Thank you to all reading!

And if you have not read it, then there is something to celebrate. I’m running a birthday discount this week.

You can find it here

Why no second edition?

I get this question a lot. The short answer: the foundations haven’t moved.

The book covers RevOps strategically. Strategy doesn’t change so quicklyWhat I wrote about aligning revenue functions, building sustainable growth engines, and measuring what matters holds.

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AI gets a lot of airtime right now. The book covers its GTM impact, because AI was already reshaping go-to-market while I was writing. I was careful to write at the foundational level, the layer that doesn’t get disrupted every six months. The book’s predictions about AI’s impact on GTM have held up.

Tactical AI use cases? Those I deliberately left out. They’ll look different in 18 months. Foundations won’t.

AI is powerful. But it doesn’t change what makes a business run well. The principles behind RevOps, alignment, accountability, and sustainable growth, those predate AI and will outlast whatever comes next.

So: no second edition (yet). The pendulum is still swinging in the same direction.

App of the Month: Libro.fm

I read a lot. Audiobooks are a big part of that. And most audiobook platforms are quietly terrible.

For example, Audible charges a premium, locks you into credits that expire after 12 months, and pays authors a fraction of what they deserve — while gutting local bookstores in the process.

Libro.fm does the opposite.

When you sign up, you pick a local bookstore. Mine is Boekhandel Riemer in Groningen, the Netherlands. Every purchase I make sends a cut their way. Bookstore owners on Reddit confirm it actually works for them.

Your credits don’t expire. Additional purchases come with a 30% discount. You own the books outright — no DRM, no device restrictions.

Use this link with code SWITCH and get 2 free audiobooks.

(There is no promo involved here; I am just convinced of this tool)

The GTM lesson here?

Libro.fm mapped every frustration Audible created: expiring credits, author exploitation, bookstore cannibalization — and built the opposite.

That’s the move: find your competitor’s structural weaknesses, not their surface-level flaws. Then build something that makes those weaknesses permanent liabilities for them.

With the right positioning, a competitor’s size becomes their anchor.

Happy reading and listening!

I talk to companies every week who built the wrong team at the wrong time. They hired CRM admins when they needed strategy. They brought in a VP before they had anyone to execute. They doubled headcount, then cut it in half six months later. Expensive lessons, every one of them.

Getting the structure right from the start saves you from all of it. Here’s how to think about it.

Three Profiles. Every RevOps Team Needs All of Them Eventually.

1. The Strategic RevOps Leader (VP or Director)

You need exactly one. The only exception is if you’re running two entirely separate business units — think AWS versus Amazon retail. Otherwise, one is enough.

This person sets quotas, designs commission structures, owns pricing decisions, and leads the team. They will never open your CRM to change a field setting. They will never build an automation. If they are, something has gone wrong.

They are typically your second or third RevOps hire, not your first.

2. The Generalist RevOps Manager

This is usually your first hire. As you scale, you’ll have several. They are the connective tissue between strategy and execution — technical enough to get things done, strategic enough to understand why.

As the team grows, generalists develop focus areas: marketing ops, CS ops, enablement, tooling, growth. They can eventually step into the strategic leader role. The best ones usually do.

3. Subject Matter Experts

CRM admins, data analysts, automation specialists, database engineers, enablement managers. These are not your first hire. Ever.

Bringing in an expert before you have a generalist to direct them is like hiring a Formula 1 mechanic before you have a driver. Impressive on paper, useless in practice.

Team Size by Structure

The sequencing question I hear most often is: who do I hire next? Here’s a clean framework.

Team of 1: One generalist RevOps manager. They handle strategy and execution until you have enough to justify splitting those responsibilities.

Team of 2 — Enterprise/B2B focus: Add the strategic leader early. Enterprise deals require pricing discipline, quota design, and cross-functional alignment. You need someone senior managing those levers.

Team of 2 — PLG or transactional: Skip the VP for now. Add a subject matter expert instead. High-volume, low-touch models need technical horsepower more than strategic overhead at this stage.

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Team of 3: Strategic leader, one generalist, one expert. This is the first complete unit. Strategy, coordination, and execution each have a home.

Teams of 4 to 6: Keep one strategic leader and one generalist. Stack subject matter experts underneath. This is where specialization starts to pay off.

Team of 7: Add a second generalist. At this size, one person can’t coordinate across all the workstreams. The ratio starts to hold: roughly one generalist for every four or five experts.

Team of 11: Still one strategic leader, two generalists, five or more experts. The ratio firms up. This is a mature, functional RevOps org.

The Ratio That Keeps Teams Functional

One generalist for every five experts. That’s the rule of thumb.

Break it and you get one of two failure modes. Too many experts without generalist coordination and things get built that nobody uses — technically impressive, strategically irrelevant. Too many generalists without experts and the team talks a lot and ships nothing.

Both are expensive. Both are common.

Where Companies Go Wrong

The most common mistake is hiring a strategic leader too early. A VP of RevOps with no one to lead is just an expensive generalist with a title problem. They’ll either get frustrated and leave, or they’ll start doing execution work they’re overqualified for and underperform on the strategy you actually hired them to drive.

The second most common mistake is hiring subject matter experts as the first or second hire. An expert without strategic direction defaults to what they know. Your CRM admin will build CRM things. Your data analyst will run reports. Useful work, but not necessarily the right work.

The third mistake is hiring for company stage you’re at, not the stage you’re heading toward. The generalist who got you from $2M to $10M ARR may not be the right fit from $10M to $50M. Plan for that transition before it becomes a crisis.

What to Do Next

Before your next RevOps hire, answer two questions: What does this person own, and who directs their work?

If you can’t answer both clearly, you’re not ready to hire. Get clear on that first. The cost of a bad RevOps hire — salary, opportunity cost, and the rebuild — almost always exceeds the cost of slowing down and getting it right.

Need help deciding who to hire? Talk to us.

Only 30% of B2B companies have a formal referral program. But here’s the thing: those who get it right are operating at a 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio while the rest of us burn money on paid ads.

The problem isn’t that referrals don’t work. It’s that marketing owns them when RevOps should.

This Is a RevOps Problem

Referral programs get dumped on marketing because they look like a campaign. They’re not. They’re infrastructure.

Marketing can promote a program. But the operational backbone:attribution, CRM integration, reward fulfillment, cross-functional handoffs —> is RevOps territory.

Here’s what breaks when marketing runs it alone:

Attribution dies in your CRM. Someone refers a lead, your sales cycle runs 6 months, and you can’t prove the referral happened because cookie tracking expired.

Rewards get paid manually. One person handles verification in a spreadsheet. They go on vacation and the whole thing stops.

Sales doesn’t know it’s a referral. The context gets lost between systems, so reps treat warm intros like cold leads.

Nobody measures it properly. Referrals don’t show up in your channel reporting, so you can’t compare performance or optimize.

If any of this lives in a spreadsheet, your program won’t scale.

When You Actually Need This

Not every company needs a referral program right now. Launching one at the wrong time burns goodwill with your best customers and delivers nothing.

You’re ready when:

Your NPS is consistently 9–10. If customers struggle to explain why they use you, they won’t refer you. Fix the product experience first.

Your CAC is climbing. When paid acquisition costs keep creeping up, referrals become your most efficient growth lever.

You have 500+ customers. A referral program with 50 customers is a thought experiment. With 500, it’s a real channel.

Your attribution works. If your sales cycle runs 3–12 months and you can’t track a referral from intro to closed-won in your CRM, you’re not ready.

That last one is the killer for most B2B programs.

Build the Plumbing First

Before you design a landing page or pick a reward amount, build the tracking infrastructure.

You need a referral source field in your CRM that persists through every lifecycle stage. Not a tag that gets overwritten. A dedicated field that follows the deal from first touch to closed-won.

You need real-time integration. Webhooks or APIs that capture referral events as they happen, not batch uploads at month-end.

You need a clear definition of success. Demo booked? Contract signed? Subscription activated? Pick one and stick to it.

Most teams skip this step and regret it later.

