Most commonly asked revenue operations questions

Closer alignment across marketing, sales and customer success - this is best practice for any business and the only way to work in today’s world where the buyer’s journey is increasingly complex. 

Whilst I understand for many, RevOps is a colossal undertaking, it would be less so if more businesses built it from start-up stage, not retrofitted at scale. The industry has been calling for closer alignment, better customer service and deeper personalisation since the turn of the century (so at the time of writing, nearly 24 years ago). When I put it like that, it must make you ask, “ Why are we still unable to move to best business practices?”

We’ll pick up this on the podcast Strategy Supercharged at another point in time.

But look, if you’re here, you’re looking to change the status quo, so hopefully, these six commonly asked questions will help you on your way.

How do you structure a revenue operations team?

Optimised team structure will form part of the conversation for many teams starting this process. Whilst these particular roles will not form part of an exhaustive list, they will steer you in the right direction. 

• RevOps Leader
• Project Management Team
• Analytics and Insights
• Platform and Tools Team
• Operations Management
• Enablement

But here’s the thing: when you start, find the most committed members from the current teams and begin there. The first thing you need is buy-in. So get your most passionate people involved first and ramp up your dedicated team as you go. Revenue operations isn’t a one-and-done exercise; it’s an ongoing process.

What are the four pillars of revenue operations?

Revenue operations are built on four pillars: technology, data, process and people. The ultimate goal is to build a 360-degree view of the customer and the customer acquisition process that underpins the long-term customer journey.

• Technology: A slim tech stack should sit at the core of your revenue operations teams. A single CRM, marketing and customer success toolkit like HubSpot can be quickly adopted. This all-in-one customer experience platform enables your sales, marketing, customer service and operations teams to integrate seamlessly. Interestingly, peripheral players like finance and legal can benefit from single systems compliant in multiple domesticities worldwide and integrations into the more common billing platforms. However, with the latest Commerce Hub release, they are slowly closing the loop on productivity across the organisation.
  
  
• Data: Following from technology, which houses your data, you need robust reporting that tells stories to the business from which you can act. In traditional silo organisations, you may only allow sales to see sales reports, marketing theirs, etc. Still, in a RevOps scenario, the reporting across the funnel helps hone the long-term strategy. Include health-scored onboarding in HubSpot Service Hub, and the data becomes a crucial part of the broader puzzle.
  
  
• Process: This is critical to the success of your transformation. Your initial outline doesn’t have to be the most complex, depending on your timeframe. Suppose you have the backing of your senior leadership teams. In that case, hopefully, you have thoroughly measured the impact a slight shift towards RevOps makes and the overarching timeline for the company roadmap. By small shifts, I mean a team-by-team approach; maybe align marketing and sales first, then your CS teams, potentially your sales and CS teams, and then marketing. The alignment has to take place, but a shift across systems could complicate things further, so accurate planning is a must, no matter what.
  
  
• People: Choosing the right people is vital. I’m a fan of rotating teams. Having multiple people across the project participate every quarter for large projects makes sense, giving the business time to garner buy-in from multiple sponsors. I’m not talking about the stakeholder sponsors. I’m talking about the team members who return to their departments and sing your song. Look for skill sets, but also look for conflicting interests. Conflict could inadvertently become your greatest tool because of the questions asked from biased perspectives.

What is the function of revenue operations?

RevOps is the strategic glue that binds sales, marketing and service teams, offering a unified vision to leaders while streamlining daily operations. It’s the powerhouse strategy that shatters silos and fosters interdepartmental harmony. This approach doesn’t just loop in the executive team; it revolutionises the information exchange, boosting efficiency and driving performance across all fronts. 

RevOps isn't just a function—it's a transformative force, delivering clarity and a collaborative spirit that propels the company forward. The end game is a robust customer acquisition and retention process that enforces change at a cultural level across the organisation, drives revenue and reduces customer churn.

What is the RevOps strategy?

My take on revenue operations strategy is to acquire strangers and create an experience so powerful that they become your advocates without realisation. It’s underpinned by solid product marketing, positioning, messaging, sales enablement and a customer success playbook.

It streamlines operations and technology, removing redundancy and administrative processes that detract from the RevOps team's ability to execute the job. It also enables them to focus entirely on the tactical and strategic elements where the payoff and ROI are far easier to measure and add more impact to the bottom line.

The strategy is transformative and constantly evolving as your business grows and becomes ever stronger at servicing the customer's needs, continually increasing customer satisfaction.

Where should revenue operations sit?

Your revenue operations should report to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) but be headed by a Revenue Operations Leader. Marketing, sales, customer service and operations should ultimately report to the CRO, and the RevOps Leader should be on an equal footing with them.

In larger organisations, you may have a sales enablement leader, so all of these players contribute, but the overall owner is the CRO.

How do you measure revenue operations?

• Value: The most common value to measure is average deal size. Build KPIs that roll into the annual revenue goals and use this as part of the data story to analyse and optimise the sales strategy.
  
  
• Volume: Build KPIs across the revenue teams. Whilst shared KPIs are the ultimate measure, team goals are still required for the business strategy to succeed. For example, you likely wouldn’t give retention KPIs to marketing. But you would give marketing KPIs that measure their contribution to the number of activated target accounts or SQLs if that’s a thing for you.
  
  
• Velocity: The average speed at which deals move through the pipeline. Build KPIs that allow you to identify bottlenecks in your customer acquisition process by scrutinising the sales activity recorded in your CRM. HubSpot AI analytics help this with tracking prospecting, sales and rep activities, and your marketing and CS activity in the shared technology.
  
  
• Conversion Rates: Tracking conversion rates from marketing through upsell/cross-sell is crucial. This story in your reporting will give you the best visualisation of how successful your conversion rate is and how well your RevOps function is performing. It’s essential to have both macro and micro views across the organisation and to share how well this is performing with your business's revenue performance. Transparency is in - silos are out.

While there are certainly more questions concerning revenue operations teams, their setup and how they function, these questions frequently appear, so I chose them to answer.

In a recent article, I wrote on How to build a revenue operations function, I break down 15 steps of what you need to do to bring this to life, looking at the technical, cultural and transformational aspects of the RevOps project.

Please speak to our team if you are looking for a partner to help you build your own RevOps team and work through the long-term transformation. We work team by team or as part of a long-term organisational shift.