Revenue Operations was created not to increase revenue, but rather, to increase enterprise value. In the article, "Unlocking Enterprise Value," the Harvard Business Review makes the case that Leadership, Culture and Data are three levers that move employee experience and, ultimately, unlock enterprise value.

Leadership. Culture. Data. These are three areas heavily impacted by a CRM. In fact, in today's business environment, I'd argue that it would be extremely difficult to fully capitalize on a single one of those areas without an effective CRM. But let's define a Client Relationship Management platform. The first cloud-based CRM was an online rolodex. The name fit. Now, that acronym makes little sense.

‍

In addition to storing client contact information, your “CRM” will:

• forecast your sales pipeline
• automate tasks and follow-up
• track calls, emails and meetings
• email  1-to-many newsletters
• email 1-to-1 personalized communications
• organize customer insights
• send customer quotes
• organize inventory and customer service tickets
• report on key metrics like churn, LTV (lifetime value) and close rate

‍

That is the top of the iceberg.  The most important point is this — understanding your company data can NOT be done without optimizing your CRM. Helping employees do their jobs better (and thus, improving culture) cannot be done without a well-optimized CRM. Finally, having leadership that can see that data, reward high performing employees and course-correct where needed cannot happen with out a well-optimized CRM.

‍

It doesn’t matter if its Salesforce, Hubspot, Monday, Dynamics, Pipedrive, Zoho. The CRMs primary remit is to increase the enterprise value of your company.

‍

Is our CRM increasing our company’s value?

‍

‍It’s possible to hit your revenue goals, retention metrics, and close rates all while having a very poorly implemented CRM.  For one….you set the goals! But even with appropriate goals, opportunity cost is never totally quantifiable. Revenue Operations is not simply focused on increasing revenue.  It’s investing in the right systems to increase value. In downtimes, a company that has invested in its RevOps may see revenue go down, but that can be ok.  If customer retention, employee retention, cash-to-contract cycles, and other metrics goes up - and systems are put in place to do so- the company is positioned to capture its unfair share of the market in the future.

‍

So how do you know if investment into the CRM and Revenue Operations has merit? Here are some questions to ask:

‍

• Are the ways to use our CRM well-understood?
• Is our CRM consistently adopted across employees and departments?
• Do we make day-to-day decisions and course-corrections based off the information (churn, life-time value, piepeline) in our CRM?
• Does our CRM data support more strategic decisions around profitability, cash flow and growth?

‍

If any of these questions are “No,” you are leaving value on the table.  Your CRM should decrease client churn, increase employee retention and and drive sales in excess of where they would have been without. Your CRM should also give your leadership unique insights and data around the business, and this information is the life-blood of leadership's decision-making.

‍

‍Where the CRM sits

‍

Even the internal discussion around how to architect the flow of data into the CRM can radically impact business for the better.

‍

For instance, a B2B business that sell large-ticket items through relationships or channel partners, there may not be a lot of technology used outside of the CRM. Think of a construction company. Their CRM likely sits squarely in the middle.

‍

‍

Other businesses may depend more on marketing and outreach and have a higher volume of leads.  In these scenarios, there is an entire pre-CRM outbound motion. The MQLs (marketing qualified leads) should not enter the CRM.  They should remain in the outreach platforms (ie SalesLoft, Apollo, Mailchimp) until someone raises their hand to express intent, and at that point, becomes a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) in the CRM. This is the mark of a high-functioning sales funnel.

High volume organizations who include every unqualified contact within their sales pipeline of their CRM are destined to overwhelm their system, data and people. It is these scenarios where see hundreds - even thousands - of leads that have not been qualified. Most importantly, this lack of rigor makes sales reps less productive. A rep needs to know that the leads in the CRM are high quality (ideally, with a lead score) and worth their time, and the majority of data should not even enter the CRM. 

See below.

‍

‍

A company’s business model and strategy drives the technology stack, CRM and process.  It is anything but a one-size-fits-all.

‍

Who “Owns” your CRM?

‍

Finally, implementing your CRM in a way that drives overall enterprise value  requires (at a minimum) the coordination of Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success.  Usually, Finance and Human Resources are needed as well. Once implemented, there is a separate exercise to ensure the CRM data and processes will support each department and the overall company strategic goals.

‍

So who should be in charge of the CRM implementation? And the ongoing support of adjacent processes?  Are they the same?

‍

You’re likely not thinking the IT Department?  This is often what happens simply because the CRM is a software.  Software is procured by IT.  Therefore, IT is responsible for the CRM.  Hmmmm.  That’s a little like saying that the sales team produces cash, cash is managed by the finance department, and therefore, sales reps will now be managed by finance. That sounds disastrous. Your CRM is not an IT project. While IT may be involved more at the implementation, the revenue-facing teams should be involved from Day One. Client Relationship Management. Bringing the people who deal with your clients…kind of just makes sense. It is going to necessarily straddle departments, and this is why many companies elect for a Revenue Operations function.  They usually report into the CRO, but it could be CMO, COO, CFO or CEO.

‍

Be intentional about your CRM, and you can utilize to see improvements in leadership, culture and data to steadily increase enterprise value.

‍