Revenue Operations vs Sales Operations: What’s the difference?

Technology evolution has changed consumer buying behaviors, prompting companies to rethink customer and revenue lifecycles. This has led to the rise of revenue operations (RevOps) and sales operations (SalesOps) roles. While both aim to eliminate departmental silos and increase revenue, there are a few key differences.

To better understand the difference between revenue operations/sales operations, and the role each plays in your business, let’s compare and contrast their focus and functions.

What is Sales Operations (SalesOps)?

Sales operations equips sales departments with the systems, technology, and resources they need to reach their sales goals and contribute to precise revenue forecasts.

SalesOps leaders focus on enhancing sales practices and creating more cross-department visibility with software tools, engagement techniques, and strategic planning. Though previously overlooked, sales operations has gained popularity as companies have realized that precise, timely data from sales helps with accurate revenue and pipeline forecasting, financial planning, business growth, and revenue management.

What Does Sales Operations Do?

Sales Operations teams support sustainable growth through various functions, which may vary depending on company size. Key functions include:

• Territory planning
• Sales forecasting
• Operational tasks
• Managing sales data
• Guiding user onboarding
• Overseeing sales commission data and incentive programs

Sales Operations helps set achievable sales goals and make strategic adjustments to sales approaches.

By optimizing sales processes, Sales Operations plays a critical role in a company’s success and revenue growth.

Revenue Operations vs. Sales Operations

The most notable difference between the two is that Revenue Operations focuses on the functions of multiple departments to encourage business growth, while Sales Operations focuses on the sales functions. In fact, it’s widely accepted that Sales Operations is a subset of Revenue Operations.

Revenue Operations implements various functions that support cross-department visibility between sales operations, marketing, and customer success. When a company implements a Revenue Operations team, Sales Operations can better target its sales efforts while Revenue Operations collects and analyzes data that can be used for forecasting and planning purposes.

This grid breaks down the major differences between Revenue Operations and Sales Operations:

When to Hire Sales Operations Instead of Revenue Operations

When you should hire a Sales Operations team will depend on your company’s needs, size, and capacity. If you are a startup without a marketing or customer success team, Sales Operations may bring more focus, attention, and targeted tactics to revenue planning and team expansion.

Another sign you might need Sales Operations is that your sales team is overwhelmed with organizing data and planning. A Sales Operations team can improve data recording and planning efforts, free up your sales reps to focus on selling, and create a more structured and productive sales process.

When to Hire Revenue Operations Instead of Sales Operations

Company growth and expansion are wonderful, but not in the absence of structure and business functions. If your company has expanded to hire various operational teams, including sales, marketing, and customer success, but is struggling to increase sales revenue, it may be time to hire a Revenue Operations team.

A Revenue Operations team will create cross-departmental visibility to enable faster company growth. More effective communication and sharing of data throughout the organization will reduce the risk of leaky revenue and improve the accuracy of your revenue forecasts.

Related article: How to Build a Revenue Operations Strategy That Will Grow Your Company

Combine Sales Operations and Revenue Operations for Long-Term Success

If your company is growing rapidly, you may realize you need more than Sales Operations. Revenue Operations helps companies empower all teams to contribute to revenue, not just the sales team.

Building a RevOps strategy from the ground up takes time and commitment, but it can set your business up for long-term sales and revenue success.