Trigger at the Right Moments

Don’t slap a referral link in your footer and hope. Identify the specific moments when a customer is most likely to say yes:

Right after onboarding completion —> they just saw initial value

After they give you a 9 or 10 on NPS —> they literally told you they’d recommend you

At renewal or expansion —> they just doubled down on your product

When usage spikes —> power users are natural advocates

After a successful support interaction —> you just solved their problem well

The best programs embed the referral experience directly in the product, not on some external page nobody visits. A subtle prompt at the right moment beats a marketing email every time.

Design Incentives That Match Your Deal Size

A $25 gift card for a $50K deal is insulting. Your rewards need to match your economics.

Common B2B structures:

Percentage of ACV: 5–10% of first-year contract value

Flat cash rewards: $500–5,000 depending on deal size

Account credits: Discounts on their own subscription

Recurring rewards: Ongoing payments for retained customers

Two principles matter: make it two-sided (reward both the referrer and the new customer), and consider recurring payouts over one-time bonuses to encourage ongoing advocacy.

Not All Referrers Are Equal

A customer who sends one lukewarm lead is not the same as someone who’s referred three enterprise deals.

Build tiers:

Bronze: First successful referral → standard reward

Silver: 3+ successful referrals → 1.5× standard reward + quarterly check-in

Gold: 5+ successful referrals → 2× standard reward + direct line to leadership

Tiered structures turn a transactional program into a relationship. Your best advocates feel recognized and motivated to keep going.

Run It Like a Real Channel

This is where most programs die. They launch with enthusiasm and then nobody looks at them again.

What operational rigor actually looks like:

Weekly review. Some teams run a “Power Hour” where senior leaders review network overlaps and identify warm intro opportunities.

Monthly reporting. Track referral pipeline the same way you track every other channel—volume, velocity, conversion, revenue.

Quarterly optimization. A/B test your incentives, review participation rates, adjust triggers based on what’s working.

If you’re not treating referrals as seriously as paid or outbound, you’re wasting everyone’s time.

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Measure What Matters

Track referrals as a standalone channel. Here are the metrics that matter:

Participation rate: Percentage of customers who make at least one referral

Referral-to-qualified lead rate: How many referrals turn into real pipeline

Referral-to-customer conversion rate: Compared to other channels

Cost per acquisition via referral: Including reward costs

Program ROI: Revenue generated vs. total program costs

Time to conversion: Sales cycle length for referred deals

If referral conversion rates are lower than inbound, something’s broken in your sales process. If CAC via referrals is higher than paid, your rewards are too generous.

Need help with your Referral Strategy?

Reach out to us and ask about our GTM Strategy Services https://revenuewizards.com/services/go-to-market-strategy

User Referrals vs Partner Referrals

Most companies eventually need two referral motions:

User referrals: Your customers referring peers from inside the product

Partner/affiliate referrals: External partners, consultants, or influencers driving leads through their own channels

Running these as separate programs with separate tools creates fragmentation. Different tracking systems, different reward logic, different reporting. RevOps exists to eliminate this mess.

Find a platform that handles both in one place. Unified reporting, one integration to maintain, consistent reward management across both motions.

Build vs Buy

Quick decision framework:

Build in-house if:

• You have dedicated engineering resources for ongoing maintenance

• Your requirements are highly specific or regulated

• You’re handling 10,000+ referrals per month with complex reward logic

Use a platform if:

• You want to launch in weeks, not months

• You don’t want to maintain integrations, compliance, or reward fulfillment logic

• You need standard features like CRM sync, automated payouts, and analytics out of the box

The ROI math is simple: if the platform costs less than the engineering time and ops headcount you’d need to build and maintain the same functionality, use the platform.

For most teams, that threshold is crossed quickly.

What to Look for in Referral Tech

Before you pick a tool, here’s what it needs to do:

CRM integration that actually works. Native sync with Salesforce, HubSpot, or your CRM of choice. Not CSV exports.

Flexible reward configuration. Support for cash, credits, tiered rewards, and recurring payouts.

Automated fulfillment. The platform should verify referrals, calculate rewards, and handle payments—including tax compliance across countries.

In-product embedding. Customers should be able to refer without leaving your app.

Partner portal. If you run affiliate programs, partners need a place to track their activity and payouts.

Real-time reporting. Performance data—participation rates, conversion rates, reward ROI—without building custom dashboards.

If you’re spending more time maintaining the infrastructure than optimizing the strategy, you’ve picked the wrong tool.

The Bottom Line

A referral program is only as good as its operational backbone. You can have the best incentive structure in the world, but if tracking breaks, rewards are late, or the experience is buried three clicks deep, participation will flatline.

RevOps’ job is to make referrals a system, not a campaign.

Get the attribution plumbing right before anything else. Trigger referral asks at high-value moments, not randomly. Design incentives proportional to your deal size. Automate everything that can be automated. Measure referrals as a channel with dedicated metrics. Review and optimize quarterly, not annually.

If you build one that actually works, you’re already ahead of 70% of your market.

The numbers tell the story. Seat-based pricing adoption dropped from 21% to 15% in just 12 months. Hybrid pricing models jumped from 27% to 41% in the same period. Companies sticking with seat-only models now experience 2.3× higher churn.

The market sees it too. HubSpot is down 54% over six months. Monday.com dropped 62%. ServiceNow fell 43%. Investors are pricing in the decline because they understand what’s happening.

The AI Efficiency Trap

Every SaaS vendor promises the same thing: “Make your team more efficient with AI.”

Even if half these claims are exaggerated, the result is the same. Companies need fewer people to do the same work. And the market isn’t growing fast enough to compensate.

The data backs this up. Tech companies laid off 245,000 workers in 2025 across 783 companies. That’s 674 people per day. Job postings that received 10 applications three years ago now get over 1,000. Monthly tech job additions dropped from 168,000 in 2024 to 49,000 in 2025—a 71% decline.

The Churn Cascade

Here’s what happens: AI makes teams more productive. Companies cut headcount. Seats get downgraded.

Why would a company keep 50 seats when 30 people can now do the same work?

This isn’t speculation. Almost every client I work with reports revenue churn from reduced license counts. The trend accelerates as AI improves. Your annual contracts don’t matter when customers are paying for seats they don’t need.

What To Do About It

Your target: within three years, less than 60% of your revenue should come from seats.

Six pricing models can replace seat dependency:

Platform fees: Charge for access to the platform itself, independent of user count.

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Add-on modules: Monetize specific capabilities as separate packages.

Consumption-based: Credits, API calls, tokens. Price aligns with actual usage.

Take-rate pricing: Capture a percentage of value or transactions flowing through your platform.

Integration costs: Charge for connecting to other systems and data flows.

Professional services: Let humans do manual work. Not everything needs automation.

Sixty-five percent of SaaS vendors now layer AI metrics on top of seat pricing. Companies that stick with seat-only pricing see 40% lower gross margins for AI products.

What NOT To Do

Outcome-based pricing sounds appealing, but does it work?

Revenue unpredictability makes investors nervous. Your CFO will dismiss it. Your board will hate it.

The whole point of SaaS was recurring, predictable revenue. Don’t throw that away chasing a pricing model that introduces volatility you can’t control.

Beyond that, many business models are not suitable for outcome-based pricing.

The Timeline

You have five years. Change is slow.

Year 1-2: Introduce hybrid pricing models.

Year 3: Target less than 60% revenue from seats.

Year 5: Full pricing diversification.

That’s good news. You have time. But ignoring this risk means you probably won’t survive the next five years.

Your Next Steps

Your GTM leadership team needs to meet with product to determine which changes enable your survival.

First, audit your revenue mix. How much depends on seat count today?

Second, identify 2-3 alternative pricing levers you can introduce within 12 months.

Third, align GTM and Product on the transition roadmap.

The clock is ticking. The market won’t wait for you to figure this out.

The Data

Organizations moved past experimentation. Average AI maturity sits at 3.04 on a 5-point scale. The bell curve centers at levels 3-4, meaning most companies now run AI in production, not pilots.

Revenue gains dominate as the primary benefit. 46% of CROs cite this as their top outcome from AI investments. Decision-making and efficiency tie at 19%, while customer experience trails at 15%.

The barriers are clear. Data quality and budget constraints tie for first place at 27% each. Change management and skill gaps follow close behind at 23%. Technology isn’t blocking progress—data infrastructure, money, and humans are.

Investment increases across the board. 50% of organizations plan to grow AI budgets by 11-25%. The 8% jumping 30-40% likely represent high-maturity organizations doubling down on proven wins. No one cuts budgets.

