Your first RevOps hire is a six figure bet

Written By David Maxey

Same title. Different job.

RevOps means something different at every stage and motion. Early PLG needs activation and clean telemetry. Late PLG needs expansion math. Sales led needs forecast discipline and stage hygiene. Warehouse first needs data contracts and reverse ETL. Hire the wrong profile and you burn months, budget, and trust.

Where it goes wron

  • Stage mismatch across PLG, sales led, or hybrid

  • Stack mismatch across HubSpot, Salesforce, or warehouse first

  • Narrow depth sold as breadth, admin presented as architect

  • Big network, thin outcomes

  • No pull with Product, Finance, or CS

The signals to watch

  • Talks tools, not outcomes

  • Cannot map your lifecycle math end to end

  • No proof of turning product telemetry into pipeline

  • References are from a different scale or motion

  • Slides past definitions for PQL, PQA, SAL, SQL

Define the job you actually need

By stage

  • Early PLG: event schema, activation thresholds, PQL and PQA, Clay to de-anon, simple sales-assist

  • Scaled PLG: seat growth triggers, limit-based offers, usage pricing telemetry, assist SLAs, NRR by motion

  • Sales led: stage definitions, handoffs, forecast math, enablement loops

  • Enterprise: account hierarchies, approvals and CPQ, security reviews, renewal playbooks

By stack

  • HubSpot: lifecycle, attribution, clean automation, product events on the timeline

  • Salesforce: stage rigor, multi-object reporting, RevOps change control

  • Warehouse first: identity, traits, and activation from Snowflake or Databricks back to CRM

Write this down as a one-page capability matrix. Score the role you need, then score the candidate against it.

De-risk the hire in 30 days

Run a paid pilot or assessment before a full-time offer. Ship proof.

  • Publish the event schema and identity rules for your product

  • Pipe last_login, active_seats, limit_hits, and feature_use to CRM with reverse ETL

  • Stand up three sales-assist triggers: API key created, exec persona login, limit reached

  • Create one offer that matches a trigger, for example seat bundles when invites spike

  • Close the loop: PQL to assist to deal creation to outcome on the record

If a candidate can drive this with your team, you have evidence. If they stall, you saved the company a salary and six months.

How to interview for outcomes

  • System tour: “Show a pipeline you built. Walk me through why it works”

  • Lifecycle math: “Explain SAL to SQL to win rate and where data breaks”

  • Telemetry to pipeline: “Pick a product event. What triggers should fire, and how do we book revenue from it”

  • Change control: “How do you ship automation without breaking sales”

  • Proof: “Give me two shipped systems and the measurable results”

Score answers against your capability matrix. Reference checks should confirm outcomes, not titles.

What good looks like

  • Clear linkage from product signals to pipeline and revenue

  • Clean field design and no duplicate truths

  • Triggers that create the right human work at the right time

  • A habit of publishing one-pagers that keep Sales, Product, and Finance aligned

  • A plan to evolve the system every 30, 60, and 90 days

Make the call with evidence

Your first RevOps hire sets your ceiling for the next two years. Define the work, prove the motion on a small scope, then hire against fit and outcomes. If you already hired and it is not working, run the same 30-day plan as a reset and measure.

Book a 30 minute strategy session to run the pilot and get the proof.

David Maxey
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