Revenue operations is taking centre stage

As the business world continues to evolve, new demands need to be met to keep up with the ever-changing landscape.

When revenue responsibilities were passed from the CEO to the chief revenue officer (CRO), there then became a need for a supporting role. That role has become revenue operations or RevOps officer.

In short, RevOps supports the CRO. The central role of a CRO is to oversee functions within an organisation that impact revenue, like sales, marketing, operations, and customer service. However, while the CRO is focused on "big picture" revenue targets, RevOps dives into the finer details and identifies what needs to happen operationally to achieve a CRO's expectations.

RevOps ensures objectives set by the CRO are met by driving the accountability of these revenue-generating departments.

While CROs have been around for over a decade, both they and RevOps have only recently gained popularity and piqued the interest of industry leaders. Part of this is owed to the rise of the digital age.

Before this, sales and marketing worked under one banner. However, when businesses started putting more investment behind digital tools, it divided sales and marketing. Marketing became more intensely focused on delivering leads and sales focused on conversions. The gap between sales and marketing created by the digital age meant little communication or alignment between the two departments.

On top of this, tech stacks varied from department to department, turning that gap into a canyon. Different departments having their own tools also means they have their own data, impacting how messaging is delivered.

An offshoot of this is work cultures then become tainted and toxic, with everyone pointing fingers at each other about why none of their hard work is paying off.

While this creates significant internal problems for organisations, the real victim is the customer.

Luckily, the ultimate end goal of RevOps is to make customers the priority again.

RevOps will consider the customer journey from start to finish. This includes looking at how the customer first experiences the brand, to sales, then on to account management, and even through to offboarding (if need be). Their objective is to make the customer feel valued throughout the journey to the point where they'll want to return to the service offering even if they are offboarded.

It's important to understand that this journey isn't something RevOps creates based on gut instinct. Instead, a RevOps Officer will carefully plan each stage of the customer lifecycle based on data. For RevOps to have accurate quality data from sales, marketing, operations, and customer service, those departments must be unified.

 Aligning teams within companies has a massive flow-on effect that benefits every other area of the business. Customer acquisition and retention will improve, and organisations will save money on tech stacks and see an improvement in their work culture and communication.

While businesses across the globe have begun to recognise the importance of RevOps, many struggle to fill the position. This comes down to the newness of the role as well as the unique set of qualities demanded from a RevOps Officer for them to be successful. This person should be a balanced combination of analytical and creative solutions focused, using both their left and right brain functions at full capacity.

Despite the rarity of an effective RevOps Officer, they do exist. The best and easiest solution for businesses is to outsource RevOps to organisations that include it as part of their service.