make this work, design the team with clear scope and skills, starting with the core components of a RevOps team.

Elevate the Conversation from Tools to Strategy

Roee’s blunt advice to RevOps leaders is simple. Stop talking about tools. When you lead with software, executives hear cost, not impact. Frame every change in business terms, supported by a clear, data-driven revenue operations strategy.

As Roee puts it, “If head of rev ops can elevate the conversation from those tools into that strategic mindset… if we implement this process or we do this change that will increase our revenue, our quality, [and] our lead conversion, et cetera, this is the type of conversation that the CRO want to have with a rev ops.” Translate that into specifics like faster speed to lead, higher conversion, better forecast accuracy, and more productive sellers.

Use the right RevOps metrics to quantify impact, and use them to move up the RevOps maturity model.

Your Next Move

GTM teams do not need another app. They need one operating system for the journey, and a leader to run it. Start by mapping handoffs, assigning single-threaded ownership, and pitching changes in dollars, not features. Then let RevOps drive the work that removes friction and wins deals.

FAQ Strategic RevOps

1. What is the main problem with siloed marketing, sales, and customer success teams?

The main problem with siloed marketing, sales, and customer success teams is that their handoffs consistently fail, which creates rework, slows growth, and results in a poor customer experience. This is a system design issue, not a people issue, as each team may perform its individual function well but the connections between them are broken.

2. How does strategic RevOps fix the problems caused by siloed GTM teams?

Strategic RevOps fixes problems caused by siloed GTM teams by treating the entire customer journey as a single, connected system and taking ownership of its operational model. It establishes clean, measurable handoffs between stages like awareness, education, and selection. This approach shifts the focus from individual department wins to the overall health and efficiency of the entire revenue system.

3. Why should a single leader own the entire customer journey?

A single leader should own the entire customer journey to create clear accountability for the whole flow, from the first touchpoint through renewal. When no one person is responsible, gaps and friction emerge at the handoffs between departments. Assigning an end-to-end owner, such as a CRO or Chief Customer Officer, ensures someone is responsible for removing that friction and driving growth.

4. How can RevOps leaders elevate their conversations from tools to strategy?

RevOps leaders can elevate their conversations from tools to strategy by framing every project in terms of business outcomes like revenue, growth, and efficiency. Instead of discussing software platforms, they should lead with how a process change will increase lead conversion, improve forecast accuracy, or boost seller productivity. This approach ties RevOps activities directly to the strategic goals that executives care about.

5. What is the key difference between strategic RevOps and traditional sales ops?

The key difference between strategic RevOps and traditional sales ops is its scope; strategic RevOps has visibility and influence across the entire customer lifecycle, whereas sales ops is built to focus on a slice of it. Unlike sales or marketing ops, which support a single department, true RevOps is responsible for the health of the whole revenue system, from first touch to renewal.