The way companies approach revenue generation and management has changed forever. Pressure on cost cutting and efficiency and at the same time, growth, has led to the birth of the RevOps function.

As a business function, RevOps aims to maximise a company’s revenue potential by aligning a company’s growth departments across the 3Ps – people, process and platform. 

When effectively implemented, RevOps transforms internal operations, enhances client acquisition, boosts customer satisfaction, and fosters a sustainable revenue-driven company culture.

We can go on and on about the bounty that a streamlined RevOps function can deliver for a business, but I’m going to assume you already know that. So in this article, let’s focus not on the what (RevOps, duh), but rather the how. 

4 steps to implement RevOps

Activating revenue operations requires a mindset shift across your entire organization. A big part of the role is challenging the status quo so it’s important to set up a robust foundation from day 1 to withstand the resistance you’ll get. Remember, you are introducing a new business function, so start small to gradually win over early adopters and build support throughout your team.

There are several ways you could go about it, but detailed and structured planning is key. Don’t just start and assume you can fix things as you go. The cross-functional nature of RevOps is underscored by intricacies between people, tech and processes that need to be carefully understood. 

You want to approach RevOps like a large construction project, with a solid, fool-proof plan in place before the shovel touches the ground, with a contingency for any deviations. Let’s dig in (pun intended)!

Audit – understand the status quo

Before you raise a finger, take a step back and assess the beast you’re dealing with.

• Content: Review all existing content, align it with your buyer’s lifecycle stages, and create a plan to address any gaps.
  
• Tech stack: Assess the technology in your marketing, sales, customer service and partnerships departments to ensure proper tagging and tracking of every potential buyer’s actions. Identify redundancies in your software and tools. You want to aim for the most seamless customer experience possible.
  
• Website: Check your website and digital footprints to ensure all conversion best practices are in place, removing any barriers for potential buyers.
  
• Customer Journey: Evaluate your end-to-end customer journey to identify and address disconnects between departments. Aim to eliminate any gaps in the process.
  
• Analytics: Ensure you have a full-funnel view of your revenue pipeline and overall business health.

Align – don’t be  the lone wolf

Once you’re done with your preliminary assessment, get the tribe (your colleagues) on board.

• Manage stakeholders: It’s tempting to just get started, but first make sure you have buy-in from key stakeholders. Once you’ve done a thorough audit of the status quo, align with key stakeholders and make a case for what needs to be tackled first, why and how. Connect with everyone in the organization an explain to them what you’re trying to achieve, so they understand the benefits of working with RevOps.
  
• 30-60-90 day plan: In most companies, especially start-ups new to RevOps, the proof of the pudding will be in the results. Develop a 30-60-90 day plan to clearly demonstrate the impact that RevOps is having on the company’s revenue growth and health.
  
• Be transparent: Be as transparent and proactive as you can about what you’re working on to get the visibility you deserve and don’t shy away. Get the credit you deserve and use every opportunity to show how RevOps is positively impacting the business.
  
• Plan ahead: Depending on the company size and growth ambitions, plan ahead. If needed, propose a team structure as the company grows so leadership is already aware and can allocate budget. Avoid falling into the trap of being the do-it-all-tactical-strategic-admin-jack-of-all-trades RevOps person – you won’t go far without a solid team in place.
  

Activate – put your master plan into action

Ok, you know what you’re up against and everyone has agreed to give you a shot. Time to prove your mettle. What exactly you will build is going to vary widely, so I’ve listed some typical examples below.

• Develop a Go-to-Market plan for customer acquisition and client satisfaction.
  
• Create workflows to move prospects through the system, ensuring accurate data within your revenue engine.
  
• Set up inbound sales follow-up emails and task queues.
  
• Establish outbound sales outreach emails and task queues.
  
• Build a RevOps dashboard to highlight current bottlenecks.
  
• Restructure necessary elements to drive revenue potential forward

The most critical thing once you start to build is to prioritize and manage your schedule, so you can stick to deadlines and overdeliver. 

Optimize – 1% better every day 

Kaizen (Continuous improvement) is the name of the game and it would be ironic if the RevOps function itself wasn’t being optimized.

• Regularly review OKRs and KPIs, identify bottlenecks and gaps and continue to tweak to revenue engine to overshoot targets
  
• Maintain alignment with teams regularly to improve ways of working and cross-functional collaboration. Without the support of the wider commercial organization, it will never be smooth sailing so prioritize this!

As the function matures, build out more consolidated and higher-level dashboards to showcase the growing impact of the RevOps function

Wrapping up

As always, there are numerous ways you can go about it, but the biggest recommendation I have is to plan, take your time and do it right from the get-go. This simple framework – Audit, Align, Activate, Optimize is a simple and structured approach but make sure to adapt it to your situation.

See your role and function from the perspective of your peers and do everything you need to, to make RevOps a staple of your company’s growth strategy. Another recommendation that worked wonders for me is implementing the 12 week year approach. Especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed and need a structured approach that makes it unreasonable not to succeed, this is it. In fact, it applies to everything in life, far beyond RevOps, so give it a read.

Alright, now let’s get to implementing! I mean planning, then implementing!