Episode #36: Scaling from $100M to $1B ARR as a RevOps Leader - Cody Guymon
Even at massive scale, RevOps is a blend of art and science
At one point during our discussion, Cody Guymon reaches up to grab his webcam and tilts it over to reveal an impressive high-end poker table in the corner of his office.
“It's knowing people well, reading people…like, are they bluffing me or not? That's important to know. So there's the art and the science to all of it.”
Cody’s poker reference is in relation to his forecasting methodology and how he gets to a realistic number. Yes, it’s about data and process—but it’s also largely about understanding the human side of the equation. Salespeople aren’t robots: they sandbag, they fear the repercussions of of citing a low number, they succumb to wishful thinking…
There’s a refreshing, down-to-earth pragmatism about Cody. He has the casual confidence of someone who has been there, done that, and got the t-shirt to prove it.
Looking at his resume, you can understand why. Cody Guymon has taken a journey that most revenue operators could only dream of—helping Qualtrics scale to an $8B acquisition and then a $27B IPO.
Now he's back at an earlier stage company (Workato), hoping to repeat the trip all over again. We chat through the structure of his team at Workato and how he architected a unified RevOps function with CEO Vijay Tella before he joined.
We also look at how forecasting works at insane scale inside a company like SAP—a 100K+ employee behemoth where there are 15K sellers at RKO (more sellers than most B2B companies have customers!).
Thanks to Our Sponsor
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About Today's Guest
Cody Guymon is a strategic sales and operations leader, leading teams at Vivint, Qualtrics, and now Workato. He helped scale Qualtrics from a $1B unicorn to an $8B SAP acquisition and then through an IPO at a $20B+ valuation. Today he serves as the COO of GTM Operations at Workato.
Key Topics
[00:00] - Introduction
[01:07] - What is GTM operations?
[03:50] - Working 1-1 with reps in the field
[04:46] - Creating a truly unified GTM ops function
[16:56] - Go-to-market analytics
[19:16] - Pros and cons of unification
[23:29] - Project planning and prioritization
[30:17] - Forecasting and thinking long-term
[39:24] - Experience at Qualtrics and SAP
[47:03] - Cody’s daily routines
Thanks to Our Sponsor
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