Revenue Operations: The Ultimate Guide to RevOps and RevOps Benchmarks

As the cost to acquire customers continues to increase and conversion rates continue to decrease, it’s never been more important to understand how to win, keep and grow customers. This necessity has given rise to an important movement in the last handful of years called Revenue Operations (RevOps). 

What is Revenue Operations

The definition of Revenue Operations is the convergence of marketing, sales and customer service into a unified strategy and organization. RevOps has been picking up speed among B2B companies, as leaders look to it as a solution to siloed inefficiencies and as a way to boost productivity and growth. 

It’s also become a necessity to meet customer expectations. According to Salesforce, 76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, while 54% of customers say it generally feels like they’re communicating with separate departments, not one company. RevOps is the only function that can address this disconnect.

5 Reasons Why RevOps Matters in 2023

We recently put out our second annual RevOps Report. All signs point to the RevOps model gaining steam. Based on our research, here are some of the top reasons why RevOps should be a critical component of your revenue strategy.

RevOps is Adoption is Growing

Nearly half (48%) of companies now have a RevOps function, up 15% over last year. An additional 11% plan to adopt it in the next year. Revenue Operations is known to impact revenue growth (13%), revenue productivity (21%) and Sales and Marketing alignment (21%), making it a huge opportunity for a significant number of companies.

Joint Revenue Team Meetings Show Value

Many companies struggle with Sales and Marketing alignment, but research reveals that a simple emphasis on meeting cadences and joint action items could go a long way to improve alignment.

Your CEO Probably Cares About RevOps (Or Will Soon)

23% of CEOs are responsible for Sales and Marketing alignment, actually making them more likely than the Head of Revenue Operations (14%), Chief Marketing Officer (15%) or CRO (13%) to have alignment duties. This may speak to the need for a high-powered executive with a mandate to enforce change. 

Shared Analysis is the New Normal

54% of companies report having regularly scheduled “metrics analysis and planning” sessions to identify top challenges and areas of improvement opportunity. Only 15% did not have any meetings whatsoever, indicating that alignment among Sales and Marketing teams is on the rise. 

Even Earlier Stage Companies are Adopting RevOps

The most common period in a company’s growth to start a RevOps function is between $5M – $20M ARR, with the second most common being $20M – $50M ARR. 

Who Should Care About RevOps?

A RevOps model benefits a multitude of roles across a business. Here are some common roles that benefit most from adopting a RevOps model.

Sales Leaders/Managers

In a RevOps model, Marketing will typically be accountable for more than just lead gen, they will be on the hook to work with sales to ensure that they are delivering leads that convert to customers. That is a good thing for sales leaders. Working in lock-step with marketing toward shared goals is almost certainly going to drive better results than working in silos. 

Marketers 

Having a team dedicated to optimizing lead pickup, follow-up and conversion rates is good for Marketing, period. No marketer wants hard-won leads getting routed to the wrong place (or never routed at all). RevOps can help ensure that more generated leads turn into customers.

Historically, if a sales team missed targets it was only a matter of time before the conversation shifted to lead quality. And unfortunately, blame games and finger pointing between Sales and Marketing was relatively common. The RevOps model helps solve this with shared metrics and technologies.

It’s also powerful to have a RevOps team ensure that Sales tech and Martech works harmoniously.

CEOs

No CEOs want to listen to Sales and Marketing argue with each other about whose fault it is that goals didn’t get hit. CEOs want to see reliable growth and a RevOps model is often the fast-pass to getting there. 

Sales and Marketing Operations Professionals

If you’re currently in a sales or marketing ops role you have the opportunity to become an true hero by creating alignment and feedback loops between Sales, Marketing, CS and other revenue-generating departments. 

It’s no wonder that we’re seeing more sales and marketing ops professionals transition to RevOps roles. We’ve not only seen this change at customer companies, we’ve made this shift at our own company too.

Top RevOps Benchmarks of 2022

Straight from our recent Customer Acquisition and RevOps Team Benchmarks report, here are some key findings that you can use to compare your own company with the dozens that we surveyed.

How Common is RevOps?

48% of companies have a Revenue Operations function, which is a 15% increase year-over-year from 2021. 11% of companies are planning to introduce the function next year.

The Benefits of a RevOps Model

When a Revenue Operations function is introduced, 21% of companies see both increased alignment and productivity (which often increases operating margin as measured by revenue per employee), with another 13% experiencing increased revenue growth. Sales and Marketing alignment also benefits, with 21% of companies seeing an improvement in alignment between teams.

When Should Your Company Introduce a RevOps Model?

When Is Revenue Operations Most Commonly Introduced? If a company is wondering when to introduce Revenue Operations, a good benchmark would be $5M, since that’s when the benefit of Revenue Operations becomes most evident. 

What Revenue Technology Are Sales Teams Currently Investing In? 

Conversational Intelligence increased the most this year, with 38% of companies reporting using Conversational Intelligence up from 25% in 2021. Guided Selling Platforms also increased by 7%. Both Conversational Intelligence and Guided Selling tools have a strong focus on communication and can be used easily in a hybrid work setting, which would suggest that the market is trending towards more human oriented, flexible selling solutions that can adapt to multiple environments.

Which RevOps Tech Are Companies Planning to Buy Soon?

Companies who plan to invest in a Revenue Operations platform doubled year over year, highlighting the growing recognition of RevOps as a critical function investment. 14% of companies will be implementing Revenue Operations platforms in 2022, in addition to the 13% that already have a RevOps platform. 

With 38% of companies already having adopted Conversational Intelligence, 13% plan to adopt it as a new investment, suggesting that the segment is more mature entering 2022. As Conversational Intelligence evolves, companies are likely to demand more of their solutions, such as AI-driven insights to help their sellers make the most of the technology. 

Sales Enablement tech is being evaluated by 16% of companies in 2022, which is the same as it was the previous year. In light of the Great Resignation that so many companies have weathered, this is somewhat concerning. Almost 50% of companies have no formalized and automated way to ensure their sales ramp up time is speedy and effective. Those companies that are prepared to hire, quickly ramp and continuously evolve their sales resource competencies will be positioned to win in 2023 and beyond.

How Aligned are Sales and Marketing Teams?

Alignment between Sales and Marketing teams has remained fairly stagnant since the last edition of this report in 2021, with only a 2% increase in companies who report that they’re “very aligned” and a 1% decrease in companies who report that they’re “somewhat aligned.” 

Meanwhile, 29% percent of companies report a neutral or negative alignment between Sales and Marketing. 

This stagnation suggests that despite all the talk about Sales and Marketing alignment (to the point that it’s practically become a buzzword), it remains difficult to execute. Embracing a new model can feel daunting, but an all-in-one RevOps platform can help make the transition far easier.

Looking for more benchmarks? Download our 2022 Customer Acquisition and RevOps Team Benchmarks Report for benchmarks around pipeline, sales, RevOps team ownership and more.