Building & Hiring an Effective RevOps Function: Team Structure, Tech Stack, AI Enhancements

As an organization or company expands, the go-to-market teams comprised of sales and marketing must grow and evolve into more specialized, complex teams. The specialization is a good thing, but it leads to a lack of interconnectivity, further exacerbating and highlighting the deficiencies in an organization's revenue stream. A general consensus solution has formed: 94% of business leaders agree on the need to align sales and marketing. 

With RevOps, companies bring together disjointed revenue models under one revenue process and shape it around the customer. By being hyper focused on data and automation, an organization creates greater visibility and intelligence across revenue generating teams, so all employees have one shared source of truth. In short, RevOps guarantees the coordination of each team's strategy across sales, marketing, and service operations. 

How does RevOps actually work?

RevOps is all about alignment, speed and visibility creating a cohesive and complete customer experience (CX). In order to ensure accountability and cohesion, all RevOps team members must report up to the same leadership structure. While this seems like an obvious point, a recent Pedowitz Group survey of large enterprises, only 29% have fully aligned their sales, marketing and customer experience teams. 

Promisingly, RevOps teams have become so essential to company success that it is estimated 75% of the highest growth companies in the world will deploy a RevOps model by 2025. Respondents overwhelmingly indicated that misalignment between these teams led to missed opportunities for revenue (55%), wasted time (59%) and poor customer experience (59%). These consequences are all too real as teams try to reach increasingly ambitious revenue goals with limited resources and personnel.

RevOps also enables companies to attain the data needed to make more informed decisions and better understand pipeline velocity, sales cycles, win rates, annual recurring revenue (ARR), renewals and upsells, churn, customer lifetime value (CLV), and more. 

High-growth organizations report clear benefits from implementing RevOps

1. Data-driven collaboration and teamwork. With RevOps, all your teams work toward the same business metrics and revenue targets using the same strategy, saving them up to 30% in GTM expenses. 
2. Transparency and accountability. RevOps teams operate based on a single, shared source of truth so anyone on any team of these teams can access the same data. This transparency can increase internal customer satisfaction by 15-20%.
3. Predictable business growth. Instead of siloed teams with different revenue and business goals, your RevOps team has one comprehensive set of goals, helping them achieve that growth 19% faster as well as 15% higher profits.
4. Higher win rate and faster sales cycles. With automated revenue lifecycles, you'll close deals and win customers faster. Companies see a 10-20% increase in sales productivity.

Innovative uses of RevOps drive growth and scalability

While Salesforce has long been considered the premium provider in the this space, HubSpot is a leading provider of CRM, marketing, and sales software, and a pioneer in the RevOps movement that has seen significant benefits from its integrated approach to revenue generation. HubSpot's RevOps team is responsible for aligning the company's sales, marketing, and customer success teams around common goals and metrics. This has helped HubSpot to achieve impressive results:

• 30% increase in sales conversion rates.
• 20% reduction in customer churn rate.
• 15% increase in customer lifetime value.

Using their client GoSite as an example, let’s explore how Remotish, HubSpot’s RevOps agency, was able to integrate RevOps methodologies into their business model, thereby streamlining  the organization's fractured CX and enhancing GoSite’s potential for growth. When GoSite first approached Remotish, the goal was to be a mobile commerce SaaS management platform for local service providers; or in layman’s terms, GoSite’s aim was to help traditionally offline businesses establish a digital presence and connect with online buyers. 

However, when Remotish onboarded GoSite the company was scattered across multiple platforms, had no lead nurturing in place, and were only utilizing small sections of Sales Hub. GoSite was implementing different providers for chat, CMS, ad management, A/B Testing, and video hosting. As Remotish uncovered this partitioned and fractured system, the solution to GoSite’s issues became clear: GoSite didn’t require a dozen platforms. Rather, they needed to make the most of the one platform at their disposal, HubSpot.

