From start-up to scale up, how RevOps can transform your GTM strategy
May 2024, Post 2/10, 4 min read
Picture this, in London, two visionary entrepreneurs, Emma and Jack, launched a SAAS start up called InnovateX, aiming to socialise sales for enterprise businesses. With an innovative solution, a well-defined go-to-market (GTM) strategy, and an unmatched passion, they were set for success. Yet, despite their detailed planning and efforts, they faced challenges in translating their strategy into consistent, scalable growth.
They spent many a meeting, confident in their strategy, but frustrated by the lack of cohesive execution. They noticed that their sales and marketing teams, although guided by a solid plan, often operated in silos. Marketing campaigns generated interest, but the sales team struggled to convert leads efficiently, and feedback from customers was rarely integrated into their ongoing efforts.
Figure 1 - example of sales performance by lead source
The realisation: the need for better coordination
One afternoon in their office, Emma and Jack had a revelation, after watching the recommended ‘Winning by Design’ by Jacco van der Kooij https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39OIC_20Y1U. They needed a robust GTM strategy, but equally importantly, they needed a way to ensure all parts of their business were aligned and working towards the same goals. The realisation led them to the concept of Revenue Operations (RevOps).
Embracing RevOps early
Emma and Jack decided to integrate RevOps thinking early in their journey. They recognised that aligning their sales, marketing, and customer success teams could make a big difference. Here’s how RevOps began to transform InnovateX’s journey from a startup to a thriving scale-up.
Aligning teams for success
With RevOps, Emma and Jack broke down barriers between their teams. They implemented regular alignment meetings where marketing, sales and customer success shared insights and strategies, ensuring everyone worked towards common revenue targets and customer satisfaction goals.
Figure 2 - meeting cadence example
A notable success story emerged from their customer success team, which identified a recurring pain point among top clients. By sharing this insight with the marketing team, they crafted targeted campaigns that directly addressed these issues, significantly enhancing lead quality.
Figure 3 - Example NPS tracking dashboard
Data-driven decision making
RevOps introduced InnovateX to the power of data, where they implemented tools that provided insights into their GTM strategy’s performance. They tracked the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, sales tactics, and customer success initiatives.
This led to a discovery, that their initial customer onboarding process was too complicated, and the time to realise benefit too long. They simplified the process, which improved customer retention and satisfaction.
Optimising processes
Another major benefit of RevOps was process optimisation. InnovateX started to automate repetitive tasks, allowing their team to spend more time with customers. Sales teams no longer had to manually enter data into their CRM; instead, they could spend more time nurturing leads and closing deals.
Enhancing Customer Experience
Adopting a customer-centric approach within their RevOps framework led to substantial improvements in customer satisfaction for InnovateX. They implemented feedback loops where customer success teams communicated client feedback directly to development and marketing, ensuring the solution evolved in line with customer needs and expectations.
Setting Realistic Targets
RevOps helped Emma and Jack set realistic and data-backed sales targets. They used dashboards and reports to monitor their progress and adjust their strategies as needed. This level of transparency and accountability kept everyone on track and motivated.
Figure 4 - Example quarterly performance tracking dashboard
The transformation
As InnovateX continues to embrace RevOps, they are seeing tangible improvements, and it is enabling them to continue their journey from startup to scale-up.
InnovateX journey is a testament to the power of integrating RevOps early. For startups looking to scale up, adopting RevOps can provide the structure and insights needed to transform your GTM strategy into a living, breathing plan that drives sustained growth and success.
This content is brought to you in partnership with The Maze. The Maze (https://www.linkedin.com/company/navigatethemaze/) is an advisory firm focused on helping senior B2B leaders to plan and achieve their growth ambitions, specifically focused on companies making the transition from start-up to scale up, with revenues between 1-20m.
We're excited about our upcoming first meet-up focused on leveraging AI for effective GTM strategies. To join our content series and request registration for the event, please complete the form (https://www.rev-n.com/gtmrevopsframework)