#10 Rev Up Your Business by Establishing a Quarterly Operating Cadence

By implementing a quarterly operating cadence, your organization can achieve better alignment, accountability, and transparency, while also accelerating growth and driving innovation.

An operational cadence is a regular interval where revenue and sales teams meet to organize, review, and complete work.

These cadences can happen daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly, and are designed to align teams across an organization and work toward the same goal.

Quarterly operating cadences are particularly advantageous as they allow companies to set clear goals, follow up regularly, stay on top of deals, and move them forward without end-of-quarter surprises. They also encourage sales teams to look beyond the current quarter and position themselves for greater revenue success in the future.

Tools like RevOps platforms help provide deeper visibility into deals and real-time data to help teams align on goals and spend their meeting time strategizing rather than rehashing.

Here are some Steps to Establish a Quarterly Operating Cadence:

1. Review the Previous Quarter’s Performance. This involves analyzing the business's financial, operational, and other key performance metrics. It's essential to identify areas where the business performed well and areas that need improvement. This review sets the foundation for developing new goals and objectives for the upcoming quarter.
   

2. Set Goals and Objectives for the Next Quarter. These goals and objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Goals should align with the business's strategic plans and be challenging but achievable. Objectives should be broken down into specific action items that will help achieve the goals.
   

3. Develop Action Plans and Assign Responsibilities. Action plans should outline specific steps that need to be taken to achieve the objectives. Responsibilities should be assigned to team members who are accountable for delivering the results. Each team member should have a clear understanding of their role and the expected outcomes.
   

4. Monitor Progress and Performance. It allows businesses to track their performance against the goals and objectives they set, identify areas that are behind schedule, and make necessary adjustments. Regular monitoring also helps teams stay on track and maintain focus on priorities. It's essential to establish a cadence for check-ins and reporting to ensure everyone is on the same page and there are no surprises at the end of the quarter.
   

5. Review and Adjust as Necessary. This review includes analyzing the business's financial, operational, and other key performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the goals, objectives, and action plans. It's essential to celebrate the wins and acknowledge the areas that need improvement. Based on the review, teams should identify areas for improvement and adjust their plans for the upcoming quarter.

To develop a quarterly operating cadence, revenue leaders can start small by setting weekly goals and expectations and gradually build out those goals on a bi-weekly and monthly basis, then layer in what this all looks like at the quarterly level.

Remember, time kills all deals.