Why RevOps is critical for business growth

RevOps; I loved stumbling upon this beautiful word. It’s short for Revenue Operations and champions operations as a vital part of business growth.

It's important to note that operations, in this context, is the combination of systems, processes and people, working together to make things run smoothly. Typically, Operations is not seen as a ‘sexy’, revenue-generating function like marketing, sales or customer success. 

However, RevOps highlights the importance of operations in underpinning and breaking down silos between these revenue-generating functions.

I’ve seen many sound marketing and sales strategies fail (or not get off the ground in the first place) because businesses do not have the operational capability to support these initiatives. Without them, it’s like trying to ride a bike with square wheels. 

RevOps is a holistic approach to aligning sales, marketing and customer success via systems, processes and people to unlock growth and revenue potential.

 While operations don’t necessarily generate revenue, they are crucial in supporting these revenue-generating functions. The key elements for successful RevOps include:

1. Alignment

2. Optimisation and integration of the tech ecosystem

3. Data Management 

4. Collaboration & communication

Yes, these elements can take time to set up correctly, but once they are, you can hit the ground running. There are times you need to ‘slow down to speed up’, like an elastic band, or a slingshot, you need to pull it back before it flies. Getting your operational fundamentals in place is one of those times.

Let’s explore each of these elements below…

Alignment

The first step is bringing the sales, marketing and customer success teams on the same page.

As always, start with the goals. There is a reason we always start with the goals; it’s because when you get bogged down in the day-to-day, spinning your plates, they force you to take a step back and see if you are going in the right direction.

I’d recommend using the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) approach for this as it, by definition, facilitates cross-functional, top-down and bottom-up alignment.

OKR (Objective and Key Result) alignment

Not only does this give direction for the business, and key metrics on how to get there, but it can also highlight where there may be some operational flaws. This is because metrics need to align across departments.

Alignment doesn’t stop at setting OKRs. Alignment is a process that continues through the quarter. It requires constant data, work, review, feedback and collaboration to deliver the key results and ultimately, reach the objectives.

Now, does your tech align with these goals, too?

Optimise & integrate the tech ecosystem

The technology you use should enable your goals, not be a burden or hindrance to them. 

In this customer-centric era in which we live, often, a CRM should be the centre of a tech ecosystem. It makes perfect sense from a RevOps perspective; a single source of truth connecting detail-rich lead information from the sales team, where the details live for targeted marketing efforts, to be nurtured by a customer success team.

See blog: Maximising CRM Success: Best Practices for Implementation

Now, I get that this can be daunting! How can you think about changing your tech ecosystem when businesses end up with a mishmash of systems at the best of times? I often hear things like:

• "We only use this system because Sally used it in their previous role"

• "We’re using the free version of X, so need Y to complement it"

• "Only Bob uses that system, no one else does"

• "I have my own way of doing it"

… Sound familiar?

Take a step back and look at your entire tech ecosystem – make a list of all the systems used across the business. Note the rationale for using them, how much they cost and what (if any) integrations are being utilised. Map it all out on a page, using lines to represent integrations that connect each system.

More often than not, what results is a map of disparate, siloed systems. That means that the interaction between those systems is likely manual, susceptible to human error and involves duplication of work. 

The aim is to reduce the amount of systems and integrate as much as possible. The map will help identify if they are being used to their full capabilities, if there are integrations that can be enabled, a subscription to be upgraded for better functionality, or if there are better solutions available that are more aligned with the goals. 

As you can see, a CRM is the system that brings all the customer data together, as a universal source of truth. This is why, in a revops environment, it's important that all employees have access to the CRM which contains information from all key areas. A CRM is for the entire organisation, not just a select few.

Now down to what needs to go in the CRM!

Data Management 

We've covered OKRs and CRM, let's talk about how we organise and manage the data. I know, I know, it's not the most exciting topic, but this is where the magic happens! Where we get customer insights, see if we are on track to reach our goals, and make informed decisions.

Firstly, we come back to our OKRs. What are the key metrics we need to measure to know if we have achieved our objectives or not? These will be the basis of how the CRM is set up including dashboards and reporting.

Then, using CRM needs to be built into the everyday part of a job, with EVERYTHING tracked. The quality of a CRM, or any system for that matter, comes down to the accuracy and frequency with which the data is entered. The biggest issue we see is CRMs in place but not being updated regularly or by the relevant people (*cough* salespeople). Each member of the team needs to be disciplined in maintaining the data quality of the systems. Having reporting/metrics linked to the OKRs/KPIs is a great way to encourage this.

For example, if a Key Result is to acquire 5 new customers, a Sales team might break that down (based on conversion rates) into 100 cold calls and 20 meetings each. Now the sales team members need to track the progress of these calls and meetings to show their OKR progress, reported weekly.

A few tips on data management:

• Clear data governance policies – establish ownership and accountability, regularly audit data, removing old or useless data

• Ensuring data accuracy and integrity – protect people's privacy, getting permission where possible

• Implementing robust data security measures – control who can access sensitive information, track who is using data 

• Consolidating and centralising data from various sources and systems – keep data in one place, ensure it follows the same structures/conventions

At the end of the day, it's all about making your data work best for you. It can be a powerful tool, giving a comprehensive view of the customer journey and ultimately driving revenue growth through more targeted and effective strategies.

Collaboration & communication

You can have the best goals, tech and data, but if they are all operating independently, it all falls down. You can’t break down silos without cross-functional collaboration and communication.

These functions should be working together to address gaps and continuously improve. Increase communication and collaboration by encouraging:

• Regular (recurring) cross-functional meetings

• Designated communication channels, such as a Teams or Slack channel for questions, feedback, reminders and best practice

• An operations resource (individual or team) that works across the departments, ensuring alignment, data management and processes are in place

This collaboration gives a better customer experience. Too often I have seen sales teams spend months nurturing leads into clients, which get handed off to marketing or account managers with no handover or context, and a relationship needs to be established again from scratch, often to the frustration of the client, having to re-explain themselves. This could all be avoided (or at least minimised) through the power of collaboration, a CRM and data.

The interconnectedness of sales, marketing and customer success is the key to unlocking revenue growth, but it is not possible without business operations. Once those fundamentals – systems, processes and people are in place, it will give you the foundations for scale.

Reach out if you’d like to know more about RevOps, whether it’s setting things up from scratch or having a look to see where things can be improved.