by Doug Gardner 
Over the past 3 years, we have seen more and more of our customers adopting Revenue Operations (RevOps) strategies within their company structure and processes. This has led to changes within their Salesforce Orgs. So, what is RevOps, why are so many companies investing time and money in RevOps, and how does it present itself in Salesforce architecture? This blog post forms the first part of a series on RevOps.
What is RevOps?
I have seen a number of definitions of RevOps which is not surprising for a relatively new movement. Personally, I would describe it as the coming together of different departments (Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Finance) to look at revenue generation in a more holistic way. This enables them to work together to improve the company’s conversion, margin, churn rates, and overall data for each and every department. I.e. they work together for the company’s health, not for their siloed KPIs.
Why have so many companies seen it to be worth investing time and money into this change?
If the company gets better, everyone in it gets better. However, if this mentality hasn’t been built into your company from an early stage it can be hard to change. As such the effort to make this alteration shouldn’t be underestimated. Especially as it may mean that you stop selling to certain audiences as they are ultimately unprofitable. Or you may have to relinquish some approvals processes built due to long-forgotten historical mistakes. The changes will ‘help the boat move faster’ but may be greeted with suspicion or even outrage at the time.
So, is it worth it? From what I have seen, definitely. Many of our customers are experiencing significant growth right now. And without this alignment, they would have eventually ground to a halt. I have seen salespeople getting bad reps for finding a way past unnecessary validation rules and approval processes when in fairness, they are simply trying to do their job. All of this will upset proactive employees, annoy your customers, and ultimately allow your competitors to overtake you.
How does RevOps present itself in Salesforce Architecture?
According to “The Rise of Revenue Operations” report by Forrester, the fastest-growing companies run from a single system and have aligned teams.
This approach allows better visualisation and automation; Salesforce is a great system to fulfil this position. You will always need to link other systems to Salesforce, such as an ERP or Finance system. But having access to all systems in your CRM via reliable API integrations is vital.
Tableau or Tableau CRM are great tools within Salesforce to help you visualise your data and this is vital. You need to know what happens, what is healthy, and what you don’t know. Knowing your AOV, ARR, MRR, GP and other metrics will help you guide the organisation to be streamlined. Don’t forget though that these markers are all great, but you need to ensure that you design your system for the users. Good data is the key to good decisions and having used Salesforce as a salesperson and being a certified Salesforce UX Designer, I am a massive advocate of the Human Centred Design approach. You need to ensure that your Users see Salesforce as an enabler, not an admin task or else they simply won’t fill it in. There are many tools available to you in the Lightning UI to empower you to do this.
RevOps blog series
If you are interested in learning more I will be discussing distinct elements such as probability scoring, forecasting, and overcoming organisational scar tissue in upcoming blogs in this series. If there are particular subjects you would like covered, please let us know via the form below. I would also recommend checking out these resources:
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- UK Revenue Operations Network – A London-based meetup that discusses all things Rev Ops and gives you the chance to meet like-minded people.
- Revenue Innovators podcast on Spotify
- Salesforce Resources
And as ever, please do get in touch if you want to implement it.