How to build an effective RevOps Team

Revenue Operations (RevOps) team structure/org chart

Mid-sized companies

Mid-sized companies typically add roles like operations, enablement, insights, and tools to their go-to-market teams for better collaboration and focus.

While not all roles may be feasible, they're a good starting point for RevOps alignment.

Yet, without a dedicated RevOps leader, there is less collective accountability. Consequently, functions and RevOps-specific roles might lose direction without central oversight.

Large companies

Large companies with ample resources can fully reorganize under the RevOps umbrella. But... there is one objective to make it work.

RevOps needs to be an independent function sitting next to sales, marketing, and customer success leaders, not behind them.

Otherwise, the Revenue Operations team becomes an order-taker and system admin, not a strategic advisor, and business partner.

As you can see, an independent Revenue Operations team centralizes all RevOps responsibilities under one leader, promoting maximal alignment.

Key objectives for the Revenue Operations (RevOps) team

We positioned the RevOps team in the organizational structure. Now, let's look at the key objectives of a Revenue Operations team in a company.

Benefits of Revenue Operations (RevOps) team

RevOps as an independent function sees sales, marketing, and customer success as its internal customers.

It seeks to replicate and repeat revenue growth by optimizing the customer experience (among other things).

As a result, RevOps provides visibility into the full customer journey. That allows for:

• Informing go-to-market strategies with actionable insights
• Painting a clear picture of best-fit customers  

• Increasing customer retention & reducing churn rate.

How to build a Revenue Operations (RevOps) team

1. Understand your current revenue-generating operations

Before you jump into building the Revenue Operations team, you need to gain a comprehensive understanding of your current revenue-generating operations.

Otherwise, you lose resources on bad hiring and focus on initiatives that don't solve the most pressing business issues. 

To do that, asses your operations in 6 key areas based on our Revenue Excellence Maturity Model:

2. Map out the RevOps team structure

Build a RevOps team structure with a RevOps leader on top overseeing 4 core roles.

You need to determine how to distribute these responsibilities based on company needs and resources.

3. Distribute RevOps team roles and responsibilities

RevOps Leader

RevOps leader oversees all revenue operations roles in the company. The right person for the job needs to:

• Understand the team’s processes at the deep level
• Be a senior person with experience in marketing, sales, and customer success
• Understand handoff between the teams and how they interconnect
• Have deep knowledge in data management, tech management, and systems design.

Pretty impressive scope, huh? In reality, it's really hard to find a person with such skills and seniority inside the company.

This is why a RevOps leader is usually an external hire.

Operations management

Operations management focuses on providing sales and marketing with the necessary resources and handles:

• process innovation
• departmental collaboration
• change management
• project management

Enablement

RevOps enablement assists sales, marketing, and customer success by streamlining their daily processes and removing unrelated tasks. It includes:

• workflow analysis
• coaching
• process management
• change management

Insights

Insights gather and convert data into actionable intelligence, performing tasks similar to data scientists or business analysts. They're responsible for:

• data management
• strategic advisory
• operational advice

Tools

This role oversees the technology used by the team, including understanding necessary solutions, managing the tech stack, and having technical know-how.

The person responsible for that role should be familiar with your:

• CRM
• marketing technology
• sales technology
• business processes 

And have the ability to build a robust tech stack as well.

What a Revenue Operations (RevOps) team does

Operations management

Example of workflow for up-sell and renewal deals that streamlines sales and customer success process.

Enablement

Example of sales - customer success handoff playbook that streamlines cooperation between sales and customer success.

Insights

Example of won/lost deals analysis dashboards from HubSpot that gives actionable insights into why deals are lost.

Tools

Tech stack integration map that shows tools essential at every stage of the customer's purchase path.

Training employees or hiring agency for Revenue Operations?

When building Revenue Operations teams, you can start by evaluating and training current employees.

But... that approach has its limitations, especially when it comes to skills, time, and in-depth expertise.

In this case, hiring a RevOps agency offers several advantages over training current employees:

1, Ready to implement frameworks

RevOps agencies specialize in Revenue Operations and have extensive experience working with different organizations. 

They bring best practices and industry insights that can accelerate the implementation of Revenue Operations strategies.

2. Objectivity

The agency brings fresh eyes. It can identify gaps, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement that might be overlooked by employees who are too close to the operations.

3. Time and efficiency

Training current employees for Revenue Operations functions is time-consuming. It often requires significant investment in resources and training programs.

Hiring an external agency allows you to tap into their existing expertise and resources immediately, saving time and accelerating the results.

4. Scalability

RevOps agency has a dedicated team of specialists who can quickly scale their efforts based on your company's needs.

5. Cost-effectiveness

While hiring an external agency comes with a financial investment, it can be more cost-effective in the long run.

Additionally, agencies typically offer flexible engagement models, allowing you to tailor the scope and duration of their services to align with your budget.

If you want to learn how MAN Digital can help implement revenue operations in your company:

Book a strategy call and let's talk RevOps.