How CROs can build a successful RevOps framework

Every company has a different vision of what a revenue operations model should look like; at its core, marketing, sales and customer success. But as these are just names of revenue teams, let’s look at how CROs can build a successful RevOps framework.

At BIAS, we quickly learned that whilst the clamour is for closer alignment of revenue teams, there are wholesale challenges both strategically and operationally. More significant than both, which are easy to identify, cultural resistance proves the biggest obstacle. But should that hold up your progress? Not at all. You simply work around it and approach it with the blue sky strategy and a team-by-team process.

Let’s look at how a company should break this down.

The five stages of Revenue Operations

We break the RevOps framework into five essential modules: strategic and team by team. This article assumes your teams are all using HubSpot CRM Suite.

#1 Product Marketing

Every company needs product marketing because this is the cornerstone of your launch strategy. The fundamentals this covers ensure a solid entry to the market. Consider the following:

• Positioning
• Messaging
• Personas and ICP
• Buyer's journey map
• Buyer funnel stages and tactics
• Content mapping
• Segment hypothesis

When working with BIAS, we underpin this with a Service Design Process Workshop in our ARISE product, which should happen first, combined with all your persona research. Nail all of this, even with a product in the market, and you cement a powerful positioning and launch strategy.

#2 Marketing Strategy

It’s easy to build on your groundwork with a marketing strategy as you look to amplify your product value. Keep in mind this is a framework and that each step builds on the previous. Whether you have single products or multiple products, here are the things you should consider to continue the momentum:

• Decide the theme of the campaign(s) for each product
• Content types
  • Memes
  • Blog posts
  • Unique content types (digital tools)
  • Graphics
  • Swipe files
  • eBooks/whitepapers
  • Landing pages
  • video
  • testimonials
  • case studies
  • Paid ads
  • Podcast/vlogs
  • Workshop materials (if in services)
  • 3rd party content distribution networks
• Build your campaigns into the campaign tool in HubSpot Marketing Hub

#3 Sales Enablement Preparation

The next step is to prepare the sales aspect of your revenue operations framework. Planning these steps should take place in an easy-to-use platform like Excel, which is simple but efficient.

• Understand the keywords prospects use for each product you launch
• Design battle cards to enable your team to combat competitors
• Write up objection handling scripts for each battle card
• Design your outbound sales email sequences
• Build your one-pager for each product
• Write up your sales script per product
• Build your cross-sell plan and email sequences
• Build your upsell plan and email sequences
• Install your sales playbook into the HubSpot Sales Hub (Pro)

This is a broad approach to give you the freedom you need to manoeuvre within the RevOps framework. For teams with a bigger budget, you should look into how you can ramp up predictability in your sales engine for more significant results.

#4 Customer Onboarding Strategy

For CROs who value customer success and see them as part of the revenue generation team rather than just problem solvers, this is for you. It doesn’t have to be a complex process; you need three crucial ingredients:

• Product onboarding playbook
• Health scored onboarding in HubSpot Service Hub
• Customer journey map

This framework layers the right things for the right team and aligns with your HubSpot CRM. As a CRO today, you should see this as a whole rather than the individual aspects, avoiding ambiguity. Of course, you can delegate to your team leaders, however that looks, but they need to work together to deliver. Today’s customer success teams must champion the customer experience and own the life cycle.

#5 Product/service delivery planning

As we reach the final element of this RevOps framework, we look away from teams and into the delivery of the product or service. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to improvise or customise to specific outcomes, but for this example:

• Demo/workshop
• Customer success strategy (how they capitalise on their investment in your product or service)
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)

The last section of this framework covers three elements, any of which can be transposed into your specific needs. This framework is simple yet effective. However, it will deliver maximum results if the siloed teams align and deliver the desired outcomes.

Conclusion

If you’re on the hunt for more in-depth information around RevOps, check out how to build a revenue operations function and the most commonly asked revenue operations questions.

This RevOps framework governs the revenue process, enabling you to take ownership of the: 

• Process optimisation
• Customer lifecycle management
• Business model
• Data-driven decision making
• Sales, marketing and customer success

Which will maximise revenue in line with revenue goals. 

We hope that this short but punchy article gave you something to think about, and if you need more help with your process design, talk to our team today.