Revenue operations is the function that aligns the people, processes, and technology across marketing, sales, and customer success -- so the revenue team operates as a system rather than as three separate departments with three separate datasets and three separate definitions of success.
Most B2B companies operate with siloed ops: a marketing ops person who manages HubSpot, a sales ops person who manages Salesforce, and a CS ops person who manages Gainsight. Each tool has different data, different field definitions, and different reporting. The result is that every quarterly business review starts with 30 minutes of debating whose numbers are right.
Step 1: Define the RevOps scope and mandate
RevOps is frequently confused with sales ops. The distinction is scope. Sales ops optimizes the sales team's performance. RevOps optimizes the entire revenue team's performance -- including the handoffs between marketing, sales, and CS.
The four RevOps domains:
Step 2: Establish the data model
Before any process changes or tool decisions, establish the shared data model -- the agreed definitions that all three functions will use.
The critical definitions to standardize:
Step 3: Fix the critical handoffs
The marketing-to-sales and sales-to-CS handoffs are where the most revenue is lost in B2B companies. RevOps owns making these handoffs explicit, measured, and improving.
The two critical handoffs:
Step 4: Build the revenue dashboard
The revenue dashboard is the single report that leadership uses to understand the health of the revenue motion and make resource allocation decisions.
The dashboard must use the same data from the same source. If marketing and sales pull pipeline from different reports, the dashboard debate replaces the strategy conversation every time.
RevOps function completion checklist
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