What Actually Works

Three use cases deliver measurable ROI:

Call transcription reached table-stakes status. Gong dominates this category. Sales teams save 30-60 minutes per rep per day through automated documentation and MEDDIC extraction.

Data enrichment improves outreach effectiveness by 15-25%. Tools like n8n and Clay combined with data providers like Apollo and ZoomInfo validate contact information and automate account research. What used to take reps 15-30 minutes per account now completes in seconds.

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AI forecasting beats human forecasting on close dates. Most companies eventually trust AI predictions more than rep estimates. AI identifies patterns in deal progression that humans miss. Forecast accuracy improves from 70-75% to 85-90%.

The full report includes CRO advice, implementation roadmaps, and specific tool recommendations across sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps functions.

Download the complete report: https://revenuewizards.com/reports/cro-ai-adoption

Start 2026 With Better RevOps Skills

AI transforms workflows faster than teams can adapt. Organizations need people who understand both the fundamentals and the new tools.

Over the last few years, RevOps Essentials Course has trained over 150 participants from companies like Adobe, Spotify, OpenAI, and n8n. And the course includes contributions from 15+ experts at Cognism, ClickUp, and Piano.

What you get:

• Lifetime access, including future expert-led updates

• 12+ hours of training that applies to your daily work

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New Year’s Bundle: RevOps Pendulum Book + RevOps Essentials Course at 30% Off

I wrote The RevOps Pendulum to close a knowledge gap in the RevOps space. The book combines my client work, conversations with hundreds of RevOps experts, and frameworks that actually work in production. The goal was to create the gold standard for RevOps books.

RevOps Essentials takes those concepts and makes them operational. The course gives you templates, workflows, and step-by-step implementations you can use immediately.

Get 30% off the course:

1. Get my book “The RevOps Pendulum” on Amazon.

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Start the year equipped to build revenue engines that work.

The global law firm DLA Piper writes:

The law sets a maximum two-month notice period, even for multi-year deals. No more being stuck in a 24-month contract just because the business changed direction.

The rules apply to both new and existing subscriptions. Providers must support easy data exports and smooth switching. Early termination penalties need to be clear and reasonable. However, from 12 January 2027 cancellations fees are not allowed.

The protected customers are businesses and private individuals based in the European Union. Yes, if you are a non-EU company (e.g. US) then this also impacts your EU customers.

The winners: Customers

Remember the ongoing Salesloft / Drift leak? Well you can now just cancel the subscription with out objecting it :)

B2B customers have not much more rights. I predict a lot of churn! Vendor lock-in is something of the past

The losers: SaaS companies that offer annual contracts

If you offer an annual contract then this will impact you negatively. Your annual contracts are pretty much useless.

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Multi-year contract with discounts? Better don’t offer those. They are pretty much pointless to provide. Why give a discount if they can churn anyways?

Solutions and recommendations:

• Coordinate with your legal team or a commercial lawyer (I am not an expert)

• Make sure that all contracts are pre-paid. State explicitly in the contract that pre-paid amounts are not refundable under cancellation for convenience. (This should be legally valid)

• Offer multi-year contracts only if pre-paying the whole duration (24 or 36 months). In addition, state that cancellation for convenience is possible according to the new law but no refund is possible. (That should be compliant)

• If your contract has no clear language about the above topic then the customer has an advantage position and you may be required even to pay back the pre-paid amount.

Again, I spent 3 hours researching this topic. That is not a lot and I am not a legal expert. Please consult your legal team and don’t take my word on this. But take it seriously, because if it applies to your business then this is quite frustrating.

Further reading:

https://www.lw.com/en/insights/eu-data-act-significant-new-switching-requirements-due-to-take-effect-for-data-processing-services

https://www.twobirds.com/da/insights/2025/the-data-act-what-mandatory-switching-rights-mean-for-fixed-term-saas-models

RevOps is mainstream

Revenue Operations is no longer a niche term. The latest Google Trends data shows that for the first time, “Revenue Operations” has outpaced searches for both “Sales Operations” and “Marketing Operations.” Over the past 30 days it has consistently stayed on top.

At first glance, this might just look like a quirk in search behavior. But put it next to the actual size of each discipline, and the picture becomes more interesting.

On LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the number of professionals by title looks like this:

• Sales Operations: 130,000

• Marketing Operations: 45,000

• Revenue Operations: 20,000

RevOps is still 2.2× smaller than Marketing Ops and 6.5× smaller than Sales Ops. Yet it is the one people search for most.

Sales Operations

Since 2023, Sales Ops has stagnated. Roughly 130,000 people still carry that title, with only 0–1% growth year over year. In the US there are around 1,100 open jobs.

It’s a well-established function. Even in companies with RevOps teams, Sales Ops hasn’t disappeared. Many Sales Ops professionals simply transition into RevOps. That was also my own journey.

Marketing Operations

Marketing Ops is still growing. In 2023, there were 41,000 people in the field; today that number is around 45,000. That’s about 10% growth, with 448 open jobs in the US.

The rise makes sense. Markets have only become more competitive, pushing companies to invest further in marketing execution and the operational muscle behind it.

Revenue Operations

Now to the headline story. In 2023, RevOps counted 17,000 professionals. Today it is closer to 20,000. A growth rate of roughly 18%. The US alone lists 494 open jobs.

RevOps is booming. This is exactly what I’ve seen in conversations across the industry. In Europe especially, the function has matured and gained recognition.

The old “system admin” stigma has faded. At companies with $20m+ in revenue, RevOps is rarely seen as just CRM admin work. Often the CRM admin sits with IT, while RevOps leads are found at the company steering table. Working with cross-functional stakeholders, driving AI discussions, and focusing on how to scale the business.

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Revenue Operations Career boost

Over the past months we optimized our RevOps Essentials on-demand course. It is the perfect gateway to progress your RevOps career!

Enroll in RevOps Essentials

The VP Gap in RevOps: US vs EMEA

Only 4.4% of RevOps professionals in EMEA hold a VP title. In the US, the figure is 13.6%. The gap is stark, and it says a lot about the maturity of RevOps on both sides of the Atlantic.

Globally, the picture looks like this:

• 8.5% VPs

• 17.5% Directors

• 55% senior ICs

• 17.5% entry-level

The US is clearly further along. With 13.6% VPs and 22.7% Directors, RevOps is positioned as a leadership function. Only 9.1% of roles are entry-level, which reinforces that it’s seen as a strategic discipline.

EMEA tells a different story. Just 4.4% of professionals are VPs and 15.9% Directors. A striking 22.2% are entry-level—the highest share of any region. RevOps in EMEA is still execution-heavy, more about building and doing than leading and steering.

I’ve spoken with several companies recently who are trying to hire a VP of RevOps in Europe. They’re struggling. The senior talent pool is too thin, and there’s no quick fix. Either Europe waits for its talent base to mature, or companies will need to look to the US to fill senior roles.

The contrast is clear: the US is leadership-heavy, while EMEA is entry-heavy.

But the momentum is shifting. In 2023 there were around 3,000 RevOps professionals in EMEA. By 2025, that number has grown to 4,500. It’s the fastest-growing RevOps market worldwide. The VP gap will close.

For now, we’re watching the discipline grow up in real time. Join the journey.

Till next week!

But the same search for efficiency should apply to the CRM itself. We have to ask ourselves: is the value we get from the CRM worth the investment? Are we just renewing the subscription out of habit? Aren’t we annoyed by the price hikes at renewal? I can point you to more than 20 CFOs and CEOs who are.

Klarna was the most vocal example, replacing its CRM with point solutions and databases (more on the importance of databases later). Elon Musk has mentioned multiple times his resentment toward Salesforce at Tesla and X.

This isn’t just Salesforce-bashing. HubSpot is even worse.

If enterprises with complex use cases can move away from CRMs, SMEs can do it even easier.

Why CRMs have become so annoying

1. Horrible paywalls

My biggest frustration with HubSpot is feature limitations. They lure you in with an “affordable” all-in-one solution, but once you’re in, it looks like this:

Product limitations everywhere. We pay a few thousand euros per year for that view. Depressing.

I just need a few extra features, but to get them we’d have to pay 7× more. It’s a joke.

