If you’ve ever worked in a sales or marketing organization, you’ve come across the terms “revenue operations” and “sales operations.” And if you’re like most people, you might be wondering about the difference between these two functions; revenue operations vs sales operations.
Revenue operations (or DevOps) is a relatively new term gaining popularity in organizations of all sizes. On the other hand, sales operations have been around for much longer. This blog post compares revenue operations vs sales operations, giving the importance of each in a business organization.
What is Sales Operations?
The function of Sales Ops is to build systems and processes that empower salespeople to be more effective. This could include implementing technologies or tools to support data-based and iterative improvements to their sales process.
The function of “Sales Operations” is to build systems and processes that improve the sales team‘s efficiency.
By partnering with your revenue operations teams, you can work to drive efficiency and growth within your organization.
What’s the Responsibility of SalesOps?
The motto of sales operations is, in a word, “efficiency.”
Above all, sales operations exist to support and streamline your sales process. This could be anything from improving data quality to creating brand new pipelines.
While your sales reps are out in the field, sales ops can help forecast growth.
So, the forecasting process may fall on the shoulders of your sales team, but you’ll need the help of your analysts to put it all together.
What is Revenue Operations?
Where a sales team is exclusively focused on selling, a revenue operations team takes a more holistic view of the entire business.
A Revenue Operations Team looks at the customer journey through the sales process and customer interactions with sales and support.
The sales team can optimize the sales process for the best possible results by looking at the entire customer journey.
Revenue Operations Responsibilities
Since your Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success teams already cover all the bases. You might be wondering where the RevOps team fits into all this.
While each business department may be responsible for its tasks, which is ultimately responsible for the customer experience?
Without a system in place, it’s easier for different departments to lose track of a customer.
And it’s not only a problem in theory. Cross-departmental collaboration and sales & marketing alignment are the second and seventh biggest challenges for B2B companies.
The biggest responsibility of revenue operations is to ensure a streamlined customer journey by keeping everyone on the same page. Your team can focus on providing an excellent product or service instead of worrying about miscommunication.
While sales ops focus on reducing friction between your sales representatives and your customer relationship management, revenue operations work to reduce unnecessary steps between your customers and your product.
Rev Ops is responsible for data, technology, and forecasting related to revenue. This includes being a reliable source of information for the company.
It’s easy to have each of your departments working towards different objectives. For example, marketing may focus on generating more qualified leads to close, while sales and customer service teams may have their targets. However, these don’t necessarily align.
With Rev Ops, you can make sure all your numbers are in alignment to properly track your performance.
As subscription revenue continues to grow, the importance of Rev Ops increases. It is essential to keep customers satisfied at every stage of their journey in today’s business landscape.
Sales Operations vs Revenue Operations: What’s the difference?
Some companies have a separate sales team that focuses on increasing the efficiency of their sales process. This separate team is primarily focused on the sales cost and cost of sale.
Sales ops teams are primarily focused on increasing revenue by improving the efficiency of all processes, including but not exclusive to the sales department. By contrast, rev ops teams generally focus on driving new revenue streams and maximizing existing revenues.
The revenue operations role is broad than sales (and marketing). Revenue (or “rev”) ops affect all departments concerned with driving growth.
A Revenue Operations Org Chart includes representatives from Marketing, Finance, Customer Service, and Sales.
The sales department is still focused on making the sale, but the finance accounting revenue teams integrate behind the scenes by collecting and using data to make informed business decisions.
A sales team’s effectiveness is improved when a dedicated team handles operations. This frees up sales reps to sell, which boosts revenue and customer satisfaction. A dedicated customer retention team is tasked with keeping customers happy and acquiring new customers.
Revenue operations vs sales operations: Which is the best fit for you?
Now that we’ve covered what both sales and ops do, you may be asking yourself which department is the right fit for your business. This is a question only you can answer.
After all, no one knows your business as well as you do. However, we can still help you to make the most informed choice.
If sales operations are for you, then:
If you want to improve communication and collaboration between sales and other departments, you need to increase efficiencies and optimize processes revenue operations model is the best option for you if:
Your sales reps spend way too much time filling out forms than talking to clients.
Your salespeople spend most of their time filling out forms rather than talking to clients.
Your sales teams are good at what they do, but if you want them to be great, if any of the above resonates with you, it may be time to consider sales operations. Sales operations are all about streamlining and improving your sales process so that your team can focus on selling rather than being bogged down by paperwork.
It can help you identify areas where your team is falling short and put systems in place to help them improve. If you want your sales team to be the best, sales operations could be the answer.
You worry about your sales reps being reactionary instead of proactively reaching out to potential customers.
You’re not sure if you should outsource your sales operations, and if any of the above resonates with you, then it’s likely that revenue operations are the best fit for you. Revenue operations focus on optimizing your sales process to increase efficiency and effectiveness, while sales operations are more concerned with managing the day-to-day tasks of your sales team.
Your marketing budget is tight.
Hiring revenue ops will be harder, but if you’re able to find a team that’s a good fit, they’ll be able to drive more growth for your company.
You need to optimize your sales process to improve customer lifetime value. If you’re looking for a team that will be more expensive and harder to find, revenue operations may be the better fit for you. Revenue operations can help with growth, optimizing your sales process, and improving CLV.
You have goals to grow your customer base.
Revenue operations could be the solution you are looking for. If you are looking for a way to improve communications and accountability between departments, revenue operations may be the best fit for you. Revenue operations can help you streamline processes and improve efficiencies to focus on growth.
You have problems with communication between departments.
Your sales team is not meeting their quotes you are not generating enough leads any of the above sound familiar, you may benefit from sales operations. Sales operations is a field that helps organizations streamline their sales process and improve communication and accountability between departments. It can be especially helpful for companies that operate in fast-paced markets or have trouble generating leads.
You need a team that can help you rapidly respond to new changes in your market. It would help if you had a sales operations team.
You operate in a fast-moving market where you must adapt to new changes and trends.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it’s important to understand the key differences between revenue operations vs sales operations. While both functions are important in any organization, they serve different purposes.
Revenue operations are focused on optimizing all aspects of the revenue cycle, from lead generation to customer retention. On the other hand, sales operations are focused on supporting the sales team and helping them close deals more efficiently.
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