A quick guide to revenue operations (RevOps): what it is, how it works and who succeeds in the role

Revenue operations, or RevOps, is a specialized function within the broader sales and marketing organization. It focuses on building systems, managing change and providing the leadership needed to increase sales and profitability.

The function has gained traction across industries, but it has become especially common in private equity-backed B2B companies, where structure and discipline play an important role in growth.

Related: When to hire a new kind of sales leader

As more companies strengthen their go-to-market engines and bring greater consistency to sales and marketing, RevOps will likely remain a popular field for executives who combine strong analytical skills with the emotional intelligence needed to guide teams through rapid change and growth.

Defining RevOps

The RevOps function brings together several sales, marketing and customer success-related priorities, including people, processes, data, governance and technology. In a nutshell, a RevOps leader’s goal is to align these priorities within one unified system that increases sales and, ultimately, supports company growth.

In practice, these leaders may plug into sales and marketing teams while also playing a major role in implementing technologies such as artificial intelligence or customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

Three outcomes of hiring a successful RevOps leader

For organizations looking to add a RevOps leader, three main priorities help define the role’s impact on the bottom line: establishing key performance indicators (KPIs), improving sales/marketing activity and growing revenue.

Your company may already have sales and marketing KPIs in place, but a RevOps leader should sharpen those metrics and ensure the numbers add up. Their job is to remove uncertainty from the way the company measures progress and success.

This person should also play a significant role in improving sales and marketing activity by adding clarity and insight into historical activity and future strategy.

The third priority is simply to grow the company by increasing sales. For a newly hired RevOps leader, this often requires a combination of the first two priorities. It also means bringing departments together to reduce unnecessary expenses and focus their efforts on attainable business opportunities.

Is there a certain profile that works best for this role?

Finding the right RevOps leader means looking for someone who is analytically minded but also has the emotional intelligence to manage change, which can make up a large part of the job.

In a recent episode of The Charles Aris Podcast, Wynnchurch Capital Managing Director Alexis Underwood referred to the ideal RevOps candidate as an “extroverted analyst.”

Bringing on a RevOps leader means adding discipline to a sales and marketing organization that may have operated the same way for a long time. Whether the need for change is driven by an acquisition, rapid growth or new ownership, introducing RevOps will likely require longtime employees to adjust their processes and habits.

These leaders also may not report to the sales and marketing teams they oversee. Often, they report directly to senior leadership or through the finance organization.

Key takeaways

RevOps connects the people, processes, data and technology behind a company’s sales and marketing efforts, bringing clarity and translating sales activity into sustainable revenue growth.

The strongest candidates combine analytical discipline with the communication skills and emotional intelligence required to lead people through change.