2. User based pricing is a rip-off

Why do we have to pay per user seat? It was the norm for years, but now more alternatives are popping up, including outcome-based pricing. This makes sense. Some users log in once every few months, others use it daily.

And let’s be honest: what are most people doing in the CRM?

In 90% of cases, they enter data and then retrieve it. You can do that for free in Excel or Google Sheets (many sales reps do, despite our nudges to use the CRM). Most people use CRMs like clerks for data entry. There are cheaper ways to do that.

3. Innovation stoped decades ago

Salesforce innovates at a snail’s pace. HubSpot is still catching up. Dynamics gives their CRM away for free just to get traction. When was your last “wow” moment in a CRM?

I spend time in various CRMs every day. The best reaction I’ve had to a new feature in recent years was, “Ah, ok. Fine.”

Investors lost trust in CRMs

It’s not just users who dislike CRMs. The two charts below tell you what investors think of CRMs:

Compare CRM stocks to the NASDAQ100.

Tech is moving forward. CRMs aren’t.

My personal story in replacing HubSpot

Paywalls, user-based pricing, and low innovation finally made me lose trust. We started replacing HubSpot at Revenue Wizards with a custom build around a data warehouse and point solutions.

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We don’t know exactly how it will look yet, but the building blocks will be:

• Data warehouse in the middle

• Loops for marketing automation

• Slack integration to chat with data (read, write, edit)

• n8n for automations and integrations

• Stripe, Granola, Loops, Framer, etc.

• APIs to sync emails from Google Workspace to the data warehouse

Want to learn how? Join our RevOps Essentials course.

Sign-up here.

The future is even more data warehouses

Look at Snowflake’s stock:

Or Oracle’s (most of their revenue still comes from databases).

Data is king. No news there.

A CRM is basically a relational database with a UI, API calls, and simple back-end logic. Can you build that yourself? Yes.

What’s at the center? A data warehouse.

Practical recommendations: Store all CRM, ERP, Marketing, and any other commercial data in your data warehouse. Actually, store all data: HR, Legal, Product, and memes in your data warehouse. You never know when it’ll be useful.

Once all your data is there, you can combine it any way you want and feed your own AI model. Without random vendor restrictions.

When you control your data 100%, you can:

✅ Build a custom CRM
✅ Create a Slack or Teams interface
✅ Do multi-touch attribution
✅ Automate data enrichment
✅ Run customer sentiment analysis
✅ Predict churn from tickets + usage data

You might need automation tools like n8n, Zapier, or Python scripts, but it’s not that hard.

ROI custom CRM vs Salesforce

Let’s say your Salesforce bill is 500k annually, plus 300k in admin and maintenance costs.

Can you build and maintain a custom CRM for less? Let’s take a look what ChatGPT has to say (feel free to trust it or not):

Even conservative estimates say yes.

With AI helping developers work faster, it’s even more viable.

I believe we have now enough tools to move on from the CRM.

Will it happen tomorrow? Probably not. In a few months? Maybe. In 2-3 years? Very likely.

Time will tell.

Finally, Sunday is hiring in the US

https://app.screenloop.com/careers/sundayapp/job_posts/6937?tab=overview

That’s it for this week.

YouTuber “Mrwhostheboss” got early access and compared the coding skills of GPT-4-mini-high and GPT-5 to create a Pokémon-inspired chess game.

Here are the GPT-4 results:

Here’s the same prompt in GPT-5:

Ok, this is quite impressive.

You are probably thinking: But Haris, what does this have to do with SaaS?

More sophisticated vibe coding

A few days ago, I posted on LinkedIn about how vibe coding is changing GTM. With GPT-5, this is now even more sophisticated. The examples that I mentioned in the post are now even easier to accomplish, and more use cases are opening up.

My prediction is that we will spend less on SaaS tools. Why buy if you can build?

Now, I am excited. I have a few more ideas that I want to build out. Will share in the next episode.

Clari and Salesloft merger will create sooooo much customer value

Just kidding — two companies that are outdated are clinging to each other to avoid slow and certain death. This Reddit user summarized it best:

Not much I can add to this.

The ultimate guide to hire a RevOps leader

Hiring a RevOps leader is hard. Great talent is rare, and VP-level talent is scarce. Many companies even make the mistake of confusing RevOps leaders with GTM Engineers (how dare they?).

So we wrote a guide to help you hire a RevOps leader and give pointers to RevOps pros on how to progress.

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Learn from RevOps Experts in the RevOps Essentials on-demand course

After 3 live cohorts with 100+ graduates, we turned the RevOps Essentials course into an on-demand learning experience. You will learn everything you need to know about RevOps to build out your career.

Do you know what the best part is? You get lifetime access :)))))))))))

We are now working on two advanced modules:

• AI in GTM & RevOps. Anything from LLMs, API, MCPs, security, to AI Agents and AI workflows.

• Communicate like a VP. Communication skills that will help you reach the executive level.

We have a launch discount for the early adopters but will increase prices once the new modules are out. Save your spot now!

More info here

Over and out, till the next time.

I wanted to write a book about RevOps, not just another business book, but something that actually makes this misunderstood function clear to everyone. English is my third language (after Bosnian and German), so yeah, I knew this wouldn't be easy.

But here we are. The RevOps Pendulum is real, and I still can't believe it.

Want the truth? I couldn't have done this alone.

My editor Laura Kluz deserves a medal for fixing my grammar disasters. My business partner Zhenya Bankouski reviewed the first draft when it probably made zero sense. Benedict Alexander Lüders created that pendulum metaphor on the cover that perfectly captures what RevOps is about: alignment and momentum. And Jacco van der Kooij wrote an incredible foreword about AI's impact on RevOps.

Plus, dozens of RevOps experts contributed their experiences: Anastasiia Binns, Andreas Drakos, Lorena Morales, Kyle Coleman, and many more. This was really a collective effort from people who get RevOps.

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What's Inside?

Here's what you'll find:

• Why RevOps isn't just another operations function (and why it's your competitive advantage)

• The four pillars that make RevOps work: Enablement, Process, Systems, and Data & Insights

• How to actually build a RevOps department (with real examples from startups to enterprises)

• The connection between RevOps and Finance that nobody talks about

• How AI is changing everything (and what to do about it)

Want to see companies with RevOps outperform their peers by 176% in EBITDA? That's in there too.

Ready to Get Your Copy?

You can grab The RevOps Pendulum now on Amazon as a paperback or ebook.

Order here

It took 20 months, hundreds of rewrites, and countless coffee sessions, but it's here. I hope it helps you build the kind of RevOps function that transforms businesses.

Because when RevOps works, it really is magic. Just don't call it admin work.

With ❤️ Haris

I might need to move to the USA... but my European coffee addiction says otherwise.

The RevOps gap between the US and Europe isn't just real—it's a canyon. Despite Europe's larger population, America's tech dominance has created a RevOps paradise that makes EU practitioners drool.

The maturity gap is painfully obvious when I'm explaining—for the thousandth time—what RevOps actually is to European prospects. My US counterparts just get to skip straight to the good stuff.

Europe's "admin stigma" problem is killing the RevOps vibe:

• Smaller budgets

• Less strategic influence

• Lower compensation

We're basically 3-4 years behind, running the same race with ankle weights.

The solution? I'm doubling down on strategic RevOps messaging until people either mute me or see the light. I refuse to let "CRM agencies" hijack the RevOps label just to slap it on tactical work.

I'd rather abandon ship completely than reduce RevOps to CRM administration. Thankfully, strategic RevOps is finally gaining traction in Europe, so I'll stick around... for now.

But RevOps in the US vs EU is not the online divide!

Commercial RevOps vs Financial Revenue Operations

Ever get caught in the RevOps identity crisis? Financial Revenue Ops and Commercial RevOps might sound like twins separated at birth, but they're actually distant cousins. One's obsessed with cash flow while the other's busy playing matchmaker between sales and marketing. Curious which one actually moves the needle for your business?

Read more to discover why this distinction matters more than you think

RevOps Course Going On-Demand

Breaking news: Our RevOps course is ditching the live format! After 50+ participants showed us that 40% prefer to learn in their pajamas at 2 AM, we're giving the people what they want. We've distilled three cohorts worth of insights into the ultimate on-demand RevOps bible—covering everything from foundation building to AI disruption. The best part? Join our waitlist and score 15% off when we launch in May.

