Revenue Operations: We answer your 10 most frequently asked questions

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Although a relative newcomer, revenue operations – or RevOps – is quickly being adopted by businesses, particularly in the B2B SaaS market.

This trend helps explain why: companies adopting a RevOps strategy experience a 10 to 20 percent increase in sales productivity.

No wonder more and more business leaders are asking what RevOps does, how it differs from sales ops, and when they should start investing in it.

This article answers the questions we often hear, including why and when you should consider adding RevOps to your organization.

#1. What is revenue operations?

RevOps is a function, often a team, that aligns a company’s core revenue teams – sales, marketing, and customer success. It drives growth, boosts information visibility, unearths insights, and offers tactical guidance.

The need for the function stems from these groups often managing their own ecosystem of technology stacks, customer data, metrics, and reports. This has led to myopic decision-making and inefficiencies like conflicting data findings and duplicative tasks. It is a system that perpetuates a broken customer experience and creates blind spots for business leaders.

#2. Why is RevOps on the rise?

To an extent, the answer overlaps with the perspective above. RevOps has become prominent because the alternative threatens business continuity: companies can no longer compete effectively with siloed departments or disconnected workflows.

Consider these two examples. Accurate sales forecasting depends on pulling consistent data from all sources. Prospects expect a seamless, personalized journey from first to last touch. Each team – sales and marketing in this case – needs a centralized, user-friendly view of information.

#3. What questions does RevOps answer?

Because RevOps facilitates cross-functional collaboration, every part of a company’s revenue engine is in a position to perform its best. For example:

  • Sales enablement: Data analysis and cross-team collaboration improve the sales process and create quality training resources.
  • Systems administration: Visibility helps optimize tech stack, diagnose problems, and increase productivity, especially with CRM software.
  • Data analysis and forecasting: Powerful dashboards, performance metrics, and conversion of data into actionable reports and reliable forecasts become possible.

With a RevOps function in your organization, you are finally equipped to develop effective business strategies, and your team has the information necessary to execute them.

#4. What’s the difference between sales operations and revenue operations?

In a word, scope. Sales operations focus on sales systems, strategies, and tactics so your salesforce can sell. Sales process mastery, compensation plans, territory allocation, lead management, tech tools, and more demand the full attention of sales operations.

RevOps looks at the bigger picture, working closely with sales teams, marketing teams, and customer success teams to enhance the broader go-to-market strategy, maximize tech usage, and drive revenue growth.

#5. Can a RevOps team make a sales team better?

Perhaps the most talked about benefit of revenue operations is how it streamlines selling and prevents roadblocks from happening in the first place.

Consider these four advantages:

  • Develops a More Efficient Sales Process. Sales reps can use automation to help qualify leads faster, log a deal in two clicks instead of 10, and follow up at the right time, every time.
  • Breaks Down Organizational Silos. We have all seen an email chain between two departments trying to understand whether a customer is new or existing, or what happened during the last conversation.
  • Builds More Accurate Sales Quotas and Forecasts. A RevOps function can help sales leaders set more realistic sales quotas and key performance indicators (KPIs). This can in turn lead to predictable growth for the entire organization.
  • Boosts Team Morale. With better training and more accurate targets, salespeople are more confident. Managers can set expectations and properly incentivize each rep, allowing everyone to be successful.

#6. What are the telltale signs you need RevOps?

If your sales leaders are futzing with systems admin, data hygiene tasks, building dashboards, or configuring CRM, then it’s time to take action.

Here are some other signs that you may need help:

  • Your sales process isn’t flowing smoothly.
  • Your data isn’t revealing which campaigns and tactics are most effective.
  • Your software tools aren’t working together.
  • Your sales forecasts are frequently off the mark.
  • You’re sensing gaps in the customer journey.

#7. When should you add a RevOps role or team?

This is a matter of opinion. We believe the time to consider adding RevOps capability is once your sales operations team hits 5 to 10 sales reps. Another factor could be when your business reaches a few million dollars in revenue.

#8. How do you get started with RevOps?

The answer to this question depends on the complexity of your business. Often this is a function of size and business model.

The first option is to distribute capabilities throughout your team. In this case, RevOps starts out with one person doing multiple roles. For example, sales ops would also be responsible for enablement and insights – responsibilities that become dedicated roles as you scale.

The second option is a dedicated team with specialized roles from the get-go. You need to hire a leader who can bring the Ops roles together and consolidate reporting relationships. This presumes the organization is sizable, likely with more than 100 employees.

#9. Who is the right candidate for your first RevOps hire?

Again, a definitive answer to this question is hard to pin down. But generally speaking, this role requires a diverse skill set comprised of the following:

  • A background in revenue operations, sales operations, or business operations.
  • Knowledge of how to optimize sales and marketing software tools and set up complex integrations.
  • Proven experience designing cross-functional processes and workflows that scale.
  • Extensive knowledge of how to organize, sync, and analyze company-wide data.
  • Strong project management, problem-solving, and communication skills.

You need to be honest with yourself about the cost of building this capacity, especially when starting out. We have seen companies that do not want the added cost center, or seek maximum output with minimum pay.

#10. Should I consider RevOps as a Service?

Overhead cost is a common obstacle to launching a RevOps role or team. This is where our service shines. It spans a continuum from staff augmentation in management consulting, technical project management, and program development, to a complete turnkey solution.

While every RevOps as a Service engagement is unique, our process covers these six steps:

Initial assessment

We ask a series of questions to understand the state of your revenue team: How is your current system working? What are the pain points in the customer experience? Are your reps productive?

Tech stack audit

A tech stack audit assesses the business impacts, limitations, and areas for improvement. This step evaluates the complete ROI of the toolset and allows us to make suggestions for advancement.

Consultative system design

Our collaborative design approach is based on common and unique business case scenarios. It creates an intentional, reliable, and realistic infrastructure that ties sales, marketing and customer success to revenue and the customer experience.

Implementation

Once your system is designed, we will work with you to set up the full implementation of strategy, timeline, and execution. We prioritize process optimization, eliminate silos and commit to thorough coordination across the organization.

Documentation

Our RevOps team documents all details around the new system design and maintenance for clean handoff to your team.

Support and Monitor

We provide ongoing consulting and technical support based on new learnings and emerging business requirements.

Ready to invest in revenue operations?

The focus of your RevOps initiative will depend on your company’s needs. Ultimately, it is about connecting the dots across teams so you can increase sales and reduce churn.

If you’re ready to get started, contact us to learn how we can extend your current capabilities or provide a turnkey RevOps solution tailored to your business.

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