Revenue Operations

Crush siloes by connecting teams, data, and technologies with a new systems-based approach to growth.

Growing a business in the 21st Century has become a capital intensive and data-driven team sport. In Revenue Operations: A New Way to Align Sales and Marketing, Monetize Data, and Ignite Growth, an accomplished team of practitioners, academics, and experts provide a proven system for aligning revenue teams and unlocking growth. The book shows everyone how to connect the dots across an increasingly complex technology ecosystem to simplify selling and accelerate revenue expansion. With Revenue Operations, you’ll understand what it takes to successfully transition to the new system of growth without killing your existing business. This practical and executable approach can be used by virtually any business - large or small, regardless of history or industry - that wants to generate more growth and value. By reading this book you will find:

• Real-world case studies and personal experiences from executives across an array of high technology, commercial, industrial, services, consumer, and cloud-based businesses.
• The six core elements of a system for managing your commercial operations, digital selling infrastructure, and customer data assets.
• Nine building-blocks that connect the dots across your sales and marketing technology ecosystem to generate more consistent growth and a better customer experience at lower costs.
• The skills and tools that next generation growth leaders will need to chart the roadmap for a successful career in any growth discipline for the next 25 years.

An indispensable resource for anyone who wants to get more from their business – board members, CEOs, business unit leaders, strategists, thought leaders, analysts, operations professionals, partners, and front-line doers in sales, marketing, and service - Revenue Operations is based on over one thousand surveys of and interviews with business professionals conducted during 2020 and 2021. It also includes a comprehensive analysis of the sales and marketing technology landscape. As a perfectly balanced combination of academic insight and data-driven application, this book belongs on the bookshelves of anyone responsible for driving revenue and growth.

FORWARD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION – Growth Is Good

PART I: REVENUE OPERATIONS, A SYSTEM FOR GROWTH

CHAPTER 1: A Bold Approach to Take Control of the Entire Revenue Cycle

Introducing Revenue Operations, a New Way to Create Sustainable, Scalable Growth

The Financial Link Between Firm Value and Growth

The Challenges of Growth in the 21^st Century: Customers, Disruptions and Fragmentation

CHAPTER 2: The Value and Impact of Revenue Operations

How Revenue Operations Creates Value

Eight Ways Revenue Operations Creates Financial Value

The Change Management Hurdle

PART II: A MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO ALIGN YOUR REVENUE TEAMS

CHAPTER 3: The Six Pillars of the Management System

Commercial Leadership that Unifies Marketing, Sales, and Service

Consolidated Operations that Support All Growth-related Functions

Commercial Architecture that Maximizes the Return on Selling Assets

Commercial Insights Built upon Customer Engagement and Seller Activity Data

Commercial Enablement Capabilities that Turn Your Technology into a “Force Multiplier”

Best Practices for Managing Data, Technology, Content, and Intellectual Property Assets

CHAPTER 4: Leadership That Aligns Sales, Marketing and Service

Growth Levers across Executive Functions

A New Generation of Growth Leader Emerges

CHAPTER 5: Three Leadership Models: The Tsar, the Federation and the Chief of Staff

The Tsar: Putting a “CXO” in Charge of Revenue Teams

The Federation: An Alliance Among Leadership Functions

The Chief of Staff: A Revenue Operations “Rock Star”

CASE STUDY: Enhancing Value Across the Company at GHX

PART III: AN OPERATING SYSTEM FOR CONECTING TECHNOLOGY, DATA, PROCESSES, AND TEAMS

CHAPTER 6: Assemble the Nine Building Blocks of Revenue Operations

What Does an Operating System for Business Look Like?