Get on the waitlist and claim your discount

That’s it for this week!

In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, time is your most precious resource. Yet countless hours are wasted every week on an outdated rituals like pipeline review meetings. As a RevOps agency working with high-growth companies, we've seen firsthand how these meetings often mask deeper organizational issues rather than solving them. I want to admit that I was a proponent of Sales Pipeline reviews myself but grew to realize they are a patch or a symptom of a dysfunctional sales setup. Below is my view on

• Why Sales pipeline reviews should be discontinued

• Reasons why pipeline reviews is an inefficient way of running a sales team

• For which companies pipeline reviews make sense and how to run a sales pipeline review

The Hidden Truth About Pipeline Reviews

Let's be honest.

If your RevOps function is performing optimally, your CRM system already contains every data point needed to make informed decisions. When properly configured, platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot provide real-time visibility that makes weekly verbal updates redundant at best and counterproductive at worst. Talking to a former CRO with experience scaling three companies past €100M ARR he mentioned this:

"The moment I realized pipeline reviews were unnecessary was when I tallied the hours spent by our entire sales organization in these meetings. We were burning over 200 hours monthly just talking about deals instead of working them."

So why do companies still cling to Sales Pipeline Reviews?

The Culture Problem

Organizations often perpetuate pipeline reviews because they've developed a sales culture that lacks accountability. If you're investing significant capital in CRM infrastructure but still need verbal confirmations from representatives, you're facing one of two problems:

1. your sales team members aren't qualified for their roles. It is a hard one to accept but is often true at least for part of the team.

2. your expectations around CRM usage haven't been clearly established and your team has not been enabled enough to do their job

Either way, the solution isn't more meetings - it's addressing the underlying cultural issues. I call them cultural since they both revolve around "data culture" and "enablement culture" that many startups strive for. A seasoned VP of Sales of a Dutch Healthtech who managed summarized it perfectly:

The Infrastructure Gap

Many organizations struggle with suboptimal RevOps setups. Rather than developing comprehensive, intuitive systems, they've implemented patchwork solutions that frustrate users and undermine adoption. When sales representatives can't easily navigate or update your CRM, they naturally resort to verbal updates.

Revenue operations teams must recognize that quick fixes create long-term problems. A strategic approach to CRM architecture yields dividends far beyond eliminating pipeline reviews, it transforms your entire revenue function.

Luckily, we now live in the time of AIs and lots of the architecture and data decisions that previously took RevOps weeks to ideate, build and adopt now take couple of days. Here are there are two biggest challenges remain:

• Legacy setups and decisions that have been made. Quite often we at Revenue Wizards have to fix past decisions because they no longer work for the team and impede growth

• RevOps teams being underwater with tasks and projects not spending enough time and budget on education to learn how new tech could speed up the whole team.

While most organizations should work toward eliminating traditional pipeline reviews. If you do not have any of these problems above - congrats! - you can skip ahead and cancel your pipeline reviews altogether. However, if the gaps above are still there, pipeline reviews can make sense to keep in certain situations.

1. Early-stage startups still defining their sales methodology often benefit from collaborative deal discussions. Do not get stuck though. Even these should evolve toward more efficient formats as processes mature.

2. Companies undergoing significant RevOps transformations may temporarily require additional communication channels while new systems are implemented. Again, this should be viewed as temporary rather than permanent.

3. Organizations with complex, enterprise-level sales cycles involving multiple stakeholders might use pipeline reviews strategically. They are not for status updates, but for collaborative solution development and strategic account planning.

Creating a sales org that operates efficiently without pipeline reviews requires intentional design across multiple teams. So how do we build a self-sufficient Revenue Engine that does not require manual controls like weekly pipeline review?

CRM & Sales Tools Architecture

Your CRM should function as a true operational system, not merely a data repository. This means opportunity stages that mirror your actual buying process, intuitive interfaces that facilitate consistent usage, and automated workflows that reduce manual data entry. The director of revenue operations at a rapidly-growing SaaS company explained their approach:

"We completely reimagined our Salesforce instance from the rep's perspective. Each field serves a specific purpose in driving the sale forward or providing insight. Nothing exists simply for reporting."

Here are some tips and tricks we learnt so far that might help to build one:

• Outline all your toolstack and understand where the data comes from and goes to. Often there are redundancies in tooling and data that can contradict each other.

• Define and trim down the list of data points that are truly important for understanding your customer journey. Many leadership teams put all the fields on the RevOps menu that they want to to track. They end up with 400+ fields on Account with cluttered schema and no-one in the company being able to understand those let alone derive any insights.

Clear Data Expectations & Ownership

Establish and communicate explicit expectations around CRM data management. Sales reps should understand exactly which information must be updated, when updates are required, and how completeness affects forecasting and resource allocation. One particularly effective approach involves creating CRM health scores that measure data quality and timeliness. These metrics can be incorporated into performance evaluations, creating tangible incentives for maintaining accurate records.

What we see often happening here (especially in larger sales teams) is the lack of understanding or usage of the systems by the sales leadership themselves. It is the situation when Sales Reps rightfully question: "Why do I need to log my data if no-one is checking it anyways?"

Here is what we see works to establish the accountability and culture:

1. Create a central gravity point in your CRM for all pipeline updates. This can be a report, a view, a dashboard. The main point it should be "the focus point" which everyone knows and understands the importance of it. Below are some examples how it could look like for Sales Pipeline and what metrics it could include:

Essential Metrics for 99% Pipeline Health Visibility

Based on your comprehensive list and my experience with sales operations, here's the minimum set of metrics that would give you 99% visibility into pipeline health:

• Total Open Pipeline Value - fundamental measure of pipeline size and potential revenue

• Pipeline Coverage Ratio - measures if you have sufficient pipeline to achieve quota (ideal range: 3-4x)

• Pipeline by Stage Distribution - reveals pipeline balance and progression patterns

• Pipeline at Risk - value of deals showing warning signs of stalling or slipping

• Inactive Late Stage Pipeline - commit/best case deals without recent activity (critical red flag)

• Pipeline Velocity - average time deals spend in each stage compared to benchmarks

• CRM Completeness Score - composite metric tracking missing critical fields (amount, close date, next steps)

• Activity Recency - percentage of opportunities/accounts with activity in the last X days (where X varies by sales cycle)

2. Start measuring success beyond pipeline reviews. When transitioning away from traditional review meetings, implement alternative performance indicators that provide more meaningful insights:

• Track deal velocity metrics to understand how opportunities progress through your pipeline. This reveals process bottlenecks more effectively than subjective updates.

• Monitor forecast accuracy over time, with particular attention to individuals and teams consistently hitting their projections. Their behaviors often provide templates for broader organizational adoption.

• Analyze engagement patterns between sales and prospects to identify correlations with successful outcomes. This data-driven approach reveals what actually drives deals forward rather than relying on reps' judgement (I am no saying it is wrong but is likely biased in many cases).

Automated Data Intelligence

Modern RevOps leverage automation and AI to provide proactive insights without manual intervention. Implement systems that automatically flag stalled opportunities, identify risk factors in late stage funnel, and provide realistic forecasts based on historical data patterns. You sit on a gold mine of data. It is time to put this data to use A revenue operations leader who transformed a 200-person sales organization shared to us:

"We built custom algorithms that analyze past deal velocity and engagement patterns. Now our system can predict slippage with 83% accuracy before the rep even recognizes potential issues."

Continuous Enablement Programs

Effective CRM adoption requires ongoing investment in training and enablement. Recording a 1-hour zoom training video is not enablement. Like revenue, training is a recurring process. One-time onboarding or occasional refreshers won't suffice. Sales reps need consistent reinforcement and recognition of best practices.

We see it way to often that RevOps teams build shiny processes that end up not being used since no-one ever enable the teams to use them correctly. Consider implementing peer learning programs where high-performing users share their workflows and techniques. This creates positive social pressure and establishes CRM proficiency as a valued skill within your culture. It is way better spend of time to have reps sharing knowledge to each other rather than going through deals notes.

Real-World Impact

The irony is that eliminating pipeline reviews actually gives better pipeline visibility because the teams invest their time in customer interactions and timely CRM updates.

