How Mature Is Your Revenue Operations?

Revenue operations (RevOps) is a relatively new term that appears with growing frequency: LinkedIn identified Chief Revenue Officer/Head of RevOps as one of the fastest growing job categories for two years in a row, and many marketing operations events now focusing on RevOps content.

However, the term is still so new that if you ask five different people how to define RevOps, you’ll probably get five different answers. For this reason, we at Hyperscayle wanted to provide a holistic framework for how organizations should think about RevOps and offer a RevOps maturity model for assessing capabilities.

What Is RevOps?

Hyperscayle defines RevOps as the design and execution of go-to-market (GTM) processes and systems across the lead-to-cash lifecycle. To us, this includes a holistic view of marketing, sales, customer success, channel and finance operations. We don’t think of them as siloes bolted together; instead, we view them as steps of a unified process.

Organizations that wish to improve their RevOps capabilities need to consider their approach across five categories – leadership alignment, process definition, team structure, systems and tools and data foundation.

RevOps Maturity In A Scaling Company

We propose the following RevOps Maturity Model to describe how an organization’s RevOps maturity evolves as they scale:

Note that we deliberately talk about RevOps maturity as tied to GTM complexity, not annual revenue. While it is certainly true that a larger organization will probably need a more mature RevOps function, the real driver is the complexity of the GTM motion, not the number of dollars coming through the door each year.

Although each level of our RevOps maturity model is structured in columns, in reality, an organization is rarely at the same maturity level for every single category, and most will  see some variation across a few different maturity levels at any given time.

For example, an organization might have hired a great RevOps director and three or four analysts, putting them at level three for the Team Structure category. However, they may also inherit a lot of tech debt, which would put them at level one for the Systems & Tools and Data Foundation categories.

This is a one of the main sources of value for the RevOps maturity model, because it allows you to focus on the different aspects of maturity and prioritize improvements accordingly.

When It Comes To RevOps Maturity, Invest Like Goldilocks

RevOps is one of the disciplines that is usually scaled incorrectly.

Not every organization should have level five as the immediate goal: Determining what “good” looks like depends on the complexity of your GTM organization. You need to invest early enough, but not overinvest either.

Of all the categories, underinvestment in the RevOps team itself is most common. All too often, companies hire one or two beleaguered analysts — with no RevOps leader at the VP level — and expect them to implement and maintain a dozen different technologies as the business rapidly evolves their GTM motion. This means systems will be disconnected from business processes, tech debt will constantly deepen and the team must focus on firefighting with no time or ability to think strategically.

On the flip side, the category most OVER invested in is Systems & Tools. As a company grows and encounters new RevOps problems, all too often the answer is, “there’s a tool for that!” and a new point solution is plugged in. This creates an ever-increasing burden of system ownership and often introduces redundant tools that overlap in functionality.

Companies also commonly overinvest in core systems. If you have a young GTM motion that’s relatively straightforward, you don’t necessarily have to run out and pay for Salesforce right away. HubSpot is probably much less expensive and will work just as well for quite some time. The money and time you save can instead be invested in research and development, sales, marketing, etc.

Remember, further to the right isn’t necessarily better in this model. You need to “right-size” your RevOps investment to the current stage and situation of your company. Overinvesting is almost as bad as underinvesting, so spend your resources wisely.

When used correctly, the RevOps Maturity model can empower RevOps leaders to prioritize investments and communicate the rationale behind their roadmap to the leadership team.

Ben Mohlie is the Co-founder of Hyperscayle, a RevOps advisory and implementation firm. Mohlie is a RevOps leader who brings more than 10 years of experience in technology consulting, sales leadership and marketing strategy. He started his career as a scientist with Raytheon and after going to the “dark side” to get his MBA, Mohlie spent time as a consultant at Bain & Company before getting into the startup scene, leading marketing and sales teams. As one of the co-founders at Hyperscayle, he is primarily responsible for business development and partnerships.