The Building Blocks of the Revenue Operating System (ROS)

The Team That Connects the Most Dots Wins

CHAPTER 7: Connect Your Data, Technology and Channels to Acquire More Customers

Building Block #1: Revenue Enablement: CRM, sales enablement, content and learning technologies that support selling

Building Block #2: Channel Optimization: selling channels that engage customers in human interactions

Building Block #3: Customer Facing Technology: the “owned” digital selling infrastructure that engage customers digitally

CHAPTER 8: Blend Data into Insights that Inform Selling Actions, Conversations and Decisions in Real-Time

Building Block #4: Revenue Intelligence: Manage and Measure Financial Value

Building Block #5: Engagement Data Hub: Leverage Advanced Analytics to Connect Growth Assets to Value

Building Block #6: Customer Intelligence: Use Customer Data to Inform Decisions, Actions and Conversations

CHAPTER 9: Extract More Revenue and Margins from Your Teams and Resources

Building Block #7: Talent Development: Attract, Develop and Retain Commercial Talent

Building Block #8: Resource Optimization: Allocate People, Time and Effort Against Opportunities

Building Block #9: Revenue Enhancement: Increase Revenue Yield with Packaging, Pricing and Personalized Offers

CHAPTER 10: Tune the Operating System to Get Maximum Performance

Digitize Planning Processes to Improve Agility in Deploying Your Resources

Use Analytics to Make Better Predictions, Forecasts and Investment Decisions

Adopt Advanced Modeling Techniques to Evaluate More Scenarios and to Build Consensus

PART IV: HOW TO GET STARTED AND DRIVE IMPACT

CHAPTER 11: Six Smart Actions to Deliver Growth

Get Better Visibility into the Revenue Cycle

Simplify The Selling Workflow

Share Marketing Insights with Frontline Sellers

Develop and Retain High Performing Selling Talent

Make Selling Channels More Effective

Streamline and Personalize the Selling Content Supply Chain

CHAPTER 12: Big or Small: Tailor Revenue Operations to Work for Your Business

How Revenue Operations Can Grow Revenues, Profits and Value in Your Business

Actions Enterprise Leaders Should Be Prioritizing

Achieving Hyper-growth for Small Companies

CHAPTER 13: Activity to Impact: Make the Business Case for Your Growth System

Prioritize the Actions that Will Generate Short- and Long-Term Value

A Financially Valid Framework for Connecting Smart Actions to Firm Value: The Revenue Value Chain

Use the Revenue Value Chain to Create Budgets, Earn Buy-In and Take Action

APPENDIX: PRACTICAL TOOLS TO IMPLEMENT REVENUE OPERATIONS

Glossary

A Simple Way to Assess the Current Maturity of Your System of Growth

Citations

Index

STEPHEN DIORIO is the Managing Director of the Revenue Enablement Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative. He is a leading authority in go-to-market transformation, sales and marketing performance management, and revenue operations. Over the past 30 years, Stephen has helped over 100 organizations like American Express, DuPont, IBM, Intuit, Ricoh, UPS, and U.S. Bank to reengineer their selling strategies, technology portfolios, and revenue operations to accelerate growth and become more data-driven, digital, and accountable. He is a widely published analyst at Forbes and has authored several books on commercial transformation including Beyond e: How Technology is Transforming Sales and Marketing Strategy.

CHRIS HUMMEL is a Managing Director at the Revenue Enablement Institute leading CXO programs. Chris is a global CXO with a proven track record of accelerating revenue and adapting to changes in the buying and selling environment. He has successfully led sales, marketing, product, and digital teams at world-class companies like Oracle, SAP, Schneider Electric, Siemens and United Rentals. Over the past 25 years he has developed 360-degrees of experience driving every aspect of the commercial system—as a GM, F500 CMO and Chief Commercial Officer responsible for growth—while also leading the core marketing operations, field marketing, sales operations and customer care teams that support them.

Capital intensive, data-driven, and team-based, business growth in the twenty-first century requires professionals to navigate an increasingly complex technology ecosystem to simplify selling and accelerate revenue expansion.