The teams who nailed don't need 101 pipeline reviews because they've built systems and cultures where accurate, real-time data naturally flows through their operations. This evolution doesn't happen overnight, but with planning and consistent execution, any organization can achieve this level of operations.

As your revenue operations partner, we specialize in transforming outdated sales processes into streamlined, data-driven engines that maximize productivity and accelerate growth. The hours formerly spent in pipeline reviews become valuable selling time, creating measurable ROI that extends far beyond improved operational efficiency.

Ready to revolutionize your revenue operations? Contact our team to discover how we can help your organization move beyond pipeline reviews into true sales excellence.

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The Numbers Are In: RevOps is a Game-Changer

A new study from us at Revenue Wizards analyzed all S&P 500 companies, and the results are striking. Companies with RevOps functions (135 out of 503 or 26.84% have RevOps) are significantly outperforming their peers across key metrics:

• 176.69% higher EBITDA

• 225.52% larger market capitalization

• 14.14% higher stock prices

For anyone still skeptical about RevOps' impact on the bottom line, these numbers should raise some eyebrows – and perhaps a few questions about their current operational structure.

Breaking It Down by Industry: Where RevOps Shines Brightest

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Finance: The Standout Performer

Finance companies with RevOps are demonstrating the most dramatic gains:

• 83.62% higher stock prices

• 198.69% greater market capitalization

• 84.96% higher earnings per share

While correlation doesn't always equal causation, when your sector shows nearly triple the market cap with RevOps, it's worth paying attention.

Technology: Innovation Meets Execution

Tech companies are proving that even the most forward-thinking sectors can benefit from better operational alignment:

• 167.48% higher EBITDA

• 35.26% higher stock prices

• 66.86% higher P/E ratios

It turns out that even the industry that brought us "move fast and break things" benefits from moving strategically and fixing things systematically.

Click here to download the full report

Biotech & Healthcare: Healthy Returns

The sector shows strong vital signs with RevOps:

• 35.39% higher earnings per share

• 66.18% greater market capitalization

• 81.49% higher EBITDA

Though they're seeing a 34.13% lower price-to-sales ratio, the overall prognosis is decidedly positive.

Manufacturing: A Complex Picture

Manufacturing presents the most nuanced case for RevOps:

• 102.28% higher price-to-book ratios

• But 13.50% lower stock prices

• And 36.15% lower EPS

This suggests that while the market recognizes the long-term value potential, the short-term transformation costs are more pronounced in this sector.

The Strategic Trade-off

Here's where it gets interesting: companies with RevOps typically show lower dividend yields and slightly reduced EPS. But don't mistake this for underperformance. These companies are deliberately choosing reinvestment over immediate payouts, focusing on building sustainable growth engines rather than short-term profit distribution.

What This Means for Business Leaders

1. RevOps is Now a Strategic Imperative: The data suggests that RevOps isn't just an operational choice – it's a key driver of financial performance.

2. Industry Context Matters: While RevOps benefits are universal, how they manifest varies significantly by sector. Understanding your industry's specific patterns is crucial for setting expectations and implementation strategies.

3. Long-term Value Creation: The lower dividend yields but higher market caps suggest that the market believes in the long-term value creation potential of RevOps.

4. RevOps improves EBIDTA: Even if your company is not listed, it shows how RevOps improves EBIDTA. Listen companies give us with more data but we can be sure that the same EBIDTA improvement are present in non listed companies

The Bottom Line

The evidence is clear: RevOps is delivering measurable financial impact across the S&P 500. While the implementation journey may require significant investment and organizational change, the potential returns are too substantial to ignore.

For those still wondering if RevOps is worth the investment, consider this: in a market where every percentage point of improvement matters, companies with RevOps are outperforming peers by triple-digit percentages in key metrics. At some point, the question stops being "Can we afford to implement RevOps?" and becomes "Can we afford not to?"

What we found was fascinating. RevOps is maturing faster than I expected, but we're also seeing some concerning trends that need addressing. Let me break it down for you.

The good news first

RevOps is gaining serious strategic influence. When we looked at the data, we found that RevOps teams have:

• High empowerment scores (3.6/5)

• Strong influence over stakeholders (3.85/5)

• Broad organizational reach (3.5/5)

This is huge. It shows that RevOps is finally getting the organizational authority it needs to drive real change.

Where things get interesting

Here's something that surprised me: 38% of RevOps teams report directly to CROs, and in smaller companies, many report straight to the CEO. This is exactly what you want to see – it means RevOps is positioned to drive strategic change.

But (and this is a big but) we're also seeing some concerning reporting structures. About 28 teams in our sample report to Sales leaders or CMOs. I've seen this setup fail too many times. RevOps needs neutral positioning to be effective.

The talent reality check

One finding hit close to home: 23% of RevOps professionals are working solo. We even found one person running RevOps alone in a 1,000+ employee company.

This isn't sustainable, but it's also not surprising. At Revenue Wizards, we often see companies trying to do too much with too little. The good news? We're seeing a trend toward building properly resourced teams, especially in larger organizations.

Let's talk about tools

The data here was eye-opening:

• Teams use an average of 11 tools

• 53% prefer custom-built solutions

• Only 15% work with implementation partners

Having worked with dozens of RevOps teams, I can tell you this: custom solutions aren't always the answer. Yes, they can solve specific problems brilliantly, but they often create maintenance headaches down the line.

Who implemented your CRM?

The AI opportunity

The data on AI adoption reveals an interesting picture: 25% of teams are currently using AI tools for reporting. This adoption rate is noteworthy for relatively new technology, but it's clear that most teams are still evaluating their approach to AI.

Our research shows that RevOps professionals have mixed views about AI implementation. Many respondents expressed that they're still developing the skills needed to effectively deploy AI tools in their workflows. This makes sense – integrating any new technology requires careful consideration of both its benefits and limitations.

The data quality challenge

I need to be honest here: data quality is still a major issue. We found five times more respondents completely unsatisfied with their data quality than satisfied. Yet 63% aren't using deduplication tools.

This is fixable. We've helped numerous companies clean up their data, and while it's not glamorous work, it's essential for everything else you want to do in RevOps.

This Report as a Podcast Episode

You can listen to the podcast here.

What this means for 2025

Based on our findings, here's what I believe RevOps teams should focus on:

1. Leadership development is non-negotiable The data shows most teams spend less than 10 hours annually on soft skills. This needs to change. RevOps is as much about influence as it is about operations.

2. Balance your focus 45% of teams prioritize Sales over other functions. While Sales is crucial, true RevOps success comes from supporting all revenue-generating functions equally.

3. Get serious about data Start with the basics: implement deduplication, use progressive field capture, and make data quality everyone's responsibility.

4. Right-size your tech stack More tools aren't always better. Focus on processes first (54% of our respondents got this right) and choose technology that supports those processes.

Looking ahead

What makes me optimistic is seeing how far RevOps has come. Yes, we have challenges to solve, but the foundation is strong. RevOps teams have the influence and positioning they need – now it's about using that position to drive real change.

Want the full story?

This post covers the highlights, but there's much more in our full report.

You can download it here.

About the author: As the founder of Revenue Wizards, Europe's leading RevOps agency, we help companies do more with less headcount - especially when RevOps empowers GTM teams with AI. Our research covered 180 RevOps professionals across 28 countries between September and November 2024.

1. Economic Scale: GDP

The United States boasts a GDP of $27.36 trillion (2023), reflecting a massive, unified market. By contrast, the European Union (EU) stands at $18.35 trillion, with the broader continent totaling $23.05 trillion.

For businesses targeting Europe, understanding the fragmented economic landscape is essential. While Germany, France, and the UK may provide opportunities similar to the U.S., smaller markets like Portugal or Slovenia have significantly different scales and growth trajectories.

2. Languages: Communication Barriers

One of the most visible differences lies in language diversity. The U.S. operates almost entirely in English, providing simplicity in communication and marketing. Europe, on the other hand, has 24 official EU languages and over 250 spoken languages across the continent.

This linguistic diversity means that businesses cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all approach. For instance:

• Marketing content must be localized, not just translated.

• Sales teams need proficiency in the local language, especially in B2B or non-tech industries.

• Customer support may need to be available in multiple languages, depending on your target markets.

