by Kenzie Lee 

July 15, 2022

Revenue Operations has become the go-to model for driving maximum revenue in a business. This model is designed to use people, process and technology to deliver seamless revenue generation through the funnel from first touch to finance and renewals. How does marketing fit into all of this? 

 

The RevOps Marketing Difference 

I like to define marketing as; helping the buyer buy what they want to buy. So, what does a buyer want? Are they looking for a product or service? Yes. But marketing is more than brand awareness, communicating the 4 Ps and delivering value. It is also about the customer experience and that is a key differentiator in the RevOps model. Harvard Business Review defines customer experience as, “…the internal and subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect contact with a company.” RevOps ensures a more personal and rich relationship between the customer and the brand. In a RevOps model, marketing teams go beyond the responsibilities of the traditional siloed business model and move into sales, service, and financial focused goals and tasks. This means marketing is not just focused on generating a list of leads. It is about the quality of leads, an amazing customer experience, a focus on driving max ROI and delivering revenue goals for the business. 

 

In a RevOps model, marketing teams will have the following traits: 

 

Revenue Generation > Lead Generation

In a RevOps marketing practice, it’s all about quality. Gone are the days when you send your sales team a list of ‘ok’ leads and saying, ‘Hey Look, we hit our lead generation KPI for the month! Great!’ No, RevOps marketing has systems in place that optimize lead generation and deliver quality, high-intent, high-value leads that move the business into an optimized revenue generation engine. 

Revenue generation is more highly valued and focused on than lead generation. For marketers running in a RevOps model, it is about quality over quantity. Marketers ask, ‘What accounts are going to drive maximum revenue for the business? And, ‘How do I best target our ideal customers?’ Marketing doesn’t just ask, ‘Ok, how many leads do I need to deliver this month?’ It’s all about the quality and strategic focus, not just a long list of ok leads.

 

Focus on Maximizing ROI

RevOps Marketing teams are focused on their return on investment. They ask:

• How can I get the most out of my spend?
• What strategies are going to deliver max profit?
• How do I get the most out of the use of my technology?
• How can I use this system more effectively and efficiently to create better processes and experiences for the customer and business as a whole across sales, customer success and finance?

With a focus on ROI, marketing spend, and MarTech spend, RevOps marketing teams are optimising overall value. The value of marketing campaigns, technology use, and overall marketing activities increases in a RevOps model. This contributes to the bottom line success for the business as a whole. The Boston Consulting Group reports, “RevOps drives up to 30% reductions in go-to-market expenses.” What would you do with that extra 30 per cent? With the benefit of maximizing profits, RevOps also creates opportunities for business growth through cost-savings.

 

Work Toward Shared Goals

RevOps Marketing does not live alone in a silo. RevOps marketing is dynamic and strategic. The marketing team works toward shared business goals. From the business goals, RevOps marketing teams work with sales to develop marketing and sales goals that support those larger business goals – all pointing to revenue. Marketing does not compete or wrestle with sales. Everyone is working together with the shared goal of maximising revenue. 

 

Data Analytics Geeks

The CRM is the foundation and data is the king of the castle. RevOps Marketing teams value good, clean, lean, data. This data informs marketing, sales, and business decisions. It all starts with marketing insights, so getting a good integrated system in place helps support marketing data analytics. With rich customer data, marketing can focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience that RevOps businesses are after. Good marketing data can be used to deliver a targeted campaign to the right buyer personas at the right place and right time.

For example, say I am a retailer wanting to drive sales of XYX product. I will use Google Analytics, Salesforce/Hubspot, my target list, and website data to create ads campaigns that meet the persona information, demographic, and location data so I can hit the right buyers at the right place and right time. Rich customer data is a key part of optimising the buying experience. This ultimately helps to drive purchases and deliver maximum revenue for the business. 

 

Continuous Improvement Culture

A RevOps Marketing team does not settle. They ask:

• How can we do better?
• Where are our gaps?
• How can I create opportunities for my team to grow and learn?

These teams are dialed-in on making the message hit and creating an exceptional experience with the brand. Internally as well, from a managerial perspective, they are focused on the growth and development of their team. The more the team is trained on using RevOps MarTech, the better everyone understands the buyer personas and customer journey, the more successful the business outcomes will be.   

 

Clear & Defined Processes 

‘What happens when a lead becomes an MQL? SAL? SQL?…What is the process?’ Clear and defined processes means that automations are set up in the systems to inform the team about lead changes, send leads into workflows, and more. ‘What happens when a hot lead comes in?’ RevOps Marketing teams have the entire process scoped out to ensure a stellar customer experience and to help sales capitalize on customer engagement.

 

Sales Alignment

SALES IS MARKETING AND MARKETING IS SALES. In a RevOps model, marketing and sales work together. There is no tension between these teams anymore. They are one team with shared goals. No more from sales, ‘These are crap leads.’ Or from marketing, ‘You need to sell better, these are great leads.’ It’s an open conversation and strategic alignment for the shared goal of maximizing profit. For example marketing asks, ‘How can we better inform prospects and leads on the product or service, so when they speak to sales the conversion goes more smoothly?’ Maybe it’s setting up a strategic automated workflow or creating new digital assets. Together marketing and sales have open ways of thinking and develop new RevGen strategies.

 

RevOps Marketing Teams are ‘Built Different’

For RevOps Marketing teams, it is not about living in a safe silo, hitting monthly KPI’s, and delivering a list of names to sales. RevOps marketing is more than that. These teams are looking to drive revenue for the business. It is a different mindset – it is a bigger mindset. RevOps marketing teams take on more, they work smarter by using advanced RevTech and MarTech to automate their tasks. They create smart marketing campaigns, accumulate rich data insights and deliver a stellar customer experience from first touch to renewals. RevOps marketing is selling, focusing on the customer, and the entire buying process. 

 

Want to dive deeper into RevOps Marketing? Check out the educational session: RevOps for Marketing. RevOps Marketing experts, Ying Hu and Kenzie Lee take a deep dive into how marketing transforms into a revenue generation engine in a RevOps model. Watch now!