In Revenue Operations a veteran team of practitioners, academics, and experts delivers a proven system for aligning revenue teams and unlocking growth. In this book, you’ll learn how to simplify selling and accelerate revenue expansion by successfully transitioning to a new system of growth without compromising your existing business. Virtually any firm—large or small—can effectively use the practical and hands-on approach described in this book. It works in any industry or sector to generate growth and value.

Real-world case studies and personal anecdotes and experiences from executives across a wide range of high technology, commercial, industrial, service, consumer, and cloud-based businesses populate the book, illustrating and explaining the concepts discussed inside. The authors explore the six core elements for managing your commercial operations, digital selling infrastructure, and customer data assets. They also present the nine building blocks that connect the dots across your sales and marketing technology ecosystem to generate consistent, remarkable growth and an unsurpassed customer experience that costs less and delivers more.

Revenue Operations builds on over one thousand recent surveys and interviews with business professionals to provide board members, CEOs, business unit leaders, strategists, thought leaders, analysts, partners, and operations professionals with an indispensable playbook for business growth. It is a perfectly balanced combination of academic insight and data-driven applications tailor-made for modern businesses seeking to optimize sales, marketing, and customer service.

Praise for REVENUE OPERATIONS

“Revenue Operations is an essential career roadmap for those who have made growth their cornerstone objective.”
—Bob Liodice, President and CEO, The Association of National Advertisers

“Revenue Operations harnesses advanced analytics to align resources to opportunities and to drive better revenue performance. It gives managers a science-based approach to managing every aspect of the go-to-market system.”
—Frank Jules, President, AT&T Business

“Growing revenue has emerged as the ultimate team sport that separates winners from losers. Revenue Operations provides systems for breaking silos and aligning revenue teams in a rapidly changing world.”
—General Stanley McChrystal (ret.), Author of Team of Teams

“Connecting more dots across the revenue cycle creates more value for the customers. Diorio and Hummel nail the roadmap on how to do this.”
—Bill Koenigsberg, CEO, Horizon Media, Inc.

“Historically we’ve taught and managed the science of growth as a set of individual disciplines, but the real-world problem of growing a business is interdisciplinary in nature. Diorio and Hummel do a great job of defining clear skills, structures, and systems leaders can use to manage, coordinate, and align all these disciplines coherently around the customer.”
—Professor David Reibstein, The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

“In Revenue Operations, Hummel and Diorio underscore the importance of a cohesive Revenue Operating System, highlighting how to align your teams and harness the power of data—all while maintaining a customer-first approach.”
—Meredith Schmidt, EVP, Revenue Cloud & Solutions, Salesforce

“Revenue Operations provides a clear formula for alignment around a common purpose: maximizing customer value. This is a must-read book for every member of the revenue team.”
—Christian Smith, CRO, Splunk

“An indispensable resource for anyone who wants to grow their business – from the CEO to sales and marketing leaders, to operations professionals and front line sellers.”
—Mike Marcellin, CMO, Juniper Networks

“Revenue Operations addresses the biggest problem facing CEOs and business leaders, revenue growth, by providing a playbook that can be executed one step at a time.”
—Sam Errigo, COO, Konica Minolta

“This is a must-read book for any professional who wants to succeed in the subscription economy.”
—Robbie Traube, CRO, Zuora

"Diorio and Hummel lay out a practical system for generating scalable and sustainable growth that applies to virtually any business - large or small - that wants to generate more growth and value."

- Bob Kelly, CEO, Sales Management Association

"Revenue Operations is an essential career roadmap for those that have made growth their cornerstone objective."

- Bob Liodice, President and CEO, The Association of National Advertisers

"Revenue Operations, a new business digest on how to assemble multiple functional disciplines being executed by different internal organizations and designing a system for a consistent, cost-effective revenue growth. Diorio and Hummel give the business community a playbook every executive team should be aware of to optimize the growth of their company. Revenue Operations is a must read that should be on every CEO’s list of executive and management books."

- Rich Ehld, Founder, Sirius Decisions