Must-Reads RevOps Books for Teams of Every Size

Although RevOps is a relatively new fucstion, plenty of leaders have built and scaled organizations using its principles. They’ve made all the rookie mistakes, trialing and erroring to figure out what works. And, fortunately for us, some of them have documented their experiences in RevOps books.

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But while these books can shorten your RevOps growth curve, it’s hard to figure out which ones to prioritize. The best-sellers? The best covers? The longest? The shortest? The most practical? The most high-level? 

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If you’re like us, you probably have less than an hour to read each day. You don’t want to waste that time figuring out what to read. So in less than ten minutes, this article will give you a rundown of nine must-read RevOps books.

How we compiled this list of RevOps books

Our first priority in building this list was originality. There are plenty of articles out there with banal, generic RevOps information. If you’re going to invest the time and energy into a book, it should offer something different and unique. 

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Additionally, we prioritized books from proven operators, rather than thinkers or “thought leaders.” Sometimes, this means the operators themselves wrote the books. In other cases, the authors studied real-world successes and built their frameworks on them. Either way, this is practice, not theory. 

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Finally, we tried to include material covering a range of topics, not just RevOps explicitly. For example, one book covers the topic of pricing optimization, and another leadership. Both are relevant to RevOps leaders, even if “RevOps” isn’t in the title. 

9 must-read RevOps books for teams of all sizes

1. Revenue Operations: A new way to align sales and marketing, monetize data, and ignite growth by Stephen Diorio and Chris Hummel

This world of RevOps is highly complex and technical. It can be hard to get your head around all the moving parts. Diorio and Hummel’s book is an excellent entry point for newcomers, and a great reference for the most experienced. 

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Revenue Operations is partly academic, partly practical, and 100% packed with real-world examples and case studies from executives across industries. Upon reviewing these stories, the authors pull out practical building blocks and frameworks you can adapt to your own industry. 

2. From Impossible to Inevitable by Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin

The North Star of every RevOps organization is predictability and speed. From Impossible to Inevitable is a detailed study of hyper-growth companies—we’re talking 100X revenue growth in a handful of years—and the seven practical steps every one of these companies took along their growth journey. 

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With stories from familiar brands like Twilio, HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce, and Echosign, this book is easily digestible and is something you can start applying from Page 1. 

3. MOVE: The 4-question go-to-market framework by Sangram Vajre and Bryan Brown

Often RevOps teams have the right tools, people, and processes in place, but lack directionality in applying them. MOVE gives you four questions that can help you get out of a revenue rut and start making progress. 

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This book will help you embrace each stage of the GTM maturity curve—ideation, transition, and execution—and see them not as hurdles, but opportunities to innovate, thrive, and transform. 

4. Pricing and Revenue Optimization by Robert Phillips

It’s rare to find an author who’s an accomplished academic and business operator. But Robert Phillips is, and his book on Pricing and Revenue Optimization brings together both sides of the desk for an insightful and unique read.

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The use of technology and data in RevOps opens the door to optimizations and dynamic pricing workflows that GTM orgs didn’t have before. Phillps’s book provides a framework you can use to start building more creative and innovative revenue strategies. 

5. The Revenue Acceleration Playbook by Brent Keltner

If you’re looking for a RevOps playbook written by a revenue leader with experience across multiple industries, you need to read Brent Keltner’s The Revenue Acceleration Playbook. This book draws from over 20 example companies who have aligned marketing, sales, and success without annoying buyers and sacrificing authenticity. 

6. The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib

Creating a marketing plan isn’t as easy as 1-2-3. According to Allan Dib, all it takes is one…page, that is. While seasoned marketers will find this book fairly basic, The 1-Page Marketing Plan can be a great entry point for RevOps leaders who don’t have a strong marketing background.

7. Gap Selling by Keenan

People who aren’t in the trenches selling often have false conceptions about how sales actually works. It doesn’t help that a bunch of myths have permeated the conversation which, frankly, give salespeople a bad rap. 

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Gap Selling takes those myths to task, and is a great resource both for experienced sales reps and newcomers to sales. By understanding the reality behind selling, you can better align your RevOps efforts to support your sellers and, ultimately, close more customers.

8. Amp it Up by Frank Slootman

In 2020, Snowflake became the largest tech IPO in history. The man who led them to that record-breaking success was Frank Slootman, author of the book Amp it Up. Whether you’re in data, tech, or a completely unrelated field, this is a book every RevOps leader should have on hand. 

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In the book, Slootman highlights the power of leadership in identifying opportunities to improve your team’s performance—without expensive hirings or training. With unprecedented access to marketing, sales, and success performance at their fingertips, RevOps leaders can use Slootman’s methods to harness their team’s full potential and maximize their RevOps ROI.

9. Measure What Matters by John Doerr

Finally, let’s talk about data. It’s a fundamental pillar of RevOps, and often gives you more insights than you know what to do with. So how do you prioritize the most relevant data? How do you even identify the most relevant data?

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Measure What Matters lays out John Doerr’s proven system of OKRs (objectives and key results) that help contextualize your RevOps data. These transparent, clearly defined metrics are critical for making measurable progress through RevOps. 

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See how Default provides a unified platform for achieving RevOps hyper-growth. 

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