How to Build a Successful Integrated Revenue Operations Team for Growth
Revamp business growth by skillfully assembling a successful, cohesive Revenue Operations team by leveraging the framework
- August 1, 2023
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How to Build a Successful Integrated Revenue Operations Team for Growth
The topmost goal of the revenue operations team in any business is to synchronize and unify the initiatives of GTM teams, fostering increased productivity and catalyzing business expansion. An effectively aligned Revenue Operations team can utilize a common set of data to optimize processes throughout the entirety of the customer experience. Consequently, they establish a consistent value stream that fortifies customer loyalty and fuels sustainable growth over an extended period.
Consider these statistics that highlight the multifaceted advantages of Revenue Operations teams:
- Businesses with Revenue Operations teams can trim down the time spent on each sales opportunity by up to 4 hours.
- Aligned firms can accelerate their business growth by 19% more rapidly compared to those lacking Revenue Operations teams.
- Companies that adopt Revenue Operations can witness a surge in customer satisfaction by 15-20%.
In this blog we discuss approaches and framework to build a successful integrated Revenue Operations organization.
What is the best approach for structuring a Revenue Operations team?
Traditional business structures often consign operations to an afterthought, leading to siloed teams, reluctance to hire specialists, and challenges in scaling operations uniformly. Such businesses may grow rapidly in boom times but often compromise on customer service, or cost of customer acquisition, thereby risking their sustainability and brand reputation. To avoid these pitfalls, an effective revenue operations team aligns the central revenue departments: sales, marketing, and customer success, in contrast to traditional structures where these departments operate independently.
In smaller SaaS companies, departments manage their processes, aided by Revenue Operations tech specialists, project managers, and data analysts. The eventual goal, especially for companies aiming for significant growth or those struggling with information sharing, should be to adopt a Revenue Operations model. In mature Revenue Operations structures, roles are managed by functional areas under the vision of the CRO, ensuring a unified customer experience free from operational silos.
An ideal structure for Revenue Operations team could include:
- Revenue operations: Responsible for strategy, planning, and executing various processes.
- Revenue analytics: Team of BI engineers, data analysts, etc., focusing on data analysis and actionable insights.
- Revenue enablement: Handles team onboarding and coaching for optimal tool utilization.
- Revenue systems: Collaborates with IT for data access and insights.
This structure must be tailored to your organization’s specific needs and conditions. Many operations like data analytics can be automated, reducing the need for certain roles. Company size, budget, and priorities must guide your Revenue Operations team structure, understanding it’s a process of continuous improvement rather than achieving perfection at the outset.
Establishing an Optimal Revenue Operations Team Framework
To establish a thriving revenue operations team structure, one must take into account the various elements of the team as well as the specific requirements of the business.
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Identify Available Resources
The initial phase of constructing an effective Revenue Operations team structure involves enumerating your available resources and pinpointing any skill or expertise deficiencies. This step should encompass an in-depth evaluation of your current staff and tools, and comprehension of what can be accomplished given the team’s present expertise. This process will aid in recognizing areas that may need further training, or the necessity of bringing in new talent to bridge any existing gaps.
Set Your Revenue Operations Team’s Objective
The next step involves setting the purpose of your Revenue Operations team and clarifying the expected benefits of its establishment. This will navigate the implementation phase and ensure each role aligns with the overall goals. Also, it’s important to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics that will serve to measure success.
Collaborate with Sales and Marketing Teams
After outlining your RevOps team’s objective, it’s crucial to organize the team to collaborate effectively with both sales and marketing departments, as well as customer success, if such a department exists for it. This arrangement ensures a symbiosis between the various functions, fostering enhanced cooperation. It also facilitates a smoother, more efficient transition from marketing to sales, and sales to customer success, thereby improving the overall customer experience.
Implementation
The final step involves preparing for implementation. This may encompass establishing a timeline and identifying any necessary resources. It’s vital to consider the entirety of the project and anticipate potential challenges that may surface during the process. Additionally, setting up a feedback mechanism can be advantageous for continual improvements.
Implementing Revenue Operations Team Competencies
The trajectory of revenue growth is tethered to the appropriateness of the systems and processes in place that shape the customer journey.
The good news is, organizations are usually well-equipped with customer data, thanks to existing CRM systems. In addition to this, marketing automation tools utilized by marketing teams furnish insights about lead generation and customer engagement. Financial systems further outline customer spending behavior and contract details. These components provide a thorough understanding of the standard customer lifetime value.
An integral requirement for a revenue operations team is the capability for revenue intelligence. This brings together all data used by different operations teams, providing a comprehensive view of the entire marketing, sales and CS process. It is particularly useful in spotting bottlenecks that might be hampering the pace of revenue and cash flow.
Given the sheer volume of data that can be potentially accessed and the probability of its multiplication, it’s practical to employ no-code predictive analysis tools and machine learning software. The insights gleaned can also be instrumental in formulating sales compensation and incentive schemes, thereby solidifying your revenue operations strategy.
Whom should Revenue Operations team report to?
There has been an ongoing discussion about the organization’s placement of the Revenue Operations function and its accountability. This is largely due to the variation of Revenue Operations roles depending on the organizational layout.
However, it’s widely recognized that the Revenue Operations function, being the sole unit in the organization with an encompassing view of the revenue funnel—from lead generation to purchase and even post-purchase—is a vital element of any organization. Therefore, defining the correct position of Revenue Operations and setting up its accountability is crucial for organizations aiming to enhance their revenue flows.
BigLittle Redefines Revenue Operations through Process Innovation
We’ve embarked on a quest to rectify this disparity and introduce businesses to the forefront of technology. We aim to eradicate revenue leakage and unleash the apex of revenue potential by refining their revenue machinery and GTM operations.
Our goal is to equip revenue operations leaders with an arsenal of tools, techniques, and wisdom that will assist in transforming isolated marketing, sales, and customer success ops teams into cohesive, powerhouse revenue operations entities.
By enhancing their professional prowess, we empower them to routinely surpass revenue targets and bestow a durable competitive advantage upon the business.
Get in touch with us Today!