RevOps vs SalesOps: A Guide to Boosting Your Bottom Line

According to the Harvard Business Review, operations is “what gives an organization the power to act,”—and rightfully so.

After all, in a world where businesses must be quick-thinking, fast-moving, and diligently tapped into their customer’s every need, operational excellence has become paramount to success.

That said, it’s no surprise we’ve seen a boom in operational roles as businesses contend with the simple fact that marketing, sales, finance, and customer support teams can no longer work in silos if they want to achieve success.

Below, we’ll focus on the financial operations of a business and how they impact its bottom line. But first, a few clarifying points!

Revenue vs sales (what’s the difference?)

While revenue and sales may sound synonymous, they actually represent different aspects of a business’s financial performance. 

Sales refers to the total amount of money generated from selling goods or services to customers whereas revenue is a broader term that encompasses all the money a company brings in (e.g. sales, interest, investments, royalties, and any other income generated by the business). 

Both metrics are essential for assessing a company’s financial performance, but they serve different purposes and provide different insights into a business’s operations.

What does RevOps do?

Revenue operations (RevOps) is the alignment of marketing, sales, and customer success operations throughout the customer lifecycle. The end goal is to drive revenue growth in a way that’s operationally efficient, predictable, and beneficial to the overall customer experience.

RevOps takes a holistic approach to revenue growth by encouraging different departments to work together and share accountability for the complete customer journey—from the moment a prospect considers your offer, to when they buy. 

Pro tip: To learn more about the benefits and logistics behind RevOps check out the rest of our comprehensive guide.

What is sales operations (SalesOps)?

SalesOps is a critical function that works behind the scenes to empower sales team, improve sales processes, and drive revenue growth. It also involves a combination of strategic planning, data analysis, process improvement, and technology implementation to enhance your sales team’s efficiency. Here’s how:

• Strategic planning––SalesOps professionals work closely with stakeholders to develop and implement sales strategies. This includes setting sales targets, defining sales territories, and creating sales plans that align with the overall business objectives.
• Sales analytics—SalesOps teams leverage tech to gain insights into sales performance. Analyzing data related to sales activities, customer behavior, and market trends helps identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth.
• Process optimization—SalesOps also focuses on streamlining and optimizing sales processes. It empowers teams to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas where automation or technology can improve workflow. This can include implementing CRM systems, automation tools, and other enablement platforms.
• Sales training and enablement––SalesOps teams are often responsible for developing and delivering training programs for the sales force. This ensures that sales reps have the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to be successful in their roles. This can involve creating sales playbooks, onboarding materials, and ongoing training modules.
• Compensation and incentives––SalesOps teams are also responsible for designing and managing sales compensation plans and incentive programs to motivate and reward sales reps for achieving their targets and driving revenue growth.
• Forecasting and budgeting––SalesOps professionals use historical data and market trends to project future sales performance and revenue, which helps with resource allocation and planning.
• Technology integration––SalesOps teams are responsible for selecting, implementing, and maintaining sales technology solutions. This includes CRM systems, sales analytics tools, sales automation software, and other technology platforms that support the sales process.

Ultimately, SalesOps teams collaborate with various departments within the organization, including marketing, finance, product development, and customer support. This collaboration ensures alignment between sales and other functions and helps address any challenges that may arise.

4 core differences between RevOps and SalesOps

While sales operations only focus on improving sales teams’ performance, revenue operations align sales operations with marketing and customer success operations around a shared goal (increasing revenue) through common practices and strategies.

In short, SalesOps is a part of RevOps, but not the other way around.

Allow us to explain:

SalesOps

1. Scope: Sales operations primarily focus on the sales department and its functions. It’s concerned with improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales team’s activities.
2. Responsibilities: SalesOps is responsible for tasks such as sales strategy development, sales analytics, process optimization, training and enablement of the sales team, sales compensation design, and managing sales technology tools (e.g., CRM systems).
3. Metrics: SalesOps typically measures success through metrics related to the sales team’s performance, such as sales revenue, sales pipeline metrics, quota attainment, and conversion rates.
4. Audience: The primary audience for SalesOps is the sales team and its leadership. The focus is on helping the salesforce achieve its revenue targets and objectives.

