Amidst the constantly transforming European business environment, there are some leaders who emerge not necessarily because of business success alone, but because they are able to inspire, align, and transform organizations from within. These leaders offer strategic vision, operational excellence, and a people-first leadership style, establishing new standards for what it takes to be successful in growing a business in a competitive market. A leader with the zeal to overcome all odds and deliver metamorphic outcomes is Benjamin Levaillant.
Early Start : The Entrepreneurial Spark
Benjamin’s career is founded on an entrepreneurial spark discovered in the early stages of his life. Before he even learned entrepreneurship, Benjamin Levaillant started his first business, fully immersed in the realities of ownership for almost three years. This initial experience gave him a profound respect for independence, determination, and constant striving to create value. Even as he moved into the corporate arena, Benjamin consciously aimed for positions that required high degrees of responsibility and gave him the freedom to innovate—skills that would become trademarks of his leadership style.
Creating a Way Through Sales and Consulting
The subsequent decade of Benjamin’s career was spent working along a line of sales positions within the data and IT sectors, six of these years within consulting firms before the turning point to software firms. In these positions, Benjamin Levaillant consistently found himself attracted to positions that required not just technical ability, but the ability to fill gaps between various teams.
These positions enabled Benjamin Levaillant to recognize a common issue: lack of alignment among key departments. Marketing, sales, pre-sales, and delivery teams typically operated in silos from each other, resulting in inefficiencies and internal disharmony. Marketing complained about the poor management of leads by sales, while sales complained about the poor quality of leads provided by marketing. Pre-sales staff would complain about poor meeting preparation, while delivery teams complained about overpromised client expectations. Instead of being bound by these silos as rigid, Benjamin was keenly interested in the practice of aligning cross-functional teams. From watching over this time, he was preconditioned for his eventual transition to the revenue operations arena. Here, he could think innovatively in depth on these systemic problems from the ground up.
The Jump to Revenue Operations : Aligning for Growth
Over the last half decade, Benjamin Levaillant has committed to the craft of revenue operations (RevOps), a space that needs strategic stewardship and operational agility. His foray into this space was motivated by a belief that sustainable growth is more than genius sales strategy—nevertheless, it involves frictionless integration of all functions that come into contact with customer experience.
Benjamin’s appointment as Head of Revenue was the start of this new chapter. He set the tone very quickly by adopting a single-channel model of revenue generation and retention, making marketing, sales, pre-sales, onboarding, care, and support operate as one unit. This alignment philosophy and sense of common purpose would be the hallmark of his incumbency.
Chief Revenue Officer at Kls: Creating the Blueprint for Success
Benjamin’s move to Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Kls, a B2B SaaS Fintech, marked both the culmination of the series of experience he had accrued thus far and a fresh, tough start. Coming aboard Kls in its make-or-break launch period, he was tasked with building the entire revenue organization from scratch. Benjamin has trained every aspect of the revenue function, including marketing and sales management, customer service, and technical support, over the last 18 months.
His strategy is marked by an unwavering emphasis on process optimization and technological empowerment. By embracing cutting-edge technologies like HubSpot CRM and AI solutions for team increased productivity in Sales, customer support, and product feedback, Benjamin Levaillant has seen that all customer-confronting functions have the equipment they require to excel. The implementation of Modjo’s AI-driven platform, most notably, has been revolutionary — streamlining communication, cutting through unnecessary work, and generating actionable insights that guide strategy as much as operation.
Leadership Philosophy: Empowerment, Accountability, and Humanity
Benjamin’s leadership is founded on learning and empowerment. He encourages an open culture that supports experimentation and the seeing of failure as a means of learning. His management philosophy is the incarnation of the old saying: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This philosophy is evident in every aspect of his management style, from team training to problem-solving.
For Benjamin, dysfunctional behavior by star performers or high-producing customers ultimately leads to organizational misery. He is of the opinion that tolerating such behavior can compromise long-term corrosive damages to team morale and organisational health which could not be compensated by any short-term advantages. By espousing respect, teamwork, and safety, he has established a culture where excellence is sought after together and personal accomplishment never at the cost of teamwork and cohesion.
