Head of Revenue Operations is one of the fastest growing job titles in the USA in 2023 and for good reason. According to a 2021 Forrester report, 41% of companies who adopted RevOps solutions reported ‘major quantifiable revenue benefits’, with 69% experiencing overall revenue benefits.
But what is RevOps and how might it benefit your organisation? Here’s our take, covering the key roles and benefits of RevOps for SaaS vendors.
What is RevOps?
RevOps is a strategic, data-driven methodology that integrates sales, marketing and customer success to create sustainable, scalable growth. It involves breaking down silos between teams and processes to create a seamless, efficient revenue-generating machine, and improving the customer experience by leveraging data and analytics.
A number of functions and roles that are traditionally considered separate fall under the RevOps umbrella. These include Sales Operations, Marketing Operations, Customer Success, Service and Finance teams.
Instead of treating them as independent entities, RevOps aims to bring these functional teams together to improve procedures, productivity and metrics. It’s worth noting that this is not a new concept, and has existed in various forms before being referred to as ‘RevOps’.
Why RevOps for SaaS?
The traditional approach of segregating marketing, sales and service departments often results in misalignment and inefficiencies. Revenue data disconnects, technology silos and changing customer expectations compound the issue, leading to inaccuracies, wasted resources and lost opportunities.
With multiple touchpoints across different teams and platforms in the SaaS sales process, these challenges are only magnified. RevOps aims to solve this by providing a single source of truth for revenue generation, enabling teams to work together more efficiently.
In his 2022 book, Chris Hummel, co-author of Revenue Operations, notes many organisations are now turning to RevOps: “We’re seeing more and more executives who are focused on aligning the teams, operations, processes, systems and data that support the end-to-end revenue cycle.”
Here are three key reasons why we’re speaking with many SaaS leaders who are considering implementing a RevOps team to help address these challenges:
- Simplify the “go-to-market” approach: Managing multiple functions and disciplines in a business can be overwhelming. RevOps simplifies the process by providing a practical, centralised system for revenue growth.
- Align customer-facing teams: Segregated marketing, sales and service departments can lead to inconsistencies and decreased efficiency. RevOps aligns these teams for a seamless customer experience.
- Connect technologies: Disparate technologies can result in data disconnects and inefficiencies. By connecting these technologies, RevOps allows for greater insights and increases efficiency.
Further Benefits of RevOps
RevOps boasts a number of key benefits, alongside with its ability to address the three challenges above.
- Ensure accountability and transparency: RevOps helps ensure increased accountability and transparency throughout the organisation, making it easier to achieve strategic goals and drive revenue growth by keeping everyone on the same page.
- Connected tech stacks: Aligned tech stacks (the set of technologies/tools/platforms used in development and automation) means that different functions can refer to the same data and information, creating consistency in the organisation.
- Leverage centralised data: The centralisation of data sources through connected tech stacks also leads to increased decision-making capacity, better revenue forecasting and more effective communication between functions.
Revenue Operations Roles
The structure of your RevOps team can differ based on your organisation’s individual needs, however a typical one consists of the following roles:
Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
A senior-level executive who oversees a company’s revenue generation strategies and operations. The CRO is responsible for developing and executing strategies that drive customer acquisition, retention and revenue growth. They work closely with sales, marketing and customer success teams to ensure that revenue goals are aligned and achievable.
RevOps Manager
Reporting to the CRO, the RevOps Manager is a key member of the Revenue Operations team, responsible for driving revenue growth through the integration and optimisation of sales, marketing and customer success processes. As a part of their role, they are responsible for managing the complete spectrum of revenue operations within the company, including interpreting the Chief Revenue Officer’s vision and executing it effectively.
Existing Roles & Their Relation to RevOps
Existing managers, such as Product Managers, Head of Sales Ops and Customer Success Managers, work closely with the RevOps Manager to ensure a consistent approach is met. The RevOps Manager collaborates with these leaders to understand their goals, challenges and pain points, providing them with data-driven insights that inform decision-making. They also work together to identify opportunities for cross-functional collaboration and process improvements that increase efficiency and revenue growth.
Conclusion
By breaking down silos between teams and processes and centralising data and analytics, RevOps enables teams to work together more efficiently and effectively to optimise revenue growth. If you’re looking for ways that your SaaS team can stay ahead of the curve and maximise revenue growth, we strongly suggest that now is a great time to invest in RevOps.
As a top SaaS recruitment agency serving the UK, EMEA and USA, we have wide network of RevOps experts available. Whether you’re looking for a contract RevOps Manager or CRO to trial RevOps in your organisation or seeking a candidate for a permanent role, please reach out – we’d love to help.
