We so often get asked:
- At what point should we invest in our own RevOps team?
- When should we consider a fractional partner versus hiring in-house?
The Purpose of Revenue Operations
Firstly, let’s remember that the main reason Revenue Operations, or RevOps, exists is to align a business’s go-to-market infrastructure from end-to-end. It is the framework designed to optimise efficient and predictable revenue generation— it does this by aligning the entire customer lifecycle across the organisation, processes, people, data and systems.
That is no small task!
It is a strategic, operational, and technical undertaking and should not be taken lightly. Ultimately, the decision when to invest or how to invest (e.g., fractional vs. inhouse) are individual decisions for each business to take, but there are several factors to consider:
- Size of the business
- Objectives/goals of the business in the short, mid, and long-term
- Culture of the business
1. Size of the Business
We work closely with (mainly SaaS) businesses from early stage through to enterprise—some of which have recurring revenue subscription business models (from $10M to $35M ARR), and some have re-occurring revenue models (from $150M to $300M AR).
Often they have a few things in common, including but not limited to:
- Data all over the place and no source of truth
- Limited reporting capabilities
We might see customer data or sales data on spreadsheets, quoting difficulties, pricing discrepancies, an out-of-date sales process or none at all, limited or no marketing attribution, no automation (e.g., to support lead management or billing capabilities), and in the very early stages, no CRM at all.
We believe when a business has the following in place, it will be time to seriously invest in revenue operations:
a) A predictable revenue process
b) Good product/market fit
c) A small sales team
d) Sales momentum
From our experience, it is the point at which a business’s go-to-market strategy lacks the structure and commercial tech stack necessary for scale, that revenue operations become a strategic priority. A robust revenue operations framework needs to be designed and put in place to support the foundations for building a solid and predictable revenue engine. Those foundations include the right processes, data architecture, and tech stack.
2. Objectives/Goals of the Business
It is important to recognise that building a revenue operations framework from the ground up is not achieved overnight and it is not achieved by hiring one person, on a fractional or permanent basis.
Certainly, at the beginning of this journey, it is important to have the vision and key business objectives in place, for the short, medium, and perhaps long-term too. This may include revenue targets/projections, team size & structure, product/market diversification and/or expansion, potential merger & acquisition activity on the horizon, and the list goes on!
It is crucial to be clear on what you expect to achieve in a 1–3 year timeframe. For example, it would be more sensible to plug in an external RevOps & RevTech partner who provides a wide depth and breadth of skills in one team if you need to go from 0-100 in 12 months or the focus is accelerating revenue in a short space of time. On the flip side, if the focus is on building in-house capabilities from the start, then it would be best to consider a highly skilled generalist; someone who “understands the entire revenue funnel, the end-to-end customer journey, and has experience building process and system infrastructure” (Rosalyn Santa Elena, a leading voice on Revenue Operations, writes about this in a related article).
The GTM strategy needs technical translation into the ideal tech stack for your type of business and specifically for your organisation. It should be configured in the simplest way possible that allows for accurate, real-time reporting in the present, as well as efficiency enhancements for the future.
One should be clear, this will be hard to find in one person. These types of skills are in demand and, rightly so, will command a high salary. A Salary survey report undertaken by Weflow | getweflow.com last year surveyed RevOps professionals across different regions, and the median compensation was as follows:
- Europe (including Switzerland & Israel) $75,000
- UK $100,000
- North America $140,000
Even with a strong generalist, expecting one person to lead a go-to-market strategy and handle daily operations (e.g., fire-fighting and fielding incoming requests for reports/dashboards and new shiny tools) is probably not realistic. So, be clear on your business objectives, timelines and expectations before making investment decisions.
3. Culture of the Business
For businesses that have grown quickly or have larger teams, siloes have likely been built along the way with various processes created by different teams creating misalignment (this is very common). The strategic revenue operations lens may be a little late to this party. In this business context, adoption and change management becomes a foundational pillar to transforming those commercial operations and infrastructure.
This can be very challenging for employees to achieve. Sometimes, it can be helpful to ask for an objective, third-party expert view on the current state, and use that voice to support the implementation and adoption of an optimised end-to-end GTM strategy.
The revenue engine is driven by people at the end of the day, with processes and systems built to get the best out of those people. So we have to think about people when making revenue operations investment.
By investing in Revenue Operations, businesses can achieve a cohesive, efficient, and scalable go-to-market strategy that drives predictable revenue growth. Whether deciding between a fractional partner or an in-house team, the key is to align the size, objectives, and culture of the business with the right RevOps strategy.
