Companies have had to adapt to a ton of changes in recent years. These changes have led to the rise of RevOps. But what is RevOps, and how do you implement it effectively in your business?
RevOps is one of the more significant shifts in response to change and relates to customer behavior and the way prospects interact with the traditional marketing and sales funnel.
In this article, we’ll delve deeper into what RevOps is, the difference between RevOps and Sales Ops, why RevOps is necessary, and how to activate RevOps for your company.
Revenue Operations, better known as RevOps, is a holistic approach to revenue generation that unites marketing, sales, and customer success teams in order to improve efficiency.
As companies grow, departments naturally become more siloed. Each has its own objectives, processes, and tools, making sharing information difficult and ensuring a top-level customer experience difficult. RevOps is the solution to this problem.
Once you’ve activated RevOps for your company, your marketing, sales, and customer success teams will work together, leading to happier customers and increased revenue.
The rise of RevOps in the changing business landscape
It’s clear that the way your customers source and purchase products and services has changed.
Gone are the days of your lead calling your sales team without any knowledge of your product. Chances are they’ve done their research and have a good idea of what they want and need before contacting your company.
In the past, sales, customer success, marketing, and account management teams would operate separately. They would extract data, make decisions, formulate plans, and execute them in silos, unaware of what was happening in other departments.
Today, these teams are coming together, strengthening the revenue process and giving birth to the RevOps concept. Working as one, RevOps teams share tools and information to increase efficiency and accountability and improve the customer experience.
Why is RevOps necessary?
RevOps is relatively new. So, it’s natural to ask, “Is RevOps really necessary? People built businesses for thousands of years before RevOps came about. It can’t be that important, can it?”
RevOps is necessary because the sales and marketing funnel used to be linear:
Marketing would generate leads
Sales would talk to leads and close deals
Customer Success would engage with customers
These days, potential customers have access to an incredible amount of information. As such, buyers rarely progress through the funnel in a straight line, which means marketing, sales, and customer success teams must work together to ensure sales.
Unfortunately, getting marketing, sales, and customer success teams out of their respective silos is easier said than done—unless you activate RevOps, of course.
RevOps vs. Sales Ops
The terms “RevOps” and “Sales Ops” are sometimes used interchangeably. While the two share a similar goal—namely, more revenue for their organizations—they differ in one fundamental way.
As we discussed above, RevOps unites marketing, sales, and customer success teams. The goal is to improve efficiency across an organization, generate happier customers, and boost the amount of revenue said organization generates.
Sales Ops, on the other hand, aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales department specifically, enabling an organization’s sellers to close more deals and generate more revenue in less time.
Both RevOps and Sales Ops are concerned with operational efficiency and revenue. But RevOps takes a company-wide approach to this issue, whereas Sales Ops does not.
The benefits of implementing a RevOps strategy
When you employ an effective RevOps strategy across departments, your business will reap the rewards. Some of the key benefits you can expect include the following:
Improved profitability and revenue: With your sales and marketing departments in sync, it’s easier to pinpoint opportunities and increase customer retention, leading to more revenue.
Better customer experiences: An aligned team ensures consistency throughout the customer journey, creating a great customer experience and encouraging loyalty.
Increased overall efficiency: Standardizing tools and systems across departments streamlines operations, saving time and money.
Enhanced adaptability: With teams and processes synchronized, your business can adapt swiftly to market changes and stay on top of revenue and growth.
More effective communication: When your marketing, sales, and customer success teams collaborate effectively, communication across departments improves, leading to an increase in productivity.
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How to set up RevOps for your company
Now that we know what RevOps is, how it differs from Sales Ops, and why it’s becoming a necessity for many companies, let’s talk about how to implement a RevOps strategy at your company.
Just follow this simple, five-step process:
1. Adopt the right mindset
Marketers are often concerned with their own specific departmental objectives. The same goes for the Sales and Customer Success teams.
RevOps is about the entire company.
To activate RevOps for your organization, you have to adopt this mindset. You can’t be so concerned with marketing metrics that you neglect sales metrics or so attached to specific pieces of software that you force other departments to adopt new, less efficient tools.
Change can be challenging for some people. They’ve spent so much time in their silos that changing their frames of mind may seem impossible. But, it must occur to implement RevOps effectively.
2. Bring in the right people
Do you have the right mindset? Good, now you can build your RevOps team.
If hiring internally, try enlisting members from Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success. That way, you have access to a collection of perspectives and ideas.
In addition, only enlist professionals who are team players. We’ll say it again: RevOps is about the company as a whole. There’s no room for glory seekers. Make sure the people you hire have a “team first” mentality and will work for the greater good of your entire organization.
3. Invest in the right tools
Technology is a critical component of every successful RevOps team.
Typical tools in a RevOps team’s tech stack include CRM software, marketing automation apps, customer tracking and communication solutions, and website analytics.
Each of these tools is important. But, most experts agree that the CRM you choose will have the most impact on your new RevOps team and its ability to succeed. Your CRM is where the bulk of your organizational data will reside. Make sure your CRM of choice is:
Intuitive and easy to use: Do your employees need a degree in rocket science to operate your CRM? If your team can’t easily input and access information, they’ll waste time. They might even stop using the tool. Consider an alternative solution.
Has the features you need: Does your CRM software have the features you need to run a RevOps team effectively? At the very least, make sure it offers detailed reports and analytics and can integrate with your team’s other tools.
Affordable for your company: Can your company afford its CRM? Popular tools like Salesforce and HubSpot may have a lot of features, but they can be really expensive. The goal of RevOps is to generate more money, not burn it.
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The next thing you’ll want to do is build out processes that strengthen the relationship between your company’s marketing, sales, and customer success teams. These processes should empower each division and enable them to work together more effectively.
