Alexander Arbuthnot

I’m noticing a clear shift in the European market. Over the last 12 months, the demand for VP of RevOps roles coming through my network and partners has spiked significantly and having placed 6 VP of RevOps in the last 4 months (3 more pending) is a true indicator of that. But it’s not just the volume of roles that’s changing, it’s the value. Two years ago, RevOps was often pigeonholed as a "glorified admin" or "CRM cleanup" function. Fast forward to 2026, and the narrative has flipped. RevOps is now recognised as a strategic revenue enabler and a permanent fixture in the C-suite’s growth engine. In a market where European SaaS spending per employee is now double the global average, companies are moving away from "growth at all costs." They are hiring VPs of RevOps to bridge the gap between Sales, Marketing, and CS reducing the 30% of budgets typically lost to operational silos. If you're not treating RevOps as a core strategic pillar, you're leaving money on the table. We’ve moved past the era of "fixing dashboards." We are now in the era of architecting predictable growth like the talent in the USA are doing.

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3 Comments

There's a paradox sitting at the heart of enterprise SaaS hiring right now. And after conversations with HR leaders, Talent Advisors, and Sales executives across EMEA, I'm convinced it's costing companies the exact hire they actually need. Here's how it plays out. Open any Sales Director JD today and you'll find requirements like: → Demo build capability → Comfortable collaborating with product and engineering → Hands-on enablement ecosystem experience → Deep understanding of complex technical products Then the same company's recruiter screens out candidates whose profile "looks too technical." The job description was written by someone who lives in the reality of modern enterprise sales. The screening was done by someone pattern-matching for classic sales titles, quota numbers, and headcount managed. The result? The exact profile the hiring manager needs never makes it through the door. Here's the truth that's becoming impossible to ignore. The pure "relationship sales" playbook is dead in complex B2B. You cannot run credible discovery with a CTO without understanding what keeps them awake at night — technically. You cannot build a compelling POC narrative without grasping the architecture beneath it. You cannot write an enablement playbook that actually works if you've never lived the product deeply. And yet — the sales leaders who get screened IN are often those with the cleanest commercial pedigree and the thinnest technical foundation. The ones who get screened OUT are sometimes the most dangerous competitors in a room full of technical buyers. This isn't an argument against rigorous hiring. It's an argument for alignment between what the JD demands and what the screening process rewards. Because right now, in too many hiring processes, they are not the same thing. The sales leaders who will win the next decade aren't the smoothest talkers. They're the ones who can translate engineering logic into buyer economics — and back again — without losing either audience. The market knows this. Its hiring process just hasn't caught up yet. ─── Curious whether others are seeing this. HR leaders, Sales VPs, Founders — is this a pattern you recognise? How are you solving for it? #SalesLeadership #EnterpriseSales #B2BSaaS #TalentStrategy #HiringTrends #SalesDirector #RevenueLeadership

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The most underappreciated work of an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is understanding WHO NOT to SELL to. I think this is perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of doing ICP work. Everyone is so focused on WHO to SELL to. But we waste so much time on none-ICPs. Every engagement we have done shows us the same thing. About 1/3 of any Target Account List (TAL) we have audited includes none-ICPs. This is a real-life example from one of our clients. Sales had nominated a TAL for prospecting. We worked with the business development team to create a new ICP. We triaged the list with the 10 binary attributes + five stack-ranking criteria. Unsurprisingly, less than 2/3 of the TAL survived. Focus on qualify out as much as qualify in on your TAL.

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The most expensive hire in your EMEA SaaS GTM team isn't the person you pay the most. It's the "enterprise" AE or CS leader who looks perfect on paper... then stalls the moment they hit PE/VC-backed reality: stretch ARR targets, messy territories, no playbook and a board breathing down your neck. After 25 years placing enterprise and GTM talent, I see the same pattern: - Great logos on the CV, weak evidence of building anything from scratch. - Comfortable inheriting pipeline, uncomfortable creating it. - Used to process, less used to ambiguity. In a high-growth, investor-backed environment, that profile quietly kills quarters and credibility. When I run searches at SnooprID, I qualify for three things first, before I care about brand names: - Have they built or rebuilt a territory or segment in EMEA? - Have they hit quota where product, GTM and ops were still being figured out? - Can they talk in detail about NRR, expansion and how they partner with CS/PS - not just new logos? That is the difference between a hire who ramps and a hire who drains your time, your budget and your board's patience. If you are leading hiring for AEs, first-line leaders, SDR/BDR pods, CS or Professional Services in an EMEA SaaS business and want fewer "looks great, under-delivers" stories, I am always happy to compare notes. You can reach me directly: paul@snooprid.com Find out more at: https://snooprid.com/ #SaaS #EMEAsales #GTMhiring

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Hate to break it to you, but your sophisticated routing system may have just cost you another deal. During our monthly RevOps Peer Group that took place last week, someone mentioned their lead routing creating 2-3 day delays between form fill and first call. Round-robin by vertical. Adjusted for deal size. Balanced by pipeline load. Filtered by certification. Weighted by performance scores. Meanwhile, the prospect already signed with the competitor who just called them back in 4 hours lol. The routing logic looks amazing. In reality, every layer of "optimization" adds friction. And friction kills deals. Here's the actual timeline: - Monday 2pm: Lead submits form.  - Monday 2:45pm: Routing engine finally assigns "optimal" rep.  - Tuesday 9am: Rep sees notification (was out of office).  - Wednesday 11am: Rep makes first call attempt.  - Wednesday 11:02am: Prospect says "we already signed with someone else Tuesday." One person on the call stripped their routing back to geographic territories and rep availability. That's it. Response time dropped from 2.8 days to 4 hours. Win rates up 23%. All just because routing got faster. Your buyers don't give a shit about your internal optimization. They want someone to call them back before they forget why they filled out the form! The best routing system is the one that gets leads to live humans fastest. Simple beats smart when speed matters.

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Top performing AEs earn £140k–£220k in the UK Yet most never break past mid-tier performance Not because they can’t sell Because most AE roles reward pipeline coverage, not deal craftsmanship There are thousands of AEs in SaaS But: • Fewer than 50% consistently hit quota • The top 10% generate the majority of revenue • Most deals are lost, not to competitors, but to “no decision” They don’t outperform because they run more demos They outperform because they operate differently: 1. Deal control > deal activity Running 12 deals poorly is worse than running 4 with precision - top AEs don’t chase pipeline, they control it 2. Commercial judgment Average AEs follow the process - top AEs know when to break it They understand deal risk, power, and politics before it’s visible in the CRM 3. Qualification discipline Weak AEs try to “save” every deal - strong AEs kill deals early and double down on the right ones. 4. Disqualification is a revenue skill Multi-threading early If you’re single-threaded, you’re already losing - top AEs build consensus before the deal even looks real. 5. Timing > pressure Pushing harder doesn’t close deals - entering at the right moment does. The best AEs don’t force urgency, they align with it. And the biggest lie in SaaS sales? That hitting quota once means you’re a strong AE. It doesn’t. Consistency is the real signal.

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