Do you remember Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs?” It’s probably a distant memory from health class. It simply outlines the needs that must be satisfied (in order) for an individual to reach his/her full potential as a person.

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Abraham Maslow is going to help you crush your 2025 numbers! How? Because organizations also have an ordered progression necessary to reach their full potential. It’s Revenue's Hierarchy of Needs. In our last email, we outlined what Revenue Operations is. Now, let’s think about how you can optimize your operations to drive the most revenue possible.

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Check out the pyramid below. Revenue Operation (”RevOps”) brings your data, technology and processes together to establish your organization as an industry thought leader, which is the top of the pyramid. As you review the image, ask yourself, “What stage are we at?”

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Much like Maslow’s Hierarchy, these stages happen from the bottom to the top. Do they have to? Technically, no. But realistically, yes. They should. For instance, how will you have a great attribution model if your data is a mess? And why even focus on attribution if your GTM plan is still being tested?

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IMPORTANT NOTE: these stages are independent of financial success.

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Yes, a business needs to make money to reach its full potential. However, a business can do that and reach the top of the pyramid while having negative cash flow (i.e. Wayfair, Alibaba, WhatsApp). Practically speaking though, it would be very difficult for a bootstrapped business to be a leader in its industry without ever turning a profit.

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Let’s dive in with what this is and why it matters for your 2025 goals.

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Hierarchy Stages

(from the bottom up)

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Existing

• The ICP (ideal client profile) is still evolving. Very little business is turned away.
• Customer Acquisition is primarily referrals and founder networking. Can be very successful, but not particularly scalable.
• There may be a CRM, but if so, it is generally a cloud-based rolodex.
• Processes are not documented and, often, employees are pulled in many directions.

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Standardizing

• The ICP is narrow. This organization knows exactly who benefits the most from its product or service and only reaches out to that group.
• The GTM (Go-To-Market) has a solid foundation; it is evolving but consistent.
• There are established processes for sales, marketing, and customer success; the CRM is well-used, though the data may need clean up.

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Scaling

• This company has a baseline across every revenue area, which allows them to experiment and see clear winners and losers.
• There are established KPIs (key performance indicators); they have invested in cleaning up the data so that they have the right KPIs
• Customer acquisition strategy has been successful; now they are investing in attribution to better prioritize investment in new marketing channels and/or partnerships.

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Optimizing

• The focus is on continual process improvement, including training for the team; culture is becoming a competitive advantage
• This company is leveraging data to gather meaningful insights; may be using business intelligence tools
• Data governance is in place to ensure that data remains clean and secure

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Leading

• This organization has become a thought leader; it is well-though of in its industry and employees
• Company culture has a focus not just on training but mentorship; employee retention is high
• Has won the hearts and minds of customers; likely enjoys a high Net Promoter Score (NPS)

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If your organization is in the Existing stage… don’t worry! Most companies are. And very few companies are Leading (just like very few of us have reached our full potential…. myself included)

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RevOps is a process. Simply investing in the processes of Revenue Operations puts you far ahead of many companies - big and small. As renowned college football coach, Nick Saban, liked to to say, “Focus on the process of what it takes to be successful.” What you are building is more important than where you are at.

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In the coming weeks, we will be opening the proverbial kimono and showing some of the tips and tricks we use to help Everpeak clients advance up the pyramid.

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In the meantime, contact us here if you have questions or want to talk tech, data and revenue. Thanks for reading.