Many of your processes will likely revolve around data collection and sharing. As mentioned above, the right technology, including a quality CRM software, will help with this.
Remember, every process you create should improve the customer experience. Once you achieve this, revenue will naturally increase.
Also, make sure the members of your RevOps team—and the various departments they serve—can provide feedback. Are the processes you’ve created working? Do they make it easier for employees to do their jobs? Have they boosted company efficiency?
Create a continuous feedback loop so that you can always improve your RevOps processes.
5. Track the Right Metrics
Finally, start tracking the right metrics.
Some of the most critical KPIs for RevOps purposes are:
Annual Recurring Revenue: Often abbreviated to ARR, annual recurring revenue is the money your company generates from its annual contracts.
Customer Acquisition Cost: Often abbreviated to CAC, customer acquisition costs refer to the money your company spends to acquire a new customer.
Lifetime Value: Often abbreviated to LTV, lifetime value is the income each customer generates for your business during their lifetime with your organization.
Customer Satisfaction Score: Often abbreviated to CSAT, customer satisfaction score measures a customer’s happiness with your company’s products/ services.
Win rate: Your win rate is how many total deal opportunities you’ve won, reflected as a percentage.
These aren’t the only metrics worth tracking. But they’ll probably be the ones your RevOps team focuses on—and works to improve—the most.
What are some potential RevOps implementation challenges?
You could face a few obstacles when implementing a new RevOps strategy at your company. Some of the most common challenges that RevOps teams encounter are:
Some team members may be opposed to the changes.
Integrating data stored on different systems across departments can be complex.
You may find yourself with incorrect or incomplete records, making accurate reporting difficult.
Smaller operations may lack the funds, training, and resources to implement a comprehensive RevOps strategy immediately.
Shifting from departments using different processes to a standardized system company-wide could be difficult for some teams to understand at first.
Developing the proper RevOps structure and systems for your business may take time, depending on your current structure.
So, how do you overcome these potential challenges to create a stable RevOps strategy within your organization? Keep these essential points in mind when executing your RevOps plan:
Give it time: Start small and build your ideal RevOps team, assessing and tweaking as you go.
Train your team: Make sure you can provide in-depth training for all team members across departments to ensure everyone understands what they need to do and how to do it.
Upgrade your software: For a highly effective RevOps system, you’ll need top-tier CRM software each department can use to streamline operations and obtain the required metrics.
Make roles clear: Ensure each team member understands their role and responsibilities for effective communication.
How to develop tech support for RevOps
We touched on the need for the right tools when setting up RevOps and how crucial a first-class CRM will be to your team’s success. But you’ll need more in your RevOps tech stack to support your team and new integrated processes.
The core RevOps team tools include:
Reliable CRM software: This is central to your whole RevOps strategy and will help you manage customer data, track communications, and automate several tasks.
Marketing automation tools: Your team will need access to platforms that let you automate marketing campaigns through email, social media, and ads.
Sales support tools: You should have easy access to product information, training, and sales-related materials to help your team move leads through the sales pipeline.
Analysis and reporting software: This software lets you monitor customer behavior and trends to help you improve your marketing approach and increase sales.
Task automation tools: Ensure your team remains as productive as possible by letting them automate mundane tasks to save time.
Team communication tools: Let teams from each department have a way to communicate and collaborate to eliminate departmental silos and encourage information distribution.
Choosing a CRM that integrates with your tools and provides solutions for many of these needs, like Nutshell, will make setting up your RevOps team so much easier.
What is the typical RevOps team structure?
You’ll need to fill a few specific team roles to create a successful RevOps team and maintain transparency, accuracy, and collaboration. These roles relate to crucial responsibilities and functions that make the RevOps wheel turn.
Your RevOps team structure will depend on the size and nature of your business. But these are some of the typical RevOps team roles created to support and facilitate collaboration between the sales, marketing, and customer success teams:
Operations management roles: These include the systems, marketing, customer success, and sales operations managers, with a Director of RevOps overseeing these functions.
RevOps development roles: From sales enablement to training and performance management, these team members support teams across departments, helping them succeed.
Data and analytics roles: You’ll need a skilled team, including a business analyst, database administrator, and data scientist, to ensure you obtain reliable data for better decision-making.
Systems and software roles: To maintain your tech stack and hardware and ensure ease of collaboration, workflow automation, and data extraction, you’ll need a software developer and systems administrator on your RevOps team.
Where RevOps differs in SaaS and subscription businesses
Sales, marketing, and customer support teams function similarly in most companies. Sales leads enter the sales funnel, and teams work together to move the lead through the funnel linearly.
But SaaS and other subscription-based business models are a little different, demanding a more cyclical approach that touches all departments. That’s why RevOps strategies are particularly popular in these companies.
Creating an efficient RevOps team is essential. The team’s systems and processes must support each department and ensure a smooth and satisfying experience for the customer before and after you close the deal.
A successful SaaS or subscription business RevOps strategy leverages customer data to drive revenue from consideration to purchase, renewal, cross-sell, and upsell. It keeps the customer engaged and happy and ensures predictable revenue and business growth.
Is your company ready for RevOps?
Building a RevOps team will grow your company’s revenue by uniting your marketing, sales, and customer success teams, boosting operational efficiency, and creating happier customers who spend more with your brand.
To activate RevOps, follow the five steps above: adopt the right mindset, bring in the right people, invest in the right tools, build the right processes, and track the right metrics.
Speaking of technology, give Nutshell a try and discover a CRM that’s easy to use and brimming with valuable features. Our industry-leading CRM will give your RevOps team the tools to increase revenue to new heights—without tearing your hair out in frustration. Win!
