Revenue operations is no doubt among the hottest trends in B2B marketing. Look at Twitter, for example, and you'll see the hashtag #revops popping up more and more frequently.
So why has revenue ops continued to gain popularity and traction by the day, and how can marketers reap its benefits?
First, what is revenue ops?
Before we dive into the impact that revenue ops is having on Marketing, let's back up and examine what it really means to have a revenue operations team in your company.
Although the concept of revenue operations is fairly new, it is by no means a new function. It's the alignment of existing business functions—Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success—into one team that is driven by a single goal: growing revenue.
The traditional organization model divides teams by business function, governed by respective departments, such as Sales Ops, Marketing Ops, and Business Ops. Each team brings to revenue ops its own unique incentives, priorities, and challenges, which might not always align with the others'. On the occasions that those goals do overlap, each team may still have its own approach toward a solution based on different perspectives and expertise.
Revenue operations addresses that problem by breaking down the walls between departments and aligning goals, analytics, and the tech stack, focusing all efforts on growing revenue.
Many people refer to revenue operations as the behind-the-scenes driver that advances processes and enables technology and analytics. But that's not everything about revenue ops. Revenue operations supports the go-to-market teams by providing them with a single unified view of customer experiences and a comprehensive summary of every player in the process of growing revenue.
Revenue operations is the new revenue-production engine
We are undergoing an industrialization of revenue production. The tools we use have fundamentally changed the way we go to market, which means Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Operations have become less artisanal and more operational.
Ten years ago, you were in charge of making sales calls if you were in Sales, and you were in charge of marketing materials if you were in Marketing. Now, marketers need to know how marketing materials will advance leads, and sales reps need to know which marketing assets to leverage if they want to target a prospect.
Integration is the new rule of the game; and if teams want to win, they need to understand exactly how their actions will impact other functions.
Revenue operations has moved from a world in which you must be highly trained to do anything, to a world where you can move ten times faster without intensive training. It's no longer about the "art of the deal" but instead operational efficiency. Thanks to Big Data, predictive analytics, and now AI, the industry has limitless, scalable, on-demand power, and with that a demand for quick answers to the ever-changing buying environment.
Think of your organization as operating like a production line where your unit of production is revenue, and every business function is a worker along the production line contributing to revenue generation.
In the past, marketers would say, "Marketing is where the magic happens." Guess what? That's no longer true with the emergence of revenue operations. Marketing is only one of those many players along that production line that drives operations forward.
For that production line to run smoothly, each worker needs to not only ensure the quality and timely completion of their part but also seamless coordination with other workers along the line.
The emergence of revenue operations is a game-changer for marketers
Many marketers are worried that the emergence of revenue operations may replace their function in the organization, but this is not the case. While revenue operations combines and aligns different business functions from Sales to Customer Experience to Marketing, it's not meant to be a replacement for any team.
The revenue ops team is neither producing new content material nor approaching new prospects. It's simply bridging the gap between teams that might otherwise be working on their own. Because of that, marketers should embrace revenue operations and the many benefits it brings along, instead of passing it up out of doubt or fear.
Here are three of the many ways revenue operations will enable marketers to up their game.
1. Revenue operations supports marketing efforts
As noted earlier, revenue operations is meant to support marketing efforts. So, if anything, revenue operations is your powerful ally that will ensure delivery of marketing campaigns and support to sales and customer success teams, and ultimately to the customers themselves.
Think of it as a support function that opens the communication channel and manages the data flow to ensure a 360-view of the marketing and sales funnels.
Use it to align your marketing efforts with sales efforts to deliver kick-ass results.
2. Revenue operations opens up a new channel for communication
One obstacle that always gets in the way of cross-functional collaboration is communication silos. It's natural for companies to silo because of their different perspectives and priorities, so the best way to combat those stubborn silos is to give the team one single goal to work toward: revenue.
With revenue operations, marketing teams share data with sales and customer success in real-time, enabling a clear view of the funnel, leading to quick internal and external analysis and translating into prompt actions and adjustments.
Revenue operations is the glue that binds everything together and makes sure teams are in harmony from the first time a prospect interacts with your brand to a closed-won opportunity.
3. Revenue ops drives positive cultural changes
Transitioning to revenue operations from a siloed structure will be a big shift for any organization, but the positive, sustainable changes it will bring are significant. With the alignment of data and goals comes the alignment of people. When everyone shares the same view of revenue production, teams avoid wasting time and resources on duplicate efforts. When teamwork becomes the backbone of operations, efficiency and happiness thrive.
Revenue operations also strengthens organizational transparency. By ensuring that team members share a common understanding of what the company is doing and why, revenue ops drives accountability at all levels and replaces the "blame game" with collective learning when facing a challenge.
Revenue ops meets the demands of a new age
Revenue operations is crucial in elevating your revenue production engine, taking into account that operational excellence no longer suffices to create a point of differentiation. In an age of constant demand for data and analysis, the one who provides the fastest and most holistic answer to customers' needs and wants wins. To live up to that expectation, your organization needs to become a holistic one first, and revenue operations is instrumental in breaking down the stubborn departmental silos to create an open flow of data across the organization.
So, marketers, don't let fear get in the way of progress. Jump into the opportunity and up your game with revenue operations.
