Why RevOps Is Your Most Critical Hire | Thomas Hansen, President at Amplitude

Hansen sees recurring patterns in the current environment, though it does not repeat earlier crises. After years of rising valuations, the pandemic brought a downturn, followed by sharp B2B software growth. He views the later correction as a normalisation of funding, private-company multiples, and customer demand.

The reset has renewed attention on fundamentals: preserving cash, managing cash flow, pursuing profitability, and matching investment to proven demand. Hansen says companies should continually test productivity, demand-generation returns, customer fit, go-to-market models, processes, and technology in all market conditions.

Companies bought too many sales, marketing, customer success, and service tools during buoyant markets, Hansen says. Operations teams then managed integrations and data flows across unwieldy stacks. Users faced five, ten, or fifteen systems, creating tool and data fatigue that weakened adoption and value.

Hansen favours deliberate consolidation around fewer vendors with broader platforms, simpler workflows, and economies of scale. Customer-facing teams can then spend more time with customers and less time navigating systems. He says Amplitude applied this principle internally while expanding from digital analytics into a wider platform.

For smaller private B2B companies without scale, Hansen prioritises survival. Leaders should examine profit and loss, cash, and burn rate, then preserve enough cash for long-term viability. New funding can prove difficult for businesses anchored to valuations from large 2021 rounds.

Hansen would protect product and engineering investment while making tougher reductions elsewhere when necessary. Narrow point solutions also need an honest assessment of their total and serviceable markets. If available spending cannot support scale, companies can develop a platform that meets customers’ demands for simplification, returns, and lower costs.

Start with the ideal customer profile, including the use case, personas, and buyers’ preferred engagement. Hansen favours multiple channels and as much automation as each customer journey allows. Product-led growth gives start-ups and small businesses a self-service path when informed buyers prefer research, communities, and recommendations over sales calls.

Large contracts often require enterprise sellers, customer success managers, and solutions engineers. These teams need deep product and domain knowledge while advocating for customers and helping them gain value. They should combine human engagement with data, systems, and AI to assess technology stacks, buying propensity, and needs.

Hansen says the threshold for using a traditional enterprise sales engine has risen. Employee count alone no longer supports effective segmentation. The right model depends on category, average selling price, company scale, and financial health. Teams should estimate each prospect’s recurring revenue potential and propensity to buy.

This approach can reshape priorities and direct sellers, account-based marketing, and demand-generation budgets. Hansen also recommends focusing on markets and sectors that contribute disproportionate value. Public information and technology-stack data can indicate potential, while intent signals can identify timely prospects. The result allocates scarce capacity based on fit, potential, and timing.

Benchmarking remains difficult because executive teams and boards can disagree about suitable sales productivity. Hansen suggests seeking anonymised comparisons from venture capital or private equity investors, specialist researchers, and consultants. These sources cannot provide perfect targets, but they can show normal ranges and warning signs.

Measures change with stage and model. Smaller companies can compare headcount allocations, employees against revenue, and cash-flow or profitability progress with peers. Larger companies can assess seller productivity. Product-led businesses should examine conversion, service costs, customer acquisition costs, and churn. Benchmarks should test whether investments and staffing suit the company.

Across seed-stage and public companies, Hansen has seen one hire shape how teams establish go-to-market operations. The role can lead go-to-market strategy and operations or Revenue Operations, depending on stage. This leader guides investment, assesses whether people and technology fit current needs, and prepares operations for growth. Early-stage companies often overlook this function, risking weaker prospects.

Scope should reflect the sales model. Enterprise-led businesses can start with sales operations or sales excellence before widening the remit. Product-led companies often need an integrated view of product usage, marketing, conversion, and expansion from the outset. Capability and fit matter more than title.

Hansen sees AI as a product opportunity and a tool for improving customer and prospect engagement. He cites Amplitude consolidating tools with one vendor whose proposed stack included an AI guide for sellers. By analysing customer conversations and suggesting responses in real time, such systems can change coaching and enablement. He views technology as shifting labour towards new value.

His advice is to look ahead, retrain, and accept continuing change. Career development should favour varied experiences over linear title or salary progression. Working in another category, role, or region can build adaptability and appreciation of different perspectives. Hansen says these choices prepare people for broader responsibilities.