Since GoSite was only using HubSpot for sales, they were not tracking leads. Luckily, they had built up a segment of their database that was ideal for email blasts, content offers, and product demos. With 20,000 leads in total, GoSite had heretofore its highest grossing month. Furthermore, Remotish ensured that all new processes and standards were properly adopted, including: 

• HubSpot API: Intimately tethered GoSite’s own SaaS application into HubSpot (in addition to the third-party applications). We’re using the data to see how users are navigating around the software and to tailor content accordingly."
• CMS Hub: Transferred website over to HubSpot.
• Sales Hub: Trained the sales team to effectively use sales tools, and helped their sales managers achieve an extremely detailed view of what the team was doing on a minute-to-minute basis.
• Service Hub: Set up the knowledge center, chat, and ticket system so GoSite can approach service with the same precision as marketing and sales.
• HubSpot Ads: Helped them achieve full visibility on ad spend — to the point where we can distinguish which leads came from which ad campaigns.
• HubSpot Reporting: Implemented a reporting add-on for advanced visibility and insights.

By ushering in a completely streamlined RevOps strategy, Remotish transformed GoSite into a high functioning organization.

No matter the project or enterprise, the same principles apply when executing a RevOps strategy. There are four keys to focus on when implementing RevOps. How can companies implement a successful RevOps strategy?

• People: As you likely realize by now, it is essential to align core teams that deal with customers. While each team can focus on their unique goals, they should also have shared goals and collaborate across specific functions to achieve them. You should also emphasize the traits, such as collaboration, team player mentality, and an attitude of interconnectivity in the people in these teams.
• Process: This is where you will create goal-oriented strategies and set up operating principles and processes that ensure collaboration between the teams. The analytics functions should also work with the leaders of the combined teams to set up data sharing and reporting processes. There should also be a continuous feedback loop for the sales and marketing teams to improve coordination of their processes. This is essential for the growth of the business and revenues.
• Data and KPIs: This is usually the most challenging part of establishing a RevOps function. A successful RevOps strategy requires high-quality data and the distribution of quality reporting. Progress can be measured using key performance indicators (KPIs) like the number of new leads per month, conversions per month, customer service scores, and customer satisfaction scores (more comprehensive list below).
• Technology: Finally, to accomplish RevOps, you need the right technology stack, including: CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics 365), sales enablement software (SalesLoft, DocuSign, and Gong), customer success software (Gainsight, ChurnZero, and SuccessFactors), marketing automation tools (Marketo, Pardot, and Act-On), data analytics tools (Tableau, Qlik, and Power BI), and more. An evaluation a company’s current stack will be required in order to see if an organization needs to add, eliminate, streamline, or integrate the necessary tools and platforms. The goal is to make sure a company’s data source is centralized, and all the data flows freely between the required teams and systems. This will help decision makers service leads and customers more effectively.

AI is transforming RevOps

While RevOps is a relatively recent phenomenon, the field and methodologies have unsurprisingly been greatly affected by the introduction of AI. Leading the way in RevOps is a host of AI powered software tools that will consolidate and project data. Let’s take a look at some of the most transformative software solutions to consider when adopting an aligned RevOps strategy for your company. 

When it comes to the invaluable collection of data, Clari, combines AI and automation to provide sales teams with real time insights into their sales pipeline. Clari’s Revenue Operations Platform improves efficiency, predictability, and growth across the entire revenue process. Clari gives revenue teams total visibility into their business, to drive process rigor, spot risk and opportunity in the pipeline, increase forecast accuracy, and drive overall efficiency. By analyzing data from different sources such as CRM, emails, and calendar events, Clari can generate accurate sales forecasts, identify potential risks and opportunities. This can help the sales team prioritize and focus their efforts on areas that need it the most. 

AI has enabled businesses to provide personalized experiences, automate lead scoring, and optimize sales strategies. AI-powered tools in this domain analyze customer interactions, extract valuable insights, and assist sales teams in making informed decisions. By leveraging AI, businesses can enhance customer engagement, improve conversion rates, and drive revenue growth.

