• Economic pressures to align are intense and manifesting a new operational mindset called “revenue operations”
  • Revenue operations initiatives and teams need a charter to help them drive their alignment efforts
  • The SiriusDecisions Revenue Operations Charter defines a path to align seven components to elevate organizational performance

In high school, I was a starting varsity football player during the Friday Night Lights era in West Texas. But many people are surprised to learn that I also played the violin. It’s not something I bragged about, but today I look back on the experience with fond memories and consider the lessons I learned. Being part of an orchestra and playing football both require teamwork and committing to something larger than oneself. One out-of-tune note can ruin the symphony. One missed block can cause a fumble or loss of yards.

Conductor directing an orchestra

The same is true for B2B companies whose individuals or teams are misaligned. When we talk to our clients in sales, marketing, customer success and product leadership, they share their struggles with cross-functional alignment. Many individuals work in silos and rarely speak to each other. These teams cannot succeed without reciprocal support – products don’t market or sell themselves; marketing can’t generate demand for poor products; and sales cannot close business without great products, leads and marketing assistance. Our research on the economics of alignment shows that when an organization’s sales, marketing and product functions are aligned, that organization achieves 19% faster revenue growth and 15% higher profitability.

Economic pressures to align are intense and manifesting a new operational mindset called revenue operations. SiriusDecisions defines revenue operations as an emerging model that unifies sales, marketing and customer success teams. A revenue operations mindset aligns sales operations, cross-functional enablement teams, marketing operations and customer success operations. The most common format we’ve seen thus far is not a new organization composed of these teams but a “coalition of the willing” in which teams have formally agreed to work more closely on solving the detailed problems of misalignment.

Football teams need a coach. Orchestras need a conductor. Revenue operations initiatives and teams need a charter. It’s that simple! At Summit 2019, SiriusDecisions shared the Revenue Operations Charter, which defines a path to align seven elements (The Sirius7). Become the leader of a winning team by familiarizing yourself with the Sirius7 below:

  • Vision. What aspiration do you want for your organization’s revenue operations team? You need a vision that promotes collaboration across the team and helps accelerate the organization’s revenue. Make sure the team can visualize the vision and what the organization ultimately wants to become.
  • Goals. What goals is the organization choosing to accomplish? These goals should support revenue growth and foster better relationships across the organization, and they must focus on collaboration and coordination so that all teams are in tune with each other.
  • Planning. Are the processes for planning, budgeting, resourcing and revenue engine execution consistent and mutually supportive? Develop a cross-functional team that will run plays that foster collaboration to achieve superior organizational results for each of these priorities.
  • Processes. Are all processes within the revenue engine mutually supportive? Processes should be efficient and effective and should orchestrate an increase in selling time, focus on helping customers, enable quicker rep onboarding, and provide the right data and insights that move the needle.
  • Infrastructure. Do technologies supporting the revenue engine share data and enable dependent processes effectively? Each technology should act as a position on a football team – find technologies that can work across the organization and have dual capabilities like players who can be on offense and special teams. However, too many technologies cause budgets to increase and necessitate cuts.
  • Data. Does data across the revenue engine support consistent and interdependent planning, execution and measurement? Work with other functional groups on calculation and data quality. Make sure executives are reading off the same sheet of music with the best data available.
  • Measurement. Do performance metrics promote an aligned view of revenue engine performance? High-performing organizations are in the same octave with standard definitions of data and a shared understanding of the top KPIs that affect the organization.

Being a violinist and a football player made me well rounded, broadened my mind and helped me understand that sports and music both require teamwork and artistry. Fostering teamwork is not easy, and like any team activity, alignment requires a playbook or a musical score. The SiriusDecisions Revenue Operations Charter is that playbook. Use the Sirius7 to harmonize revenue operations’ functional groups. Be the coach that leads the company toward alignment, faster revenue growth and higher profitability.