Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a relatively new approach to doing business, but it’s taking the B2B world by storm. In 2023, the  No. 1 fastest-growing job title is Head of Revenue Operations, according to LinkedIn. This role includes the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), whose seat at the C-suite table is critical for executive buy-in and authority to make systemic changes that the RevOps transformation requires.

Why are so many companies recruiting leaders to build RevOps?

“Businesses are selling into more channels and business models than ever before, making revenue management a significant challenge,” explains Forrester in its report The Rise of Revenue Operations. “As this complexity grows, so does the need for a cohesive department to accelerate growth and provide predictable revenue.”

RevOps is not focused on simply selling more but on keeping customers by delivering value across the customer lifecycle. That means breaking up silos and taking a holistic approach to revenue generation and management spanning departments, sales channels and partner ecosystems.

The emergence and increasing dependence on ecosystem partners for referrals, sales, service, deployment, integrations and retention is a significant driver for RevOps. Without it, organizations will struggle with a fragmented approach to revenue growth.

In this blog, we’ll explain RevOps, its benefits for partner-driven organizations and best practices for success.

What Is Revenue Operations?

Forrester defines RevOps as a business strategy designed to maximize customer lifetime value and company performance by unifying and optimizing data, processes, technology and talent across the customer lifecycle.

Let’s unpack that definition by taking a look at the essential components that make up end-to-end RevOps:

• People – All go-to-market functions like marketing, sales, service and partner channels must be aligned and work in concert to support the customer lifecycle.
• Processes – Enabling all these entities, including external partners, to work together requires cross-functional workflows and systems integration to support handoffs and information sharing.
• Data – Similarly, customer data must be unified and accessible across all departments and partner channels for a single source of truth.
• Technology – To make all this work seamlessly and automatically, the tech stack must support unified data and interconnected workflows across departments and partner channels.

What Are the Benefits of RevOps?

RevOps delivers many benefits to organizations by creating an end-to-end view of the customer lifecycle across the organization, including all functions and ecosystem partners, Gartner cites the following benefits in its report, Innovation Insight for the Transformation to Revenue Operations:

• Efficiency — An interconnected and observable revenue process enables organizations to see and address roadblocks across departments and partner channels much more quickly than one that’s siloed.
• Predictability — By assigning ownership, benchmarking and monitoring of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), businesses ensure consistent performance across departments and partner channels.
• Elasticity — With a holistic view of all routes to market, companies can scale up or down in response to shifting priorities.
• Resiliency — End-to-end visibility enables companies to proactively identify potential revenue disruptions and adjust to avoid them.

Overall, these changes lead to:

• Improved customer experience, which is the battleground where customers are won or lost
• Improved business decision-making based on data instead of best guesses based on incomplete information
• Improved revenue retention and growth by boosting customer lifetime value

What Are Best Practices for RevOps?

RevOps holds significant upside for partner-driven organizations to improve revenue management, but it requires a commitment to change go-to-market motions and restructure existing operations. To ensure success, follow these best practices:

• Secure Stakeholder Buy-in – For RevOps to be successful, it’s critical to have buy-in from the top down. Naming a CRO is a great start. But it also means educating stakeholders, including partner channels, about the benefits of RevOps and securing their support for the initiative, including use of tools that facilitate a holistic view.
• Prioritize the Customer Experience – Ensure all stakeholders understand customer pain points and align RevOps to address them, driving customer satisfaction, revenue retention and growth.
• Align Departments & Channels – Ensure that sales, marketing, service and partner channel teams have aligned goals and KPIs and understand how their efforts contribute to the revenue process.
• Standardize Processes – Document processes across the revenue lifecycle so all parties, including partner channels, know their roles and responsibilities, reducing overlap and inefficiencies.
• Communicate & Iterate – Regular check-ins, meetings, and feedback sessions can help identify bottlenecks, share best practices, course correct and keep everyone on the same page.
• Unify Data Management – Centralize customer data to ensure all teams, including partner ecosystem leaders, are working with the same information. Doing so ensures accurate forecasting, better customer insights, and a seamless customer experience.
• Embrace Data-Driven Decision Making – Regularly review analytics, KPIs, and other metrics to refine strategies and ensure you’re on the right track.
• Integrate Your Technology Stack – Select technology platforms that integrate across different functions. Customer relationship management (CRM), Partner Relationship Management (PRM), marketing automation and customer service tools should speak to each other.

Select the Right RevOps Technology Platform

The promise of RevOps is only realized by successfully orchestrating workflows and data from across internal functions and external partners. That requires a technology platform like ZiftONE PRM that simplifies RevOps by integrating the tech stack, automating data exchange, ensuring smooth information flow and unifying data across the entire ecosystem.