Gong is an example of an AI-powered platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze sales calls and meetings. By identifying conversational patterns, sentiment analysis, and key talking points, Gong provides valuable insights into sales team performance, customer preferences, and potential areas for improvement. HubSpot NLP and Salesforce AI also offer AI-powered solutions that automate lead scoring, analyze customer data, and generate actionable insights to optimize sales processes.

AI has greatly impacted the field of analytics by automating data analysis and visualization tasks, uncovering insights, and enabling data-driven decision-making. AI-powered analytics platforms can process vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and generate visualizations, allowing businesses to gain actionable insights and make informed decisions faster.

Tableau now offers an AI-powered analytics platform that leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze and visualize complex data sets. It provides businesses with interactive dashboards, data exploration tools, and predictive analytics capabilities.

Thoughtspot offers AI-driven search and analytics capabilities that allow users to search for specific data points and instantly receive relevant insights and helpful visualizations.

These AI-powered analytics tools empower businesses to uncover hidden patterns, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions efficiently. By automating data analysis and visualization tasks, organizations can save time, improve accuracy, and gain a competitive edge in today's data-driven business landscape.

Sample RevOps job description - roles and responsibilities

With Revenue Operations job titles on LinkedIn increasing across the board, VP of Revenue Operations titles increased by 300% over the past 18 months. According to previous data collected by Forrester between October and December 2018, all ranges of revenue operations titles from Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to Director Revenue Operations (vs. sales ops) saw dramatic increases, especially in comparison to their sales title counterparts. 

Clearly, the demand for RevOPs specialists has flooded the market. If considering a career in RevOps, it’s important to have a full understanding of the job requirement and preferred experience. Below are some of the key components to focus on when considering a career in Revenue Operations:

Revenue Operations Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of revenue operations specialists and oversee sales funnel and operational metrics.
• Provide analytical thought leadership for go-to-market plans, sales plans, and marketing activities, delivering actionable insights to establish strategic operational priorities.
• Develop processes, workflows, and incentive programs to help motivate teams and boost business performance.
• Works closely with sales operations manager, marketing manager, customer service manager, and other relevant departments to monitor business strategies, revenue growth, and KPIs.
• Participate in company programs and initiatives, including webinars, sales coaching workshops, and other educational activities.
  

Revenue Operations Requirements:

• At least 5 years working in business management, sales operations, sales planning, or revenue operations.
• Expert-level knowledge of Salesforce and CRM.

• Strong analytical, operational, problem-solving, planning, time management, and project management foundation.

• Highly proficient in financial modeling, revenue modeling, sales approaches, and reporting.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, interpersonal, and negotiation skills.

• Strong ability to work collaboratively and independently.

Expanded list of RevOps KPIs

Revenue-centric KPIs

• Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): Tracks predictable recurring revenue, providing a baseline for growth.
• Customer Retention Rate (CRR): Measures the percentage of customers retained over a given period.
• Net New Growth: Tracks the percentage of new customers acquired compared to existing customers.
• Pipeline: Measures the value and stage of potential deals, indicating future revenue potential.
• Win Rate: Tracks the percentage of deals converted from the pipeline to closed-won.
• Sales Velocity: Measures the speed at which deals move through the sales pipeline.
• Average Contract Value (ACV): Tracks the average value of new customer contracts.
• Renewal Rate: Measures the percentage of existing customers who renew their contracts.

Efficiency-centric KPIs

• Sales Cycle Length: Tracks the average time it takes to close a deal.
• Cost-to-Acquire (CAC): Tracks the average cost of acquiring a new customer.
• Lead Conversion Rate: Tracks the percentage of leads converted into sales opportunities.
• Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) Conversion Rate: Tracks the percentage of MQLs converted into SQLs.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): Tracks the total revenue a customer generates over their lifetime.
• Sales Rep Productivity: Measures the average number of deals or revenue generated per sales rep.