RevOps

1. Scope: Revenue operations take a broader view that encompasses not only the sales department but also marketing and customer success or customer support. It aims to align these departments to collectively drive revenue growth.
2. Responsibilities: RevOps is responsible for tasks such as optimizing end-to-end revenue processes, creating alignment and collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer success, managing revenue technology (which includes both sales and marketing tools), and ensuring the customer journey is seamless from lead generation to retention.
3. Metrics: RevOps measures success through more comprehensive metrics that reflect the entire revenue generation process. This includes metrics related to lead generation, marketing contribution to revenue, customer acquisition costs (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), and overall revenue growth.
4. Audience: The primary audience for revenue operations is the entire revenue-generating organization, including sales, marketing, and customer success teams. The focus is on optimizing the entire customer lifecycle to maximize revenue.

RevOps vs SalesOps: The best of both worlds

Make no mistake, both sales and revenue operations play a key role in the success of a business. While it may seem like you have to make a choice between one or the other, we truly believe no successful company can really get away without both. Here’s why: 

RevOps…

…Acts as a single source of truth for all stakeholders

When everyone has the same end goal in mind and one cohesive strategy to get there, the risk of confusion decreases significantly—immediately positioning revenue-related projects for success. 

…Offers improved measurement, tracking, and forecasting

If different teams work with data in different systems without any synchronization, it’s bound to result in poor data quality. A unified RevOps system means a single entity is responsible for revenue-related data and tools and crucial tasks like managing and improving Salesforce data quality become a lot easier. 

…Makes for easier automation and shorter sales cycles

Since everyone is following the same processes and working together with the same data, it becomes easier to automate workflows. RevOps establishes processes so that all data is captured once from the get-go and made accessible to everyone who needs it. This type of unification and automation allows teams to shorten sales cycles and turn a prospect into a customer more quickly.

…Means a reduction in cost and errors

The cleaner your data and the shorter your sales cycles, the lower your costs for them will be. Having one, unified tech stack means fewer errors will occur due to teams working with unsynced or out-of-date data, as everyone has access to the same (accurate!) information.

…Increases conversions, customer engagement, and retention rates

When you have better insight into what works for your customer and your operations run more smoothly, you’re able to deliver better experiences and engage with your leads in a more personalized way. This leads to higher conversions, increased customer engagement, and better retention rates.

…Increases adaptability

With a unified approach to revenue growth, people become used to working together and communicating across teams. So, it becomes a lot easier to adapt to changing market conditions or to jump on opportunities when they present themselves.

Meanwhile, SalesOps…

…Improves sales efficiency and productivity 

SalesOps streamlines and optimizes sales processes, eliminating bottlenecks and reducing time-consuming administrative tasks. This allows sales reps to focus more on selling activities, which can lead to higher productivity and increased sales revenue.

…Drives data-informed decision-making

SalesOps professionals leverage data analytics to provide insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and market trends. This data-driven approach helps in making informed decisions about sales strategies, pricing, product offerings, and customer targeting.

Pro tip: Check out our post on Salesforce data management tips to learn how to leverage CRM data to make better decisions.

…Enhances sales strategy

SalesOps teams collaborate with sales leadership to develop and execute effective sales strategies. They assist in setting sales targets, defining territories, and creating sales plans that align with the company’s overall business objectives. This strategic alignment can lead to more successful sales efforts.

…Optimizes sales technology 

SalesOps is responsible for selecting, implementing, and managing sales technology tools, such as CRM systems and sales automation software. These tools help sales teams track leads, manage customer relationships, and improve communication, ultimately leading to better sales outcomes.

…Improves sales planning

SalesOps professionals play a critical role in sales forecasting and budgeting processes. By analyzing historical data and market trends, they can provide accurate sales forecasts, which are essential for resource allocation, inventory management, and long-term planning.

Overall, a well-executed sales operations function can have a significant positive impact on a company’s bottom line by driving revenue growth and improving the overall sales process.

Lead your sales team to success through operational greatness

While both Sales Operations and Revenue Operations aim to enhance revenue generation, Sales Operations is primarily focused on improving the sales team’s efficiency and performance, while Revenue Operations takes a more holistic approach, aligning sales, marketing, and customer success to optimize the entire revenue generation process. In short, RevOps seeks to break down silos and create a unified strategy for driving revenue across the organization while SalesOps empowers sales teams to work and collaborate more effectively.

As a sales leader, mastering your pipeline and creating a more accurate forecast can help your team increase revenue and position your business for long-term success.

Need help? Download our quick and easy guide: “7 habits of highly effective sales teams.”