RevOps Best Practices: A Complete Guide for Increasing Revenue

Entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, managers, and anyone else plugged into the latest technology or tech-adjacent terminology might have heard about RevOps, or revenue operations. The name sounds simple enough; after all, what else would a business be concerned about other than driving revenue?
RevOps, however, has evolved through the years and has come to describe specific synergistic processes and tools among multiple departments. In addition to defining Rev Ops and describing its importance, we’ll also take a closer look at RevOps best practices to help your organization get started down that path.
What is Revenue Operations (RevOps)? Meaning & Background
Revenue operations (RevOps), generally defined, is a modern business function that unifies three or more seemingly discrete departments (usually sales, marketing, and customer experience/success) through shared tools and data to maximize company revenue.
The idea behind RevOps is not new. Business leaders and forward-thinking entrepreneurs have long held the idea that employees working for the same company should be on the same page. In the digital age, though, with a wide array of tools, data sets, KPIs, and operational processes, RevOps has taken on a new urgency. In many ways, being “on the same page” is not as easy or simple as it used to be.
Those embracing RevOps recognize the importance of unifying departments and ensuring that everyone works from the same playbook. High-growth companies increasingly rely on the principles of RevOps to achieve steady growth and sustainable revenue.
Why the RevOps Framework Matters for Marketing
The marketing department of just about any company can be considered a pillar of the RevOps team. While the sales department holds the ultimate responsibility for converting leads into customers, the marketing department creates the majority of a company’s leads. Sales and marketing departments cannot exist without each other.
The more information the marketing department knows about the sales team and the drivers of its lead conversions, the better informed the marketing campaigns can be. Knowing common objections can help refine marketing touchpoints, for instance. At a more basic level, every department in RevOps—including marketing—should agree on definitions of terms like “leads,” “conversions,” “funnel leakage,” “CRM,” “churn rate,” and many others.
Through shared term definitions and comprehensive, accessible data, marketing teams can then calculate things like customer acquisition cost, revenue per lead, and other important figures.
5 RevOps Best Practices for Driving Growth
It would be next to impossible to list every essential facet of a successful RevOps program. Your company’s definition of revenue operations may even differ from those commonly used by your competitors. If you were to start implementing a RevOps framework or strategy first thing tomorrow, though, we’d recommend adopting the following practices.
1. Consolidate and unify KPIs.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) belong to everyone in RevOps. While the marketing department might have the goal of generating 200 qualified leads per month, for instance, and the sales team might set out to convert 50 leads in the same time frame, they should all be in furtherance of one or a few ultimate KPIs.
Generating $1,000,000 of revenue per year could be one RevOps KPI that requires buy-in from marketing, sales, and customer success teams—each department does its part.
2. Make key information and data sets accessible and timely.
A lot of executives would be quite upset to learn how much time is wasted at their companies simply by having siloed or sequestered data. If your marketing and sales teams are working toward the same ultimate goal, they should have access to the same information.
That’s just one piece of the puzzle, though. RevOps needs processes (and digital tools) so team members can easily update and maintain accurate data. It’s also critical for every RevOps employee to interpret data in the same way as other employees.
3. Simplify the RevOps tech stack.
Technology and digital tools don’t always make employees’ lives easier. Having to work with multiple outdated software platforms is one of the most common barriers to RevOps synergy.
Seamless integration for digital tools is essential, as is the ability to instantly share relevant information among departments.
4. Conduct regular RevOps meetings.
Getting together the entire RevOps team, especially during the beginning, can help coalesce employees around shared missions.
Encourage true discussion between departments so your employees can uncover deficiencies in the existing RevOps framework strategy.
Over time, your RevOps team can leverage cross-department communications to be proactive about potential customer issues.
5. Automate how you operate.
Your team members might be surprised at how much work they’re currently doing that could be handled with RevOps automation tools.
Less time spent on tedious tasks means more time on innovating, refining, and elevating your company’s essential operations. Data automation can also ensure everyone is working off the same (accurate) information.
Elevate Your RevOps Strategy with Best-In-Class Martech
Implementation of these RevOps best practices can dramatically transform your company, but it can only get you so far on its own. No RevOps agency can exist without smart, strategic marketing technology. Having a simple, intuitive repository for important data sets is just as important as robust automation capabilities, for example, and you shouldn’t have to choose between the two.
Companies with multiple service locations have unique considerations when it comes to RevOps strategies. PowerChord understands these challenges and offers an array of customizable solutions to empower every team member, regardless of location. We can help your company keep essential information in one place while maintaining local personalizations for your separate locations.
It’s time for your marketing technology budget to justify itself through positive ROI. Schedule a chat with our team to discuss how we can help make that happen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does RevOps do?
RevOps (revenue operations) is a way to unify sales, marketing, and customer service/relations departments for the purpose of maximizing revenue and breaking down departmental silos. Having the right software is essential for a successful RevOps program.
What does a RevOps manager do?
A RevOps manager ensures that the revenue departments adhere to new processes, share data, and generally follow RevOps strategies.
What are the key components of a successful RevOps strategy?
Each company’s RevOps strategy looks a little different, but a few key components you’ll see in many strategies include:
- Efficient data-sharing programs.
- Comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.
- Scalable tools and features.
- Automated tasks.
- SMART-ed (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) goals.
What is the difference between CRM and RevOps?
A customer relationship management (CRM) platform serves as an efficient way to hold essential, accessible client data. CRM software is essential for RevOps, which uses CRM data to optimize processes and outcomes related to sales, marketing, and customer service departments.
What are the pillars of RevOps?
The five pillars of RevOps are people, processes, data sharing, technology, and insights. Some RevOps professionals list only three or four pillars. Regardless of the number, the pillars work together to support cooperation between revenue departments.
What is the difference between marketing and RevOps?
Marketing describes the process of connecting products and services with customers and potential customers via multi-channel communications. It can also refer to the marketing department, which, along with sales and customer service departments, makes up RevOps. All three departments can contribute to and glean information from marketing campaigns.