It’s not unusual to speak to CEOs or other C-suite revenue leaders who don’t know quite what to make of Revenue Operations (”RevOps”).   What are the problems RevOps solves? Why does it matter now but didn’t before?

In this article, we will talk about the benefits of RevOps and, importantly, the global business shifts that have made RevOps more important than ever.

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Destroying Silos

Sales, marketing & customer success…a dollar generated from one department is worth the exact same as a dollar generated from another.  Traditionally, companies have looked at the role of each department as part of a funnel, represented by the diagram on the left below.  RevOps means thinking about how to maximize this entire revenue picture by 1) efficiency/profitability, 2) sustainability, and 3) growth.

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This is not the traditional view.  Traditionally, the funnel on the left means that marketing brings in leads —> sales converts them —> customer success retains them.

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That’s wrong.  At its most basic level, it is wrong because it doesn’t maximize the revenue - it just compartmentalizes it. Consider the role of marketing.  An individual should receive marketing throughout his or her journey with your company, and that  messaging should change depending on the point in the journey.

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The modernized “RevOps” approach is the one on the right.

Is this just a chance in thinking and business strategy.  NO!  It’s a change in business environment that has demanded a RevOps approach.

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Keeping up with Global Change

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B2B Decision-making

Forrester reports that the average B2B buyer has 11-17 touchpoints with a brand before making a purchase decision. Look at the list of top touchpoints below.

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• Visiting your website or landing pages
• Reading blog posts, whitepapers, or case studies
• Attending webinars or virtual events
• Seeing digital ads (LinkedIn, Google, etc.)
• Reading online reviews (e.g., G2, TrustRadius)
• Channel partner recommendation

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Most of these did not exist 25 years ago in any sort of meaningful way. The last one - “channel partners” - is probably the most stable but the motion has entirely changed.What this collectively means is that when you have your first conversation with a decision-maker, they already have a very well-formed opinion about your product or services‍

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Retention revenue

‍Subscriptions pricing has taken over B2B pricing models.  It’s not just Saas (software-as-a-service).  Most service company also offers some sort of suscription option.  Consequently, 70-90% of all B2B revenue is now retention.  That leaves just 10-30% of revenue for new logos.

This alone should essentially blow-up the idea of a sales funnel. Marketing and Sales should be involved - even if in an automated way - with existing accounts. In this environment, Customer Success will be able to be a revenue driver.  It’ what is often called the “Bow-Tie Funnel” in RevOps lingo. Making it the job of Customer Success to grow this retention revenue is a huge missed opportunity.

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Self-Service Purchasing

‍Going hand-in-hand with subscription pricing is self-service purchasing. This simply means when the purchase is made online and without the assistance of a sales person.

Six-figure deals are happening routinely with no sales person. Even if your business does not offer self-service, it’s still extremely relevant because your competitors are/will be offering it.  In the CRM world, Monday.com probably makes it easier than anyone to get educated, know the products you need, and to buy them in a single day.

It’s also relevant because it underscores the importance of attribution. While this has threatened many roles (i.e. manufacturers rep), it is a huge opportunity for many businesses. It also increases the importance of attribution. When a prospect comes from a review site, downloads a white paper, and then calls your phone number to ask a question, there are a lot of touch points. Modern companies track these and invest in the highest yield. Old companies give credit to the sales guy who picked up the phone.

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Data Segmentation

‍Every year, gathering and manipulating data gets easier and with more opportunities.  Differentiating the cohorts above (Prospect, Current Customer or Past Customer) used to require some manual data analysis.  Then, it required effort to distribute the messaging to each group.

With the right integrations, your CRM can instantly tell you who is a:

• Prospect
• Current Customer
• Past Customer

Your business may have slightly different labels, but these are the three that work for many Everpeak clients. The CRM or the email platform you utilize in tandem can then message - not that cohort - but that individual. Every individual contact within each of those cohorts can get personalized messaging in real-time with no user action.  If that’s not happening - the questions is why?

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Uncomfortable Silos

We know the answer to why these things above are not happening at your company: misalignment.

Sales, marketing and customer success don’t work as a cohesive unit. Their comp plans don’t reflect it.  Their day-to-day tasks don’t reflect it. The technology stack does not reflect it.  Your customer journey does not reflect it.

Revenue Operations break down these silos. Revenue Operations puts you ahead of the game simply by acknowledging that these silos exist. This raises another uncomfortable question…..who is responsible for executing RevOps?

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Company Structure

Revenue is the job of at least three departments.  The actual RevOps work focused on technology, data, people and process could be done by an agency, team or individual.  Obviously, the size of the company matters.  In a large company, there is likely a Head of RevOps who is delivering the strategy, metrics and accountability to the entire C-suite.  In a smaller company, the person may be a member of the C-suite, but the actual work is being done by someone else.  Someone who has done this type of work and is not beholden to any one department.

Let’s look at that diagram on right again. RevOps creates space for this kind of organization. It creates a team advocating for this view of the world in a company where - without there presence - it would be a siloed funnel.

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Visibility

For any of this to be a grounded conversation, it has to start with data.  That means the ability to measure the change. This is data-driven.

Data is what CEOs should be thinking about with Revenue Operations. Historically, data has been the domain of the IT Department.  Sales and Marketing were not the data specialists within the organizations, nor was Customer Success.  That has changed. These departments should be leading the organization in its ability to act upon mountains of data, and RevOps allows for this.

RevOps blends the GTM muscle with the mind of IT. It creates a data-driven rigor around sales and marketing where, previously, decision-making involve too much opinion. RevOps means key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboards that identify areas of opportunity in real-time and give a roadmap for the appropriate change.

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