What is REVOPS and what does it mean?

Ok some great questions, when I first heard the phrase #REVOPS I thought to myself ‘ok, and what does that mean’, yes as a software development company that builds #SaaS platforms we were 100% onboard with the function of DEVOPS, but what was this new REVOPS thing.

So, I think it is time to break this down what is it, and what is the purpose of REVOPS.  Well, it is not that new but like everything it needs a new name and some clear definition.

Let’s define REVOPS

Similar to the concept of CRM where we all focused on sharing customer engagement across our organisation RevOps brings this paradigm to internal activity. Its purpose is to bring all departments and functions together in your organisation especially is you are scaling your operation.

Those at #Seed+ or Series A funding will want to have a dedicated team or individual focused on this activity. But many don’t or don’t realise the importance of doing this, but what is it.

RevOps “revenue operations” is a key B2B functions that uses data, automation, and software. This helps teams make decisions that will help them grow, scale, and meet investor expectations with targeted sales and financial output.

What is the purpose of REVOPS?

Its main purpose is to bring all activity together. From marketing, sales, customer service, operations and your financial management as a growing business.  Yes, we might be a small company, but we have started to do this as we scale.

The main objective of identifying the RevOps opportunity and role is to have shared goals across your organisation, increase effective planning reduce any unnecessary revenue spend and use customer data and activity to identify new revenue opportunities.

So why is RevOps important, well one of its key activities is to keep Sales and Finance functions aligned. This frees you up to grow your revenue and scale your business.

Business of all types is getting more complicated, well not complicated in what we all do, but more so that there are now many more channels for potential customers to engage with.

This means a lot more potential sales activity to monitor and track, which means more data to track and use for financial projections.

If we just look at the explosion of social media and that in reality your marketing teams or those now generating relatable content can no longer get away with just sending out brochures, email campaigns and going to expensive events.

You sales pipeline can now be filled from several different sales channels; you have to be where the prospects are.

Marketing and Sales UNITE!

Today as part of any modern scaling businesses, marketing needs to work extremely closely with sales. The sales teams, either inbound or outbound, need to be fed opportunities.

The Opportunities generated can come from various channels including Service, Ecommerce, Direct, Partner, In-product, and 3rd party marketplaces. However, this is not an exhaustive list.

The finance team need to know everything. No longer is it ok to just have a list of open and closed invoices. The data generated from all sales activity needs to accurate and enable finance to see what is happening. Also, when it is happening and where it is happening on a day to day, week by week basis.

Many times, in my career when implementing and configuring CRM systems, I’ve hit a brick wall with the finance team, when discussing sales opportunity activity and forecasting, the usual response was “we don’t really care”.

But the board should really care, and the investors absolutely care. The data on activity needs to be recorded and used with planning and forecasting as there are several metrics that can be measured.

Of course, it’s all about data

Ok let’s get to the data. I’d hope you have, or you should have, an effective CRM and an Accounts system that can cope with the data capture needed.  A good CRM should manage all customer engagement and everyone in your organisation should be recording every interaction so engagement can be tracked.

A good CRM will also have the ability to track sales opportunity, pipeline, prospects, and orders placed.

In theory, and personally I believe, a good CRM should also be able to track all purchase orders, suppliers, and inbound product purchase against budgets set.

Before you say it, “but that is a finance function” yes, it is and this data should if possible link to you finance systems. But account and supplier management are a CRM function and therefore a function for your internal RevOps team.

Done correctly, your CRM will be able to give you a snapshot of revenue in and revenue out showing customers and suppliers.

As a technology company we do this. However, we understand that it is not always possible, and might not suit every organisation, which may include yours.

You will need an effective finance system that has easy access through an API to the data held. Also the customer data should have matched identifiers in your CRM or any database software you use.

What are the key analytics you need to track?

The key analytics that you will need to track is What, When and Where,

What leads are there, when did they happen and where did they come from?

This is the same for opportunity, quote, order, and invoice.

Using analytics tool like Mapsimise.com will enable you to see WHERE activity is effective and where you are effective and in what locations you are not and where money is being left on the table.

Using location, can help you trend data over time to see if activity is growing or reducing in a given area, or even by sales region.

You can see where you customers are, where they are not, and which locations countries or regions are generating the most revenue.

Nearly 85% of Business data has a location reference and using geospatial helps you analyse and plan future activity.

What roles will your RevOps team engage in?

So what roles and activities should your RevOps team be engaged in and analysing? Well there are several and it depends on how much data activity and sales you have. We would see this at minimum as a 2 or 3 person role if you have data to analyse

You RevOps team are going to be engaged and analysing and working in;

• Product Operations (there may be overlap with DevOps here)
• Sales Operations
• Ecommerce and Social engagement
• Partner Operations
• Opportunity and product catalogue
• Quote and Discount operations
• Provisioning Activity
• Billing / refunds and returns
• Compliance
• Digital strategy
• And compensation and renumeration strategy.

Your RevOps team will have key measured metrics as output and this is what your C-suite and investors will need to evaluate current and future investment.

Evaluating some key outputs;

• Identification of current cost per customer acquisition or product sales
• Project of growth and annual recurring revenue (#ARR)
• Full contract values and potential cost
• Potential churn rate and customer lifetime
• Spend or value per customer
• Monthly revenue identification and Month increase (MRR)
• Customer Adoption strategy over Customer Acquisition

What are the steps to get started in delivering RevOps in my business?

Like anything it is going to take some time, and it is going to need some effort and it will be a journey.

Sure, as a company we can help with delivering effective CRM at www.mycrmgroup.com, and yes we can help with the data analytics with Mapsimise. We are at the end of the data a software development company

The first step is going to be getting all your systems and data aligned, you will need to define data catalogues and systems mappings.

You should integrate system and data end points so that data flows across your whole organisation.

Key systems like CRM, Finance, ERP should form the basis of your company Dataverse.

All your billing processes should be defined and be in one place, this in turn deliver a holistic view of revenue incoming and outgoing.

The next step is going to be integration and automation of the repeatable tasks this way data is flowing, and analysis can be reviewed.

Operatives and data users across the whole organisation should have access to the same data.

Sales should be able to see which customers to target and see that accounts are paid or overdue.

Finance should see financial data but see if there is new sales opportunity they may lead to financial rejection if accounts are not up to date.

No salesperson wants to be told that a closed sales deal can’t go forward because the customer account is not clear, likewise no finance team member wants to see accounts build debt that cannot be services.

Having the ability to manage data and all operation across the organisation enables growth and analysis and this is why RevOps is needed in a modern-day scaling business.

In future blogs we will be breaking this down further so thanks for reading, We hope it helps you get started on your scale up journey.