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A relatively new way to conduct business has emerged in recent years and is proving successful to business’ growth while improving the customer journey, a win-win.
Historically, businesses have operated using separate, clearly defined marketing, sales and customer service teams. Each team has its own leader, software and business processes. At times, these internal teams have inadvertently created problems for each other due to a lack of shared information and data.
Efforts to improve this siloed approach to the customer experience led to Revenue Operations (RevOps). By taking a more holistic approach to the buyer’s journey, RevOps implements a more integrated approach to marketing, sales and customer service. The business function recognizes that every inch of the sales funnel, from first exposure to the final sales contract, is critical and must be aligned in order to maximize the business’ revenue growth.
RevOps utilizes technology to improve communications, automate the collection of data and track operations between the marketing team, the sales team and customer success team. RevOps strategies ensure that each employee on any of the teams has the support and the information they need to do their job efficiently. This helps to remove barriers to your services or products for your customers.
In this post, we will look at how alignment is important to the RevOps approach, how you can benefit by achieving alignment in your business and the revenue opportunities it creates. If you are interested in unlocking long-term growth potential for your business, this information will help put you on the right path. Need help understanding the best practices surrounding revenue operations alignment? Reach out to our team today for your free RevOps assessment.
What is alignment?
“When the stars align” is an expression used when everything comes together in a positive way. The same applies to business alignment as well. When everyone on the sales, marketing and customer service teams come together, the business is in organizational alignment and prepared for growth.
All employees, regardless of their job role, need to recognize how every change to internal processes impacts the buyer’s journey and ultimately customer success. Alignment is achieved through teamwork, strategic planning and clear communication in combination with effective management. Here are some signs of teams being in alignment:
- Tech tools are shared across teams as opposed to being unique to each team.
- Repetitive tasks are automated and duplicated efforts are eliminated.
- Processes are developed across teams to cover the complete customer experience.
- Data is shared across organization teams.
Data is critical important as it will paint a picture for the team, allowing them to see things such as whether potential leads will become customers and how customers will likely behave. Data provides the information needed to recognize what strategies work, which don’t, what to do next and how.
How does RevOps help you achieve alignment?
In a world where customers have come to want and expect a seamless buying experience after first exposure to your company, RevOps is providing the needed holistic business approach to meet those needs. RevOps strategies call for centralized information and data used by a revenue operations team to get everyone in marketing, sales and customer support on the same page, thus aligning them toward the same revenue goals.
RevOps teams’ approach to revenue growth is to increase visibility across the entire revenue team while improving efficiency. Their efforts augment predictable revenue and propel revenue targets. Their primary goal is to reduce friction among teams and improve the customer experience.
You may argue that your business already has an extensive go-to-market (GTM) strategy with departmental KPIs and specific goals. Most likely that approach has worked, especially if your business existed before technology increased access to data and allowed for instant communications.
Now, in order to know if your sales tactics are working and understand if your customers are satisfied, you need to take a data-driven holistic approach to your business.
Utilizing a RevOps strategy will allow for better collaboration among all team members as everyone is working with the same goals, data, and processes on a central team. Better collaboration will result in better decision making across the business. Deals will close faster as visibility and transparency are improved thanks to the improved decision making and predictability. Business can scale with confidence and are positioned for revenue growth.
Benefits of Alignment
Customers have changed their buying patterns, in large part due to technology. With all of the information available online, customers can do extensive research before contacting a business about a product or service. So businesses have to be even more forward thinking than ever before.
Companies have to be streamlined and efficient. Improved technology has opened the door to new ways of doing business. It’s easier than ever to communicate to all teams and have them operate from the same playbook. And by aligning teams, companies are realizing increased revenue in addition to other benefits. Here are some of the biggest benefits your organization can get from a revenue operations approach.
- Better Success with Revenue Goals: A study conducted by the Pedowitz Group and published in May 2022 found that 88% of companies they surveyed met or exceeded their revenue goals. Of that group of businesses, 48% said they have fully aligned marketing, sales and customer success teams.
- Better Internal Communication: Well-aligned businesses tend to have open lines of communication throughout the organization. All teams are on the same page in regard to the business’ brand, products and positioning. The open communication results in more engaged, happier employees as miscommunication and misinformation is reduced.
- Shorter Sales Cycle: The increased awareness among teams along with streamlined processes results in a shorter sales cycle as teams work together and not in a silo.
- Organizational Efficiencies: Increased transparency helps employees know their position in an organization and what is expected of them. They are able to find resources easier and are more willing to share their resources. Risk management improves as more employees have the opportunity to spot issues.
How does RevOps go beyond alignment?
We’ve talked a lot about how RevOps involved sales, marketing and customer service, but what about the rest of the business’ operations? As a complete strategy, every team in the organization is connected.
For example, the product team needs to know which products are selling, how new products are embraced by customers, and how their team fits into the company’s revenue targets. Whereas marketing, sales and customer service needs to know about the availability and features of new products or potential issues with products.
Finance is another key area that needs to be aligned with RevOps. Not only is the finance team intimately familiar with the company’s financial performance, they provide the crucial data needed to keep the budget in check and make key business decisions.
Learn More About Revenue Operations
RevOps isn’t something you can incorporate overnight. However, as customer behavior continues to change and technology evolves, providing an aligned, seamless and robust operation will provide your business with a distinct advantage.
To learn more about RevOps and its various components, check out more of our information.
