For many manufacturers, generating revenue is synonymous with making sales.
Those companies see revenue simply as a number that reflects product units or services sold.
But that external focus keeps many industrial business leaders from seeing how friction and redundancies between Marketing, Sales, and Service teams can erode operational efficiency and inhibit enterprise growth.
Revenue operations, or RevOps, rejects the mindset of revenue as simply units sold.
RevOps defines revenue instead as a measure of how well (or how poorly) a business is collectively realizing its growth potential across all its processes, platforms, and people. It’s the practice of aligning teams — and their technologies, processes, cultures, and strategies — to optimize revenue growth across an entire organization.
In short, revenue operations is a discipline that supports revenue optimization.
RevOps’ Tech Origins and Industrial Relevance
The RevOps approach first picked up traction with startups in the software industry. The RevOps team supports go-to-market strategy, intelligence, marketing, sales, and customer success teams — even finance operations — ensuring that data, tools, and processes are not merely mutually intelligible, but actually aligned, integrated, and mutually supportive.
It goes without saying that when various departments’ tools and systems don’t work together, they can actually work against each other. Distinct business units’ data collection practices and standards, key metrics, strategic priorities, even terminology can be aligned and mutually supportive of one another — or they can be obstacles and points of friction that make work harder for everyone and can detract from a good customer experience.
RevOps’ tech origins might leave leaders in industrial sales and marketing wondering whether it has anything to offer them. So consider this: most successful industrial companies have long since adopted disciplined approaches to integrating and optimizing processes in product design, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and other functional areas.
It’s not hard to see the value in eliminating deadhead activities on a warehouse floor or paperwork duplication as raw materials and finished products move through supply chain and distribution channels. Organizations invest in enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, train employees in lean manufacturing principles, automate production, and constantly measure overall equipment effectiveness. That’s because they see the value in monitoring and optimizing the performance of their investments in teams, technologies, assets, and equipment.
So doesn’t it make sense to take a similar approach to aligning go-to-market teams, strategies, cultures, processes, and technologies?
RevOps for Manufacturing
Optimizing Revenue Starts with Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service
Let’s go back to the (misinformed) idea that revenue is simply a measure of products or services sold.
First, if products and services simply sold themselves, that might be true. But attracting, engaging, and delighting customers before, during, and after the sale is the work of the go-to-market teams.
Second, a RevOps approach applies to more than just customer acquisition.
Optimizing revenue from a go-to-market perspective means acquiring, retaining, and enhancing customer relationships through customer satisfaction, cross-selling, and upselling — plus, using customer intelligence to inform new and expanded offerings.
RevOps is all about maximizing opportunities: gaining a deeper understanding of customers, building stronger relationships, and developing a long-term perspective on growth that optimizes customer lifetime value.
At the same time, by optimizing the go-to-market processes, technologies, data, and shared priorities of Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service, RevOps eliminates redundancies and waste. Investments in people, time, software solutions, and process development can be optimized to reduce costs and increase value when they’re aligned across teams.
As organizations everywhere are increasingly collecting and using data to inform business decisions, RevOps offers a means to apply the same level of discipline to your go-to-market strategies and teams, measurable in KPIs like:
- Cost savings on tech solutions and tools
- Shorter sales cycles
- Lower customer acquisition costs
- Higher win rate
- Increased revenue per customer
- Improved customer retention
- Higher net promoter scores
Streamlining and optimizing go-to-market strategies, teams, and processes compares with manufacturing process improvements. The changes can enhance worker productivity, improve employee experience and team cohesion, increase profits, and advance sustainability.
Plus, a RevOps mindset empowers go-to-market teams to keep looking for opportunities for continuous improvement.
Learn More and Get Started
Ready to take a closer look at revenue with an eye toward optimizing Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service teams’ contributions?
You won’t want to miss Manufacturing First Expo & Conference on October 26, and be sure to register for a breakout session with Greg Linnemanstons, Optimize Revenue, Growth & Profits with RevOps. Register now using promotional code MFGFIRST20 to save $20 per ticket!
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