My eight year old niece is a terrific skier. Her parents (my sister and her husband) prefer snowboarding, as when we were growing up, snowboarding was the hip alternative to skiing – tangential to skateboarding culture. Any excuse to wear Burton or Vans!
However, if you ask my niece – she thinks that only old people snowboard, because the only people she sees doing it are over forty years old.
This got me thinking how the connotation of words and activities, especially those that have been around for a while, can change over time.
Sales and marketing alignment has been a hot topic for years. Countless organizations have focused on this strategy in hopes of higher sales, more business growth, and a better customer experience.
However, the term sales and marketing alignment is antiquated and generally evokes an eye roll or two. It’s created a neutral, if not negative, connotation. For one, the definition of the word, ‘alignment,’ refers to an arrangement of elements to one another. The meaning itself gives off a very siloed, separatist vibe! Businesses that try to force alignment have often found their own teams becoming more siloed and fragmented than ever.
To bridge this gap, many organizations are moving away from marketing and sales alignment and toward departments labeled “growth” or “revenue operations.” The purpose behind the shift? Align key performance metrics, dissolve the cultural boundaries between sales and marketing teams, and achieve synchrony.
The RevOps Movement
RevOps is a relatively new term, so here’s a brief definition. RevOps, or revenue operations, is the synchronization of all departments around the customer journey, including marketing, sales and finance. Even human resources and operations are considered part of RevOps in some companies.
The RevOps movement shifts away from the finger-pointing and lack of accountability between the marketing and sales teams and towards synchrony. The goal behind RevOps is to tightly synchronize operations across the entire business and eliminate silos between teams. Doing so allows you to create processes that revolve around efficiency, high performance, and revenue growth.
B2B companies who have relied on RevOps to increase business revenue have seen significant benefits. Research by consulting companies Forrester and the Boston Consulting Group found that companies who implemented RevOps saw:
- 100-200% increase in digital marketing ROI
- 10-20% increase in sales productivity
- 10% increase in lead acceptance
- 20% increase in internal customer satisfaction
- 30% reduction in go-to-market expenses
- 71% higher stock performance in public companies
Impressive right?
That’s the genius behind the RevOps movement. It moves away from “alignment” where teams work separately to boost business growth and towards synchronization where everyone is working in tandem towards a common, shared goal. Essentially, it’s an idea that brings direction and clarity to B2B revenue generation.
It’s Time to bid Adieu to “Alignment”
When teams are operating in synchrony, everyone is motivated by and pulled towards a shared outcome by the gravity of a clearly defined goal.
Consider trade shows as an example. It’s an “all hands on deck” event; everyone works towards creating a successful event, and activities become intrinsically aligned. Marketing works to spread the word, sales follows up on the leads, and customer service readily answers attendee questions.
Synchrony is like a swimming relay race. Each swimmer specializes in a different stroke– whether it be the butterfly or the backstroke–and the purpose for each one remains the same: win the race for the team.
The same is true for your organization. Each of your teams will play a separate role, yet each is working towards achieving shared KPIs, goals, and outcomes that benefit the entire organization.
