3 key things to know about revenue operations

When faced with a challenge, the most successful leaders will tell you that they focus on addressing the moment. They assess what’s needed to help their team keep pace with evolving situations. And they encourage their team to stay heads down as they press through the storm.

Of course, many revenue organizations are in the thick of it now, facing continued challenges as a result of the pandemic. Revenue leaders want to find innovative ways to keep their teams on target and their business afloat. They know they need to make informed decisions with speed. While some are still searching for the right way forward, modern revenue leaders know there is a better way to extract the right insights.

Enter the revenue operations model. RevOps has been a simmering topic for a while, but it has bubbled to the surface as revenue leaders understand its promise of cross-functional disciplined ownership throughout the entire customer journey.

With that said, the shift to a RevOps model can’t be haphazard. Take a look at the three key things to know when making that shift. 

1. Structure Changes (May Be) Ahead

RevOps can take different forms depending on the organization. And in this case, size matters.

For smaller organizations, revenue operations may look like one or two team members taking on more strategic planning initiatives across sales, marketing, and customer success.

Larger organizations may have more freedom to make bigger shifts. Many take a centralized approach to the RevOps model, starting by flattening the leadership, integrating the chains of commands, and making lateral shifts of existing staff. Marketing ops, customer success ops, sales ops, sales systems, sales enablement, and areas like deal desk all fall under one roof now. A key benefit to forming this centralized team is that it allows for a single set of revenue operations metrics that everyone understands.

But in some cases, you may need to identify new roles altogether. It begins by asking discovery questions like, “Where are the silos?" "What are the operational functions of our marketing, customer success, deal desk, and analytics teams?” "Could we unify our revenue metrics to get a more holistic view?" Your answers will help you start identifying gaps and building a case for a more efficient RevOps discipline.

2. Solid Partnerships = Foundational

RevOps helps forge new relationships — and those partnerships are vital to long-term success. Why? Because while RevOps brings customer-facing teams together, true alignment requires buy-in and commitment.

At Unleash 2021, Jarod Greene, VP of Product Marketing at Highspot, shared his perspective on how product marketing and revenue operations work hand in hand.

“What [product marketing] might put down on paper as the ideal framework for how we engage the right person at the right time with the right offer with the right value proposition and structure out that journey, we can't do it without RevOps," Jarod said. "We can't do it without that partnership.” Emphasizing that point, he continued, “We can put it on a whiteboard, but the ability to make it real, to automate it, and to do it at scale is really where the magic of the partnership sits.”

That’s just one example of breaking down silos across teams. With RevOps as the backbone, a strong vision and open lines of communications across departments can have revenue organizations moving with agility and speed. 

3. A Streamlined Tech Stack is Required

RevOps can help teams launch at scale, compete more aggressively, and design sales plays to attack specific verticals, industries, or geographies. There’s one caveat, though. They must be backed by good data that comes from an integrated tech stack. Only then will they be able to put all the pieces together for a complete view of the business.

For example, they can help revenue organizations understand how to remove friction in the buyer’s journey, but only if they have a full picture of the end-to-end buyer’s journey and insight into where that friction lies. That happens with seamless, next-generation technology solutions.

Unfortunately, the reality is that many of the tools sales and marketing use are redundant. They often don’t communicate well with each other. So, when RevOps teams take shape, it’s important to look across the teams, conduct a technology audit, and align your tech stack.

Take a deep dive into RevOps and how it’s building revenue organizations of the future in our latest e-book.