To overcome this, many companies establish regional hubs and hire local talent to ensure language and cultural fluency.

3. Regulation: A Heavily Governed Landscape

The U.S. regulatory environment is relatively straightforward compared to Europe’s. In the EU, businesses must navigate complex regulatory frameworks at both the national and EU levels. While the EU provides some harmonization through its single market policies, individual countries still enforce unique laws in areas like taxation, employment, and consumer protection.

However, there’s an upside: achieving compliance in one EU country often makes it easier to expand to others. For example, adhering to the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) opens the door to data handling in multiple member states. Still, the sheer volume of red tape can slow down decision-making and execution.

4. Ease of Doing Business

The World Bank’s "Ease of Doing Business" ranking highlights the significant differences between the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. ranks 6th globally, benefiting from streamlined processes, consistent regulations, and an entrepreneur-friendly environment. Europe’s average ranking, however, sits at 39.7, with considerable variation among countries. (e.g. Denmark is 4th above the US)

What does this mean for businesses?

• In the U.S., scaling often requires fewer adjustments to processes.

• In Europe, bureaucracy varies. Some markets, like Denmark or the Netherlands, are relatively easy to operate in, while others, such as Italy or Greece, present more obstacles.

A business entering Europe must assess the operational landscape of each target country to plan accordingly.

5. Taxes: A Complex Challenge in Europe

In the U.S., taxes are relatively straightforward, with businesses dealing mainly with federal, state, and local tax codes. In Europe, every country has its own tax system, VAT rates, and compliance requirements.

For example:

• VAT (Value Added Tax) rates differ across the EU, and businesses must register for VAT in each country where they sell goods or services.

• Corporate tax rates and rules around profit repatriation vary widely.

This complexity increases the cost of compliance and requires robust tax expertise or partnerships with local firms.

6. Payment Systems: Credit Card vs. Market-Specific Preferences

In the U.S., credit cards dominate payment systems, creating consistency and ease for consumers and businesses. In Europe, payment preferences are market-dependent.

Examples include:

• In Germany, direct bank transfers and invoicing are more common than credit cards.

• In Sweden, digital wallets like Swish dominate.

• Across many European countries, cash remains a preferred method for smaller transactions.

Businesses must adapt their payment systems to align with local consumer habits. Implementing region-specific solutions, such as SEPA for bank transfers or Klarna for buy-now-pay-later, can significantly improve conversion rates.

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7. Talent Availability: Unified vs. Fragmented Labor Markets

The U.S. benefits from a large, unified labor market. Talent moves freely across states without language barriers or legal restrictions. Europe’s labor market, however, is fragmented by language, culture, and varying labor laws.

Key challenges in Europe:

• Labor mobility is restricted by linguistic and cultural factors.

• Labor laws vary widely, influencing hiring costs and flexibility.

• Specialist talent, such as in tech, may be concentrated in specific hubs like Berlin or Amsterdam.

To navigate this, businesses often establish multiple regional offices and invest heavily in recruitment tailored to local markets.

8. Cultural Diversity: Nuances Across Countries

While the U.S. has cultural diversity within a shared framework, Europe’s diversity is more pronounced both within and between countries. For example:

• A marketing strategy that resonates in the UK might fall flat in Spain or Poland.

• Attitudes toward consumerism, sustainability, and digital adoption differ widely across markets.

Understanding these cultural nuances is critical to tailoring everything from branding to customer engagement. Businesses must invest in market research to avoid cultural missteps that could harm their reputation.

9. Consumer Behavior: Adoption Patterns and Purchasing Power

In the U.S., consumerism drives rapid adoption of new technologies and products, supported by relatively high disposable incomes. Europe, on the other hand, presents a patchwork of consumer behaviors:

• In wealthier markets like Germany or Scandinavia, consumers may embrace innovation but are often more cautious than Americans.

• In Southern and Eastern Europe, purchasing power is lower, and price sensitivity is higher.

These differences require tailored go-to-market approaches, from pricing strategies to product positioning.

GTM Strategy Recommendations

1. Start with Early Adopters: Early adopters exist across Europe, but they are only an entry point. A sustainable business model requires scaling to broader segments.

2. Enter the UK First: The UK offers a market similar to the U.S., with English as the primary language. Use this as a stepping stone to enter other European countries.

3. Commit to a Single Market: Focus on one country (e.g., Germany or France) and invest in local assets, such as native-speaking sales teams and tailored campaigns.

4. Adapt to Local Culture: Walmart’s failure in Germany compared to Aldi’s success in the U.S. demonstrates the need to respect local buying behaviors.

5. Base in a Tech Hub: Cities like London, Berlin, or Amsterdam are ideal for accessing talent and building infrastructure.

Final Takeaway

Europe’s complexity is both a challenge and an opportunity. Success requires treating each country as a unique market while leveraging the EU’s harmonized regulations to scale efficiently. Many European startups prioritize entering the U.S. first due to its simplicity, but U.S. companies eyeing Europe must embrace the nuances or risk costly missteps. Adapt to these realities, and you’ll unlock one of the world’s most lucrative and diverse regions for growth.

What Are SOPs and Why Do They Matter?

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), often referred to as playbooks, checklists, or manuals, are detailed instructions for executing specific processes. Effective SOPs answer critical questions:

• What needs to be done?

• Who is responsible for doing it?

• How are tools and systems used?

• What are the quality standards - think Service Level Agreements (SLAs)?

• What happens when something goes wrong or is unclear?

The ultimate measure of a great SOP is continuity. If a key team member is out sick, operations should not grind to a halt. A clear SOP ensures work proceeds seamlessly, reducing bottlenecks and keeping the team on track.

The Reach of SOPs Across Business Functions

SOPs can be applied across the board. They apply to:

• Sales: From lead engagement to contract closing.

• Marketing: Campaign execution and performance tracking.

• Customer Success: Onboarding, issue resolution, and renewals.

• Invoicing and Finance: Billing workflows and payment reconciliation.

And can be used for any other business function.

Proper documentation of these processes transforms guesswork into predictability, creating a foundation for sustained growth.

The Cost of Ad Hoc Processes

When businesses operate without SOPs, inconsistency becomes the norm. For instance, sales reps might engage leads differently, leading to scattered outcomes and unreliable data. This variability creates a cascade of challenges:

1. Unreliable Reporting: Without uniform processes, metrics such as conversion rates become meaningless.

2. Missed Learnings: It’s impossible to identify what works (or doesn’t) when everyone follows their own playbook.

3. Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Pain: Star employees might succeed with their "own way," but their success is not scalable or repeatable.

One common objection to SOPs is, "What I’m doing works for me." This may be true at an individual level but is irrelevant for organizational growth. Businesses must prioritize consistency over individualism to achieve predictable revenue.

Standard Operating Procedures: The Key to Predictable Revenue Growth

The formula is simple: SOPs plus Revenue Operations (RevOps) equals predictable revenue. Yet, so many businesses continue to rely on ad hoc processes, creating volatility and inefficiency. Without SOPs, even the most sophisticated RevOps strategies fall short of their potential. Here's why.

What Are SOPs and Why Do They Matter?

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), often referred to as playbooks, checklists, or manuals, are detailed instructions for executing specific processes. Effective SOPs answer critical questions:

• What needs to be done?

• Who is responsible for doing it?

• How are tools and systems used?

• What are the quality standards (e.g., Service Level Agreements or SLAs)?

• What happens when something goes wrong or is unclear?

The ultimate measure of a great SOP is continuity. If a key team member is out sick, operations should not grind to a halt. A clear SOP ensures work proceeds seamlessly, reducing bottlenecks and keeping the team on track.

The Reach of SOPs Across Business Functions

SOPs are not just for isolated departments; they are the connective tissue that aligns all revenue-generating processes. They apply to:

• Sales: From lead engagement to contract closing.

• Marketing: Campaign execution and performance tracking.

• Customer Success: Onboarding, issue resolution, and renewals.

• Invoicing and Finance: Billing workflows and payment reconciliation.

Proper documentation of these processes transforms guesswork into predictability, creating a foundation for sustained growth.

