One of the core pillars of revenue operations (RevOps) is technology. That’s why your RevOps tech stack is essential to building a fully integrated and optimized GTM organization.
Unfortunately, doing this without a clear strategy causes problems. With over 11,000 GTM solutions out there, it’s far too easy to fall for shiny object syndrome and acquire more technology than you need. Since most organizations only use 42% of their GTM software capabilities, this highly fragmented approach can cause workflow disruptions, data loss, and revenue leakage.
Before you build your RevOps tech stack, read this article. And if you have a broken tech stack, read it as well. We’ll walk through how to avoid SaaS sprawl, keep your costs under control, and maximize your ROI.
What’s the purpose of a RevOps tech stack?
The RevOps tech stack encompasses all the tools, platforms, and automations you need to manage, monitor, and optimize your revenue cycle. When done correctly, it can drive the following outcomes.
Manage GTM workflows
Complex customer journeys plus increasing demands for personalization among B2B buyers require complex GTM workflows. A RevOps tech stack helps you visualize and manage this complexity. For example, integrated lead capture, routing, and scheduling tools offer insight into post-conversion experiences so you can see where lead dropoff is happening and take necessary steps to correct it.
Align marketing, sales, and success
A core RevOps principle is the integration of marketing, sales, and success and alignment around cross-functional objectives. If teams remain siloed and each uses their own technology, this alignment is impossible. A RevOps tech stack, on the other hand, integrates GTM functions with a single source of truth, so everyone rows in the same direction within their RevOps strategy.
Enable agility and flexibility
Early-stage companies are constantly pivoting and evolving as they learn more about the market, your customers, and how the two fit together. Later stage companies too must constantly state agile to respond to an unprecedentedly volatile market. A RevOps tech stack helps you analyze customer behavior and make those pivots in real time.
Establish predictive KPIs
The more upstream a GTM function is, the harder it is to tie its actions to revenue. By analyzing all functions in a single platform, RevOps technology can identify the predictive KPIs that are more likely to drive revenue down the funnel. The result is not only a more aligned team, but also each function is better able to justify its investment.
Reduce revenue leakage
Roughly 42% of companies experience some form of revenue leakage. We’ve already seen how delays in lead responses leads to a staggering dropoff in response rates. The more seamless and automated your processes, the more revenue you’ll retain.
How to screw up building a RevOps tech stack
One of the biggest misconceptions among organizations of all sizes is that technology itself will solve your problems. Not true. Think of technology more as an amplifier. If you have efficient processes, technology makes them more efficient. If you have a dysfunctional organization, technology makes it even more dysfunctional.
So before you invest thousands of dollars a year in building a RevOps tech stack, make sure you’re avoiding the following common pitfalls organizations make.
Lack of process visualization
Your RevOps tech stack should serve and support your GTM workflows, not the other way around. Rather than start by listing the functions you think you need, start by visualizing your RevOps processes. Then, map those functions to specific tools and platforms—buying as few as possible.
Cost inflation
Visualizing your RevOps processes also helps to avoid cost inflation associated with “SaaS sprawl” (i.e. buying more software than you need). This tool helps you target your technology acquisition and implementation to fill your specific needs.
Lack of buy-in from key stakeholders
Technology not only requires people to operate it, but people to authorize its continued use. Without buy-in from key stakeholders, both in leadership and within each function, no one will use your RevOps tech stack. Which means you can’t realize the benefits mentioned above.
Key components of a RevOps tech stack
Once you have your strategy in place and have visualized your processes and workflows, it’s time to start building your RevOps tech stack. Here are some of the components and processes you’ll need.
1. Customer relationship management (CRM)
CRM software tracks all your customer data and houses it under one roof, serving as a single source of truth for all GTM functions. Its core functions include contact management, lead tracking, marketing and sales automation, performance monitoring, and more.
Once they reach a certain size, some organizations will require more sophisticated functionality, including tracking more complex KPIs like LTV and sales velocity.
2. Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ)
Since most B2B businesses have complex pricing models, CPQ software accelerates and streamlines revenue by automating quoting, invoicing, and ordering.
CPQ often integrates directly with your CRM and ERP, reporting robust metrics around customer purchasing behaviors to both systems. This enables all GTM functions to adjust and tailor their activities to real-life customer purchases.
3. Billing software
Once an invoice has been configured, there should be a seamless, automated path to billing. Otherwise, revenue leakage happens.
B2B billing software should be able to handle multiple types of pricing models, including recurring payments and subscriptions, as well as robust reporting. This latter function especially enables RevOps teams to continually monitor business performance and optimize all activities to drive the best results.
4. Revenue intelligence
CRM, CPQ, and billing all monitor customer activity after the fact. Revenue intelligence leverages predictive analytics to help revenue teams make proactive decisions that are more likely to drive revenue.
Revenue intelligence platforms do this by capturing data from your CRM, CPQ, billing, website analytics, social media platforms, marketing automation technology, and more. They also surface qualitative insights from call recordings to identify the most predictive markers of a high-intent buyer.
Revenue intelligence platforms also measure team performance, identifying underperforming campaigns, assets, systems, and people, then providing suggestions for improvement.
5. Lead capture, routing, & scheduling
Monitoring performance is one thing. To realize the benefits listed above, you need to take action. One area RevOps can especially help is by streamlining the marketing-sales handoff. This requires a system to convert high-intent leads and guide them along the path to purchase:
- Lead forms optimized to maximize conversion rates
- Lead scoring models that qualify the lead in seconds
- Automated lead routing software to assign the lead to the right contact
- Scheduling tools that prevent lead dropoff and attrition
See our helpful resources below on the following aspects of a RevOps tech stack:
The best approach to these functions is to use a unified marketing and sales workflow platform that performs all of them seamlessly. Otherwise, you risk a patchwork of integrations that can break—and will result in lost dollars.
6. Sales enablement
After leads convert and are handed off to sales, sales enablement technology provides the support and insights sales teams need to effectively close these deals. These tools include:
- Email tracking, templating, and A/B testing
- Automated workflows and sequencing
- Sentiment analysis to allow for greater personalization
- Post-sale engagement to drive renewals, upsells, and cross-sells
7. Analytics and reporting
Finally, one of the core functions of RevOps is unified reporting and visibility into the entire revenue organization. As such, analytics and reporting across all functions is critical for its effectiveness. What’s more, RevOps teams need a centralized platform that unifies data across all channels and platforms to perform this unified analysis.
Final thoughts on building a RevOps tech stack
Building a RevOps tech stack is a major investment, especially for early-stage organizations. However, if you approach the process strategically, you can not only minimize your upfront costs, but also maximize your return on investment.
One way to control costs without sacrificing performance is to invest in unified GTM platforms, consolidating all your necessary functions into a single tool. See how Default brings together core RevOps functionality within a complete revenue operations software to help you drive greater outcomes.
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