How to get started with Revenue Operations

Revenue Operation is not a new term. If you are reading this article, there are chances that you have an understanding of the core framework of Revenue Operations and its potential impact on your business.

When you see that even a top-notch sales team is not giving your business the expected growth, it is time that you need to broaden your horizons and start thinking about revenue operations. The important step includes the effective implementation of revenue operations in your business. This might be one of the reasons that are keeping your business from growing.

So, read ahead to learn more about the best way to get started!

What is Revenue Operations?

Revenue Operations, also known as RevOps, is any structure, group, or even process accountable for contributing revenue to an organization. It goes beyond sales teams and includes finance, marketing, and customer service. It is an approach that keeps aside the traditional methods and looks at how growth can be maximized in the three operations. Revenue Operations is a natural extension of a sales-focused development.

Any part of the business that affects the generation of revenue would fit into revenue operations. It is a methodology for operating any business. Furthermore, it enhances the buying experience of your customers.

Revenue Operations is involved in the entire cycle of purchasing to make everyone’s (customer as well as the internal teams) experience as smooth as possible. It allows salesperson, executives, marketers, and customer service teams to work together seamlessly (along with other departments), increasing the company’s ability to generate revenue.

Revenue Operations recognizes that revenue isn’t an end goal, as per Forbes. Rather, it is a full cyclical process described as an “end-to-end process of driving revenue, from the moment a prospect considers a purchase (Marketing) to when you close the deal (Sales) to their renewal and upsell (Customer Success). The result of this orchestration is faster growth and more profit.”

Why Choose Revenue Operations Strategy?

When you are just starting with Revenue Operations, see to it that you have a powerful department, including a team lead, data analyst, and expert for the successful implementation of modern technologies. Gradually, the revenue operations department will grow well.

Revenue Operations is considered as the new mandate for B2B companies to assess and accelerate growth. It is a known fact that a successful business is the sum of an individual as well as the cumulative growth of each department.

In a survey of nearly 2,500 sales and marketing professionals by the State of Revenue Operations 2019 study, 55% growth in RevOps adoption was revealed over the past year. Companies that reported a dedicated RevOps group escalated from 20% to 31% between 2018 and 2019.

If you watch the news, you must be aware of the changes in the buying habits observed in the consumer market. Social distancing measures are making e-commerce move forward. However, you must be unaware of the changes in the purchasing behaviors in business markets. 

Unfortunately, not all firms focus on the relationships between sales departments. For years, growth experts have highlighted the misalignment between marketing, sales, and service teams. 

Implement a Revenue Operations function

Revenue operations maintain activities across all major revenue operations, including marketing, sales, customer success, and other professional services. This provides a more comprehensive and cohesive customer journey.

All companies have different revenue operations frameworks, depending on their business models, revenue goals, and other related factors. However, the simplest method to structure your RevOps is by prioritizing each department’s duties by integrating responsibilities related to revenue operations. This will ensure that all departments are working together instead of considering each other separate entities with different goals. 

Gone are those days when businesses operated more like bucket brigades (passing scenarios from marketing teams to sales and customer services). Today, almost all big companies leverage a standard view of the business (across departments) to combine goals and optimize processes across teams.

To properly align your goals and processes, you should consider outlining the perceived goals and objectives that each department has been working on. Then, evaluate how they fundamentally align to addressing the needs of your customer while driving growth. 

You will possibly learn that some of these objectives are not consistent with your company’s growth. You may even find a scenario where all your teams (marketing, sales, and customer support) have a different opinion on who is the primary customer?

Access a proven framework

There is never a one-size-fits-all formula RevOps for organizations. Each firm has a unique business and varying functions based on the type and size of its business. However, you still have the liberty to structure your RevOps team. You can use these suggested operation duties as a guide to structuring your revenue operations team.

Know who owns RevOps. The function is new, thus still being defined. Yet, it is clear that the right RevOps model, including who owns it, depends very much on the organization. If most of the business is generated from internal leads, then the marketing team should own revenue operations.

Align teams, data, and processes across the company

RevOps is crucially focusing on how companies are looking at growth. RevOps is addressing the gap between revenue generation and teams/departments instead of bifurcating between various teams and departments. To connect data and business, it is essential to have a RevOps system in place. RevOps is all about including people from sales, marketing, and customer service.

Sales

If you are ready to run your business more efficiently and are confident enough to unlock additional growth opportunities, it is time to devise your plan to strategize a revenue operations approach for your business. This team’s major focus is on closing deals. They are the bridge between marketing and customer service departments.

Marketing

Marketing is the core of an ideal RevOps workflow. This team develops software processes and helps the marketing department coordinate with others. The cycle of RevOps is dependent on the frequent engagement with customers and upselling to them.

Customer Service

Before even signing the deal with customers, the customer service team is involved with them. Implementing revenue operations will also enable your business to deliver the best-in-class experience for your customers, thus converting a lead to a loyal customer. One of the best ways to know about the functioning of your company’s revenue department is by looking at it from the customer’s point of view

Create SLAs and metrics to measure success

It is important to keep up with the work done. Performance metrics are useful in keeping the RevOps team and your business on the right track. But, developing and monitoring these performance metrics is tedious. Hence, it becomes more crucial to using the appropriate metrics with the right approach to determine and achieve success. 

One of the effective ways to align your sales and marketing goals is by creating Service Level Agreements or SLAs. These SLAs are ideal resources for delineating your company’s goals and making an agreement between the marketing and sales team. It identifies the metric used to determine the level of service provided to customers. 

Significance of a Revenue Operations team

It is normal to feel overwhelmed when we think we have so much to do. Always start small. You have to ask yourself if you are ready to take your business to the next level. Small firms should not consider developing multiple functions. To keep your business in function, the revenues should keep on increasing. With time, your Revenue Operations team will also expand as per the requirement. It is advisable to incorporate your revenue operations framework in your plans. 

As and when your business expands, changes are inevitable. Whether it includes re-implementation of CRM or launching new products or services, coordination with the other departments is required.

Below are the most common questions for the managers and heads of RevOps department:

Conclusion

It is the perfect time to align your sales and marketing teams around the metrics that really matter. A unified approach just makes the RevOps job a whole lot easier.

Hopefully, we have been able to provide you with enough information to understand what Revenue Operations is and their importance in your business. If you have doubts, there is also an option of hiring a Revenue Operations Consultant. The consultant will promote and ease the strategy build-out and implementation process to benefit your customers, employees, and ultimately your revenue.

So get ready to start optimizing the power of RevOps to get more out of your business!