How to Sell to RevOps: Winning Over Revenue Operations Teams

The second half of 2022 has been a tough one for businesses. A once-booming economy that yielded a boom in revenue and growth has taken a downturn. This downturn has made closing a deal more cutthroatand more crucialthan ever.

Based on conversations with customers and prospects across dozens of sales calls, we've noticed a few trends that we expect to carry through to 2023 and possibly even 2024:

• The new motto for many teams is “do more with less.”

• Companies are looking to consolidate their tools to streamline processes.

• Evaluations to add and retain tools are going to be incredibly strict.

Based on these trends, I think it’s safe to assume that revenue operations (RevOps) will play a larger role in making or breaking deals next year. So what does this mean for sales teams? Sales employees need to learn how to talk to RevOps professionals to convince them that purchasing your product is the right choice.

RevOps will be the kingmakers during this market downturn. Winning over RevOps leaders gives your company a better chance of surviving and selling in a tight economy.

I think revenue operations teams will be the kingmakers during this market downturn—if you can win over these leaders, your company may have a better chance of surviving and selling in a tight economy. This article will demystify the decision-making process for revenue ops teams and provide tips for getting to a "yes."

How RevOps affects purchase decisions

RevOps roles are on the rise, and the titles are becoming more diverse as revenue operations takes on a larger role in organizations. Some common RevOps titles now are Chief Revenue Officer, Director of RevOps, and RevOps Specialist, among others. Clari found that over 18 months from 2020 to 2021, VP of revenue operations roles increased by 300%.

No matter the title, the main function of a revenue operations role is typically to align all revenue-generating teams and activities in an organization. That means that part of their responsibility is to find and fix ineffective processes, implement new software and evaluate prospective and current software solutions. This is where being able to speak to these concerns is a critical skill set for sellers.

Although RevOps roles aren’t typically involved in the first phase of a purchasing decision, they often have definitive say in whether a team can implement a tool. RevOps leaders prioritize whether a solution fits into their current processes above all else.

Understanding the RevOps decision-making process

RevOps holds real veto power in software purchases. A thumbs up from them keeps a deal moving. A thumbs down and you're back to square one.

RevOps holds this level of power over software buying decisions.

RevOps approval moves your deal forward. Without it, the deal stalls before it reaches legal or finance.

Your sales team needs to know how revenue operations teams make their "yes" or "no" decision so you can speak directly to the problems RevOps is trying to solve and the outcomes they’re accountable for.

In our experience, these are the top three factors that revenue operations leaders care about when evaluating new software:

1. Ease of implementation and team adoption

2. How the software integrates with their existing processes

3. Whether the software offers a solution to a problem that isn’t fixable internally or with one of their existing software solutions

If you can address all three of these deciding factors and get a thumbs up from RevOps, you’ve managed to leap a huge hurdle to closing a deal.

How to get RevOps on board for a deal

Closing multi-stakeholder deals is hard enough. RevOps adds another layer of scrutiny most sellers aren't prepared for. From dealing with multiple stakeholders, budget restrictions and the dreaded scenario when a champion leaves before closing, there’s almost no end to the hurdles sellers face.

Here are the most common revenue operations challenges sellers run into and how to handle them.

Challenge: The contact can say no to a purchase without being the person or team benefiting from the product directly.

Solution: Multithread the revenue operations team into the deal early on so that they know the company is evaluating your solution. Bringing them in last-minute can stall the process, and, as we know, time kills deals.

Challenge: RevOps teams are small and often just a team of one or two. Their calendars are busy and it’s hard to move up their priority list.

Solution: Does your solution lighten their day-to-day workload or make reporting easier? Is it easy to implement and maintain? Emphasize the things that lighten their load.

Challenge: Revenue ops professionals will have a lot of technical, in-the-weeds questions to ask before making a decision.

Solution: Make sure you have a dedicated person on board who can answer these questions in detail, rather than relying on sellers to do this.

The highest-leverage move: build multiple champions across the deal with end users, managers, and executives, so you're not depending on RevOps to act alone.

The power of RevOps

RevOps often holds final say on whether a new tool gets implemented, regardless of who championed it.

If you haven’t updated your messaging, outreach and internal processes to resonate with the things that RevOps professionals care about, your sales team is likely going to struggle to hit revenue goals moving forward. This is especially true now that RevOps is gaining influence and headcount across B2B companies. And will likely play a critical role in evaluating software purchases going forward.