The Cost of Ad Hoc Processes

When businesses operate without SOPs, inconsistency becomes the norm. For instance, sales reps might engage leads differently, leading to scattered outcomes and unreliable data. This variability creates a cascade of challenges:

1. Unreliable Reporting: Without uniform processes, metrics such as conversion rates become meaningless.

2. Missed Learnings: It’s impossible to identify what works (or doesn’t) when everyone follows their own playbook.

3. Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Pain: Star employees might succeed with their "own way," but their success is not scalable or repeatable.

One common objection to SOPs is, "What I’m doing works for me." This may be true at an individual level but is irrelevant for organizational growth. Businesses must prioritize consistency over individualism to achieve predictable revenue.

Predictability Versus Volatility: The Power of SOPs

Consider these two scenarios:

1. Reps hit their targets with wide variance—80%, 50%, 154%, 90%.

2. All reps consistently land between 90–95% of target.

Although the average might be the same, the second scenario is vastly superior for forecasting and planning. Predictability enables better decision-making, resource allocation, and long-term growth strategies.

Bridging the Gap With RevOps and SOPs

When working with new clients, I often ask to see their documentation. Nine times out of ten, it’s incomplete or nonexistent. This is a missed opportunity. Without proper documentation:

• Teams waste time reinventing workflows.

• Reporting becomes anecdotal rather than data-driven.

• Scaling becomes a gamble rather than a strategy.

RevOps can’t fix everything, but integrating SOPs into RevOps efforts is a game-changer. It creates the consistency needed to scale successfully and aligns teams to achieve shared goals.

Take Action: Building Your SOP Library

Start small. Create one SOP per week. After a year, you’ll have 52 processes documented, a significant competitive advantage. Use these steps:

1. Identify a recurring task that causes confusion or delays.

2. Document the process, focusing on clarity and simplicity.

3. Review and refine the SOP with input from the team.

4. Store it in an easily accessible location for future use.

Ready? Let’s SOP!

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RevOps Team Size by Company Stage

1. 0-10 Full-Time Employees (FTEs)

No in-house RevOps needed.

At this early stage, your focus should be on achieving product-market fit (PMF). Revenue Operations should take a back seat to growth experiments and customer discovery. If necessary, consult a RevOps agency for one-off projects like basic CRM setup or process mapping, but avoid hiring in-house talent just yet.

RevOps Best Practices: Use scalable, lightweight tools that can grow with you.

2. 11-25 FTEs (3 Sellers)

No in-house RevOps required.

At this stage, operational complexity is still low, but processes like lead tracking and reporting may need basic optimization. A limited engagement with a RevOps agency or freelance RevOps consultant can help "keep the lights on" by addressing small-scale operational needs like data hygiene or pipeline management.

Revenue Operations Strategy: Ensure sales, marketing, and customer success teams share consistent goals.

Why Choose a RevOps Agency: Outsourcing allows you to manage capacity without committing to an in-house hire.

3. 26-50 FTEs (6 Sellers, 2 Marketing, 1 Customer Success)

Hire 1 in-house RevOps professional.

With more defined sales, marketing, and customer success teams, inefficiencies can creep into your processes. A dedicated RevOps hire ensures alignment across teams, helps manage your CRM, and supports data-driven decision-making. For added flexibility, supplement with a RevOps agency to handle peak workloads or special projects.

4. 51-100 FTEs (15+ Go-To-Market Team Members)

Build a team of 2-3 in-house RevOps professionals.

At this size, your Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy becomes more complex, requiring specialists to handle analytics, enablement, and process optimization. In-house RevOps experts ensure smoother collaboration between teams and improved operational efficiency.

5. 100-250 FTEs (25-100 in GTM Roles)

Build a team of 4-12 RevOps professionals.

Your RevOps team should now include specialized roles such as analysts, project managers, and enablement leads. They’ll manage technology stacks, process integrations, and revenue analytics to ensure seamless operations. A RevOps agency can still play a critical role in strategic initiatives or filling short-term gaps in capacity.

6. 250-1,000 FTEs (100-400 in GTM Roles)

Scale to 13-100 RevOps professionals.

Large organizations require robust RevOps teams with segmented roles across sales, marketing, and customer success operations. The focus shifts to building predictable revenue streams and advanced automation. Agencies can still support special projects like market expansions or complex integrations.

7. 1,000+ FTEs (401+ in GTM Roles)

A) 2 to 5 or b) 100+

At large enterprises the RevOps strategy can be quite different. It can either be a small strategic team of 2-5 that works on strategic initiatives or it can be a large team with over 100 FTE segmented into sub-teams managing CRM, enablement, analytics, and process optimization. The difference exists as it is not always advisable to transform an existing organizational structure to a full RevOps function. Agencies at this level work more on specific strategic projects with the company like a new sales process, segmentation, or renewal process.

Why Outsource RevOps to an Agency?

At any stage, a RevOps agency can play a pivotal role in scaling your operations. Here’s why outsourcing might make sense:

1. Avoid Early Hiring Mistakes
   Postponing an internal hire allows you to focus on short-term needs without committing to a full-time employee.

2. Access to Expertise
   Agencies bring a wealth of experience, from B2B revenue growth strategies to SaaS-specific solutions.

3. Fill Capacity Gaps
   As your in-house team grows, agencies can handle overflow work or one-off projects like CRM migrations or revenue strategy overhauls.

4. Specialized Projects
   Use an agency for unique challenges, such as scaling internationally or implementing advanced automation.

5. Cost-Effective Solutions
   The cost of hiring a RevOps consultant or agency is often more manageable than the long-term expense of a new hire during transitional stages.

Outbound sales, especially when it involves cold calling, is notoriously challenging. If your team already has the capabilities to handle outbound efforts effectively, you might not need to consider external help. However, if your internal setup lacks these capabilities, this discussion is for you.

Should You Contract an Outbound Sales Agency?

This is a question I frequently discuss with clients. The decision to outsource your outbound sales can significantly impact your business's growth trajectory, costs, and overall efficiency. Let's break down the considerations to help you make an informed choice.

The Problem: Scaling an Internal Outbound Team is Hard

Scaling an internal outbound team isn't a walk in the park. It requires substantial financial investment, often running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. The investment goes:

• Initial set-up costs

• sales coach and other enablement costs

• Necessary tooling

• Hiring good talent

Additionally, even when hiring the right talent it is hard to keep sales representatives. A high attrition rates among sales representatives will disrupt your momentum and necessitate continuous hiring and training efforts.

When Outsourcing Makes Sense

There are several scenarios where outsourcing your outbound sales to an agency makes perfect sense. If you're looking to reduce founder-led sales efforts, entering a new market, running a seasonal sales campaign, or if time is of the essence, an external agency can provide the necessary support. Additionally, agencies often have access to advanced tools and technology, which can be particularly beneficial for early-stage tech companies looking to scale quickly.

When Not to Outsource

However, outsourcing isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. If your business model revolves around selling a process rather than a product, or if your service or solution is highly complex, maintaining direct control over your sales process might be crucial. Outsourcing in such cases can lead to a loss of control and potential reputational risks, which might outweigh the benefits of hiring an external agency.

But when you hire an outbound agency, make sure they do multi-threading.

Embracing Multi-Threading and Cold Calling

I firmly believe in the power of multi-threading as essential components of a robust outbound strategy. Multi-threading simply means that you leverage multiple channels for your outreach. Be that social like LinkedIn, email, calls, or conferences. While there are industries where AI-based solutions combined with LinkedIn and email can yield impressive results, certain sectors still benefit significantly from the personal touch of cold calls. The key is to assess whether your target market can engage effectively through these channels without requiring in-depth platform discussions during the initial contact.

ROI Calculation: Internal Team vs. Agency

Let's delve into some numbers to illustrate the cost dynamics. Imagine you have a small Business Development Representative (BDR) team in Western Europe. Monthly expenses might look something like this:

• 3 BDRs with On-Target Earnings (OTE) of €15,000 each

• 1 BDR Manager with an OTE of €7,500

(assuming €60k yearly OTE for BDR manager and €90k for BDR manager)

This brings the total compensation to €22,500. Adding 20% overhead for taxes, tools, and administrative costs, the monthly expense totals €27,000. If each BDR targets 10 meetings per month, the cost per meeting stands at €900.

These numbers are quite optimistic, considering that achieving 10 meetings per month can be challenging. In comparison, some agencies charge between €600 and €1,