You don’t always need to build a Revenue Operations team. But rarely if ever should you avoid taking a centralized approach to strategy, process, and systems.

Your organization can take a RevOps approach by implementing centralized alignment and governance across teams.

Establishing the vision through the planning phase with something like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and tying your teams and technologies around these measurable outcomes can mean the difference between barely meeting your board-level targets and exceeding them.

Team structures, budgets, and (always last) technologies will follow. Set the north star and lock it in. Then measure, execute, and refine.

That’s RevOps in a nutshell, a strategic approach to your fiscal plan and tactics.

A centralized approach means you bring others into the fold to align and, in some cases, co-author the plan. Build a plan in a silo, see limited success. This approach is “easier” up front (seemingly less friction, more speed).

Align across departments, and put yourself in the best position to succeed. This approach is more complex up front but provides the most scale.

From Finance, Marketing, Sales, Post-Sales, IT, Compensation, and other critical functions to foster cross-functional alignment, a RevOps approach (or team) can optimize decision making. Revenue-related processes, data, and technology can move through organizations that were previously fragmented.

The customer journey is a critical component within the broader customer lifecycle. It serves as the pathway through which a prospect transitions from initial awareness to long-term customer and renewal.

Mapping out the customer journey means understanding where your customer’s business challenges and your offerings meet (Product, Services, Software, etc.). It’s where and how you add value to your customer every step of the way.

Doing the journey right means identifying the customer’s experience and goals first, your process and services second. Then aligning or investing in the technologies that support that successful journey.

Strategy first, technology first. Always.

Aligning technology and systems with fiscal planning and long-term strategies creates a foundation for more effective adoption and tool rationalization. By integrating IT initiatives with clear go-to-market (GTM) points of view, organizations gain greater control in an evolving market.

This alignment ensures that investments in technology not only support current operational needs but also drive strategic growth objectives longterm.

Maybe you’ve heard of the “infinity” symbol, or “always on” or fill in the blank. Customers today expect constant attention, speed, and value realization. There’s too much information at their fingertips and the market moves too fast. Listen to and respect the customer.

Once you understand their business challenges, goals, and pain points, and you’ve identified their journey, then you should double down on mapping out the resources: who does what across that journey.

Rarely can a single role/person own every stage successfully. But maybe your Sales people should know the Post-Sales better and vice versa. You can’t sell to someone who churns.

Build a framework that brings value to your customer and optimizes your internal resources (human and otherwise)

Again, strategy first, technology second.

Individuals can easily purchase an AI tool, so can an enterprise. The questions is, how do you do it in a way that is scalable with predefined success metrics and documented use cases that drive your business forward.

AI can help with Productivity, Process, and Products (whether moving faster, designing or building).

There are also technical, security, and ethical questions to tackle upfront across your leadership and teams: accountability and decision-making, validation of outputs, labor/replacement, and more.

Avoid the temptation to buy and go now. Lean in to building a cross-functional plan that includes enablement, metrics, and use cases.