Managing Scale and Diversity Challenges
The shift from early startup to growth business is a minefield of challenge, and Benjamin has traversed this path with hope and flexibility. His most daunting challenge was likely team-building. With an employee roster poached from a wide diversity of backgrounds and frequently with no direct experience in their new role, Benjamin Levaillant has committed not a small amounts of effort and time to developing talent, creating confidence, and nurturing a unifying sense of shared purpose.
His style of leadership has been highly workplace-reality-based, where remote work, intergenerational differences, and flexible working hours are the order of the day. Benjamin’s leadership style is a setting-the-example type—avoiding pyramidal structures for accessibility, justice, and an actual investment in the professional and personal development of his staff.
A Visionary Approach to Revenue Generation
Benjamin’s idea of revenue is far beyond the old measure of sales. He disregards the old separation between “key functions” and “support functions“. Instead, he looks for a systems view of revenue as a system where all the wheels must turn together. This systems-thought way is summarized in his going beyond the old surface-reporting analytics to explore the “why” behind every business choice—why a feature ships, why a prospect converts, why churn.
Benjamin’s leadership is the core of communication. According to him, communication is not about giving instructions but communicating vision, being open, and having open lines of communication—particularly in times of ambiguity. With every department operating under a shared set of universal goals and values, Benjamin Levaillant keeps Kls agile, strong, and ready for future expansion.
Strategic Impact at Kls: Driving Growth and Sustainability
With Benjamin Levaillant at the helm of Revenue, Kls has grown remarkably, both in terms of market coverage and revenue streams. His data-driven decision-making together with market forces have allowed the company to invest in potential opportunities while mitigating risks. Benjamin’s cooperative management style has reinforced inter-department relationships, improving innovation as well as operational effectiveness within the company.
He believes in emphasizing the reasons behind business results, compelling teams to look beyond metrics and numbers dashboards. To Benjamin, understanding the “why” behind customer behavior, product adoption, and churn is vital in developing strategy and sustainable relationships.
The Roadmap for Excellence: Looking Ahead
Benjamin’s plan for Kls is ambitious but realistic. As the company transitions into its next stage of expansion, he is leading efforts to further professionalize the revenue organization through the addition of specialized SalesOps recruits, growth of the sales force to drive European rollout, and building out sales enablement assets. New funding plans are also in the offing for a new funding round, which will finance new, innovative product rollouts and further establish Kls as a leader in the industry.
The future is filled with challenges and potential, but Benjamin’s ability to think ahead strategically, and his unshakeable commitment to alignment, position Kls for future success. His leadership ensures that each project is supported by a sharp sense of direction, rigorous implementation, and an unwavering commitment to the company’s foundation of core values.
Legacy and Influence: Redefining Leadership in Modern Business
Benjamin’s impact is well beyond the coast of Kls. His leadership philosophy—based on empathy, empowerment, and defying toxicity—is a template for today’s business leaders who wish to create strong, top-performing organizations. By encouraging a culture of ongoing learning and mutual accountability, Benjamin Levaillant has demonstrated that sustainable success happens not by heroics, but by the concerted effort of a good team.
His own path from young startup founder to veteran CRO is a living example of adaptability, vision, and values-based leadership. As Kls goes from strength to strength under his leadership, Benjamin’s legacy, too, will be one not of the revenues he has helped drive, but of excellence, integrity, and humanity culture that he has nurtured throughout the organization.
Advice for Future Revenue Leaders
With his experience, Benjamin Levaillant provides the following advice to aspiring revenue leaders:
- Treat revenue as a combined outcome of the aggregate of all business functions, not sales.
- Break away from measures on the surface and go deeper into why business is taking place and what customers are doing.
- Use plain language for objectives and strategy, providing vision and transparency, especially in periods of doubt.
Benjamin’s revenue leadership at Kls is a testament to the importance of alignment, innovation, and people-friendliness in creating a scalable and sustainable business. His emphasis on systems thinking, technology integration, and building talent is a lessons-in-action for organizations looking to convert and excel in the changing business environment of today.