What is RevOps? A beginner’s guide
By Eve Kelly, Marketing Executive at Accelera
The term RevOps (Revenue Operations) has become an industry buzzword. New roles like ‘Head of RevOps’ or ‘RevOps lead’ continue to pop up and the term is quoted in industry and reports. But what does it actually mean, and why should any of us in the B2B Marketing sector care?
RevOps transforms the way sales, marketing and customer success teams align to drive growth. Someone who’s role revolves around RevOps will be focused on maximising revenue through streamlining operations and enhancing collaboration between historically distant teams.
The Birth of RevOps
The cooperation and collaboration between sales and marketing teams is an ongoing struggle for leaders industry-wide. Each team has its own set of processes, goals and data. Although we all have a shared goal of generating business opportunities and revenue, often the specific KPIs and targets are rather separate from team to team.
Enter RevOps, a holistic strategy that aims to bridge these gaps, fostering a unified approach to revenue generation.
At its core, RevOps is about aligning the objectives and strategies of sales, marketing and customer success teams, ensuring they work cohesively towards the common goal of hitting revenue targets. This alignment is crucial in creating a seamless customer journey, from the initial lead generation to onboarding, retention, and expansion.
The Pillars of RevOps
So what must every successful RevOps strategy contain? What enables them to achieve the ever ongoing goal of getting the sales team and marketing team cogs to turn together in the enterprise machine?
There are five main essentials:
Data Integration and Analysis
Process Optimisation
Technology Stack Alignment
Performance Metrics
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Data Integration and Analysis
A pivotal element of RevOps is the centralisation of data from various tools and platforms used across departments. We all know the complexities of CRM systems, marketing automation platforms and customer support software, so its crucial for a Revenue Operations team to have all of these systems working harmoniously and complimenting each other as much as possible.
Getting the software and systems talking to each other is a solid start – the people on the teams may be a different story.
By analysing this integrated data, teams can gain comprehensive data insights into the entire revenue cycle. After harnessing these insights, RevOps leaders will be able to make data-driven decisions and personalise the customer experience. This means that having the right tools and platforms aligned for analysis is a top priority for anyone in a RevOps-focused role.
A pivotal element of RevOps is the centralisation of data from various tools and platforms used across departments. CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and customer support software are notoriously complex. To maximise efficiency, a Revenue Operations team must ensure these systems work harmoniously, complementing each other as much as possible.
Integrating software systems is a solid start – but aligning the people using them is equally critical. Without cohesive teamwork, even the best-integrated systems can fall short.
Analysing this integrated data provides teams with comprehensive insights into the entire revenue cycle. These insights enable RevOps leaders to make data-driven decisions and personalise the customer experience. This makes the alignment of the right tools and platforms for analysis a top priority for anyone in a RevOps-focused role.
Furthermore, leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning can unearth patterns and trends that manual analysis might miss. This predictive power is invaluable for anticipating customer needs and optimising revenue strategies. Data hygiene is also crucial; ensuring data accuracy and consistency across platforms prevents costly errors and misinformed decisions.
Ultimately, the seamless integration and analysis of data empowers teams to identify bottlenecks, streamline processes, and enhance overall performance. In RevOps, data isn’t just an asset; it’s the foundation for driving growth and achieving strategic objectives.
Process Optimisation
RevOps advocates for the streamlining of workflows. Departments can often have their own niche processes which everyone is stuck in the way of.
A successful RevOps strategy will standardise these processes across different departments, ensuring everyone is marching to the beat of the same drum. With everyone working under a cohesive established set of processes, this will simplify the customer journey and cut out any pre-existing pain points caused by the over-complication of those processes currently in place.
The end result? Increased operational efficiency, reduced cost, and a faster pace of revenue generation without all the bumps along the road.
Technology Stack Alignment
A tech stack that harmoniously works together with parts all complimenting each other in just the right way is something we all dream of. If a lead enters the system from a Field Marketer after an event, the flow through validation, lead scoring, to the desk of a Sales Manager, and through the sales funnel should happen in a manner which is user friendly for team members of all departments, and customer friendly for the new opportunity.
In an ideal world, sales departments, marketing, and customer success should all be working from the same tech stack to allow for this seamless flow of data. The RevOps approach strives to create such a world, making sure each department’s technology tools are not only compatible but also integrated.
A strong integrated tech stack is vital for achieving the agility and flexibility required to respond to market changes and customer needs efficiently.
This means the flow of customer data from one department to the next is smooth, optimising time and resources spent. And in turn, you guessed it, you reach your revenue goals.
Performance Metrics
To measure the impact of a RevOps team and their efforts, it’s important to pay attention to the right metrics that will show the impact had. Revenue teams aim to provide clear visibility into the effectiveness of revenue-generating activities, so establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and key metrics that span across departments is of paramount importance.
By showcasing stats such as ROI, time and resources saved, and comparing the figures before a RevOps implemented change versus after, can help celebrate success.
It’s also important to use these metrics to uncover pain points among departments. Which teams are the most productive? Which maybe need additional support? Which are producing strong collaborative results with another department?
Through this data management and identification RevOps leaders are able to locate the top priority changes to be made and quickly improve performance across the entire company.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
At the core of all of these points is the most critical aspect of RevOps; inter-departmental collaboration. Fostering a culture of collaboration and communication among sales, marketing, and customer success teams is going to allow all of the aforementioned business functions to work harmoniously with collaborative teams as their foundation.
By understanding each other’s roles and challenges, these different teams can work synergistically to deliver a consistent and cohesive customer experience. To create this collaboration, a RevOps strategy needs to introduce frequent check-ins, sales enablement sessions, aligned goals, and easy channels of communication between departments.
By successfully implementing such a thing, RevOps can create the glue that holds together all the moving parts of sustainable revenue growth.
RevOps in Action
So with all these key pillars of a successful RevOps model, what impact can we expect on a company’s B2B marketing efforts?
First off, marketing campaigns can become personalised and highly targeted to enhance customer satisfaction and experience.
Unified lead scoring models will mean better-qualified leads are generated, allowing for a higher conversion rates and ROI.
Not to mention your marketing operations efficiency and effectiveness will be enhanced, cutting down lengthy delays and streamlining technical processes.
And of course, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, increased ROI on marketing activities and revenue growth for the business as a whole.
The Future is Collaborative
As businesses continue to navigate the complexities of the digital marketplace, the revenue operations framework offers a beacon of hope for breaking down silos, enhancing efficiency, and driving business growth.
It’s clear that Revops plays an important role in driving better results for any organisation’s revenue potential. By embracing RevOps, companies can ensure that their sales, marketing, and customer success teams are not just aligned but are unified in their journey towards revenue acceleration.
For enterprises looking to stay competitive and foster sustainable growth, adopting a RevOps framework could be the key to unlocking new levels of success in B2B marketing and beyond.