The Ultimate Guide to RevOps

RevOps is a shortened term for Revenue Operations. The term refers to the alignment of different functions and teams within a company in order to drive revenue growth. It can be accomplished through various methods, such as automation, process improvement, better communication, and bringing different teams together.

Why We Need RevOps and What Problems Does It Solve

RevOps is necessary because teams often have different functions and goals, leading to competition and slow decision-making.  The rate of change has increased tremendously in the last decade. We went from big companies taking years to decide to startups that can turn around a new product in weeks. The reason for this is because of globalization and the rise of technology. With the internet, we now have access to people and resources worldwide. We can communicate and collaborate with anyone, anywhere, anytime. And with the rise of AI, we can automate tasks that used to be done manually. This has led to a more competitive business landscape, where companies must be agile and quickly adapt to change to survive.

Even in times like Covid-19, when the world came to a standstill, some companies that invested in RevOps were able to adapt quickly and continue to grow, while others struggled.

RevOps aims to align different teams within a company so that they can work together towards a common goal, which is to grow revenue.

How does RevOps work?

How Does RevOps Work?

To understand how RevOps works, it is first essential to understand the different teams and revenue operations it brings together. The primary teams that RevOps focuses on are the revenue team, the marketing team, the sales team, and the customer success team. Each of these teams has its own specific goals and functions.  The revenue team comprises at least one leader or representative from each team responsible for generating revenue.

Revops works by improving communication and collaboration among different teams in an organization. This is done using better tools like data visualization, productivity tools, and processes that automate tasks.  For example, imagine a company that wants to improve its customer life cycle. With Revops, this company can use data to identify gaps in the customer life sales cycle and then close those gaps by integrating different customer data sources, providing a complete view to other teams and improving communication. In this way, Revops leads to increased operational efficiency and transparency, which can help a company drive revenue growth.

This can also be done by automating tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. For example, a company might use PandaFlow to automate the process of creating invoices. Other than Revenue Growth, RevOps offers many benefits, such as increased operational efficiency, enhanced accountability, and better decision-making.

Challenges of Implementing RevOps Team

The challenges of implementing the Revops team in today's time include the following:

  1. Remote Working - Without proper collaboration tools, the remote work culture can lead to communication challenges and a lack of cohesion within the team.
  2. Tight Budgets - Working with tight budgets can limit the ability to purchase new technology or hire additional staff.
  3. Using Old Tech to Share Data - Not using available integrations or being dependent on outdated technology to share data between team members can slow down the process and lead to errors.
  4. Not Automating Tasks - Not implementing automation workflows can lead to inefficiencies, frustration, and a higher chance of human error.
  5. Operational Alignment - Having unclear objectives or goals can lead to confusion and cause the team to work against each other instead of together.
  6. Uncertainty/Not tracking - Not knowing what is happening with the data or not tracking changes can create uncertainty and a feeling of being disconnected from the process.

How to Structure Revenue Operations Team?

There is no one solution to structure RevOps Team; it depends on the respective company and its diversity. It sure requires patience. The larger your company is, the more likely you already have departments and silos. What remains is taking the revenue-generating departments under one umbrella.

The RevOps team can be structured to align the marketing, sales, and customer success teams to generate new revenue and retain current business. The goal is to have a customer-centric focus where customer value is placed above all other matters. 

However, it's important to note that RevOps is not just a model or a process; it's a mindset shift. It's about changing the way we think about our operations and how we can work together with the entire organization.

Making the priorities for each department as follows:

1. Define RevOps for Your Company

This part is crucial. Without a clear understanding of what revops means for your company, it'll be challenging to get everyone on the same page – and, more importantly, achieve buy-in from each department.

There are a few ways to go about this. The first is to hold a meeting with all the key stakeholders involved and come to a consensus on what needs to be done. This could be anything from realigning processes to implementing new tools and technologies.

The second way is to create a document that outlines the goals of the revops initiative and what it means for each department. This document should be shared with all stakeholders so everyone is on the same page from the start.

And finally, it's crucial to get buy-in from each department head. This means ensuring they understand the revops initiative's goals and how it will benefit their department. Without buy-in from the heads of each department, it'll be challenging to implement change.

2. Break Down Silos

One of the biggest challenges with revops is breaking down silos between departments. This is because each department has its own way of doing things, making it difficult to align processes and share data.

To overcome this challenge, it's essential to have a clear understanding of how each department operates. This means mapping out processes and understanding where there are gaps. Once you clearly understand each department, you can start to break down silos and align strategies.

This can be achieved by creating cross-functional teams of revops executives from each department. RevOps Executives should establish clear communication channels between departments and set up KPIs shared between teams by setting up regular meetings or creating a revops Slack channel. 

In this stage revenue operations model ensures everyone knows what's going on and can work together to find solutions for any problems.

3. Fuel Each with Revenue Operations

Once you've defined revenue ops for your company and broken down silos between departments, it's time to start fueling each with revenue opportunities and operations.

To supply fuel is to prioritize customer value and customer experience.

We can accomplish this by looking at the customer journey.

For example, the Sales department focuses on acquiring new customers, the marketing department drives lead generation and nurtures leads until they become customers, and the customer success department ensures and oversees that customers are happy and retained. 

This allows each team to specialize in its area and work together to create a cohesive unit that generates more revenue. 

PandaFlow can be used to establish a unified operational infrastructure, with automation workflows and bringing data under one umbrella.

Doing so helps establish accountability and ensures everyone can access the same data. This, in turn, helps to improve communication and collaboration between teams.

Closing Words

There you have it - the ultimate guide to revenue operations.

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you'll be well on implementing a successful revops strategy at your company.

Just remember to keep the three key pillars in mind: communication, collaboration, and automation.

If you need help getting started or looking for ways to improve your existing revops strategy, PandaFlow can help.

Our easy-to-use automation workflow makes it simple to connect various enterprise tools in your tech stack, like Shopify + Salesforce, Netsuite + Salesforceand many others, so you can focus on what's important - improving sales process, customer relationship management and driving revenue growth.

We also offer a free trial so that you can try out our platform risk-free.