RevOps Roundup - June 2022

Welcome to the RevOps Roundup. What’s the point of this communication? I want this to be a one-stop shop for insights into the burgeoning professional field of Revenue Operations.

So, starting now and continuing on the third Thursday of every month, join me as we explore this brave new world.

First up, a definition. What the heck is Revenue Operations?

(RevOps) is a centralized unit that bridges the gap between marketing, sales and customer service departments. Underpinned by CRM technology, it brings credibility and trust to three departments who historically operated in silos and resisted the idea of working together.

- MarketingOps.com

To me, this practise is all about the people, processes and platforms responsible for generating revenue for a company - as efficiently and effectively as possible.

So each month, I’ll break down the latest learnings in each of these key areas; peppered with a little bit of purpose: getting to the heart of why I believe revenue operations is the key to scaleable, sustainable growth.

Ready? Let’s go…

People

First up, I want to highlight some of the movers and shakers in this ever-growing space. I’ll shout-out people you should follow to get a fully rounded view of what’s going on across all areas of the RevOps mix.

People are the starting point for all things Revenue Operations. Ultimately, this is about a seismic change in the way we do business. Therefore, stakeholder mapping and management are fundamental.

Now, LinkedIn estimates it’s member population to be “about 831,000,000”. If we look for those with “Revenue Operations” in their title, that’s 12,000 members. Of those 8,300 are in the United States - the undisputed leaders of this uprising. In the UK - there are 568 of us by the same definition. More than 136 in Germany and 103 in France.

But the movement is growing and has been for the last few years. Clari states that “VP of Revenue Operations” titles on LinkedIn increased by 300% in the 18 months to February 2021. Vive la révolution.

And so without further ado, this month’s people shout-out goes to Natalie Furness. Natalie’s the most vocal proponent of RevOps in the UK (that I’ve yet encountered!) and shares focused insights into the day-to-day trials and triumphs of a Revenue Operations professional. Follow her if you want to be inspired to change your business for the better.

Processes

If RevOps starts (and arguably ends) with people, then the next priority are the processes used to govern your people’s use of your customer data and revenue technology. Each month I’ll highlight a justifiably established or intentionally novel process or optimisation that’s truly stood out to me, something I hope to be directly actionable within your business.

And just because it’s front-of-mind for me this month, I’m going to start with the broad topic of process documentation. Yep, sounds pretty basic, right? But are you doing it…right?

HubSpot defines process documentation as:

…a flowchart that illustrates how someone should carry out a task or project. It's usually pretty detailed so that anyone can repeat the process without error.

Now, doesn’t that sound ideal? The thing is, it might seem time-consuming, but the whole point of doing this is the amount of time you’ll save through alignment and adoption later down the line. HubSpot even has a handy free template you can use as a starting point. Bliss.

Platforms

Our final RevOps pillar to focus on is platforms. Simply put these are all the technologies your people use, subject to your clearly defined (and documented!) processes, to achieve revenue outcomes for your business (more, for less).

June's shout out then goes to one platform that we typically use - alongside our core CRMs - more than any other. As a professional services company, occupying the B2B space, task management means everything to us. But not just any task management. Task management that allows you to:

1. Clearly allocate roles and responsibilities across projects and team members
2. Clearly understand the impact this resource allocation has on capacity planning
3. Clearly communicate in a streamlined manner with all stakeholders on a given task

Sound like a unicorn? Or something horrible you need to access via a command line interface? Did I say clearly enough?

Enter: ClickUp.

Their promise: "Save one day a week. Guaranteed." is bold, but scientific. It's based on the time saved by over 4,000 teams using their product.

We love it for the above reasons, as well as it's ability to plan projects using Whiteboards and store Documents, including...process documentation! Remember that?

Well, I think I've made enough borderline circular arguments for one month. Hopefully, if you've read this far, you've learned something that will help you take action in your business day-to-day: to learn more from other people, to optimise your processes and to maximise the use of your platforms for revenue return.

I hope you'll join me next month for another RevOps Roundup and in the meantime, if you did find anything in here useful, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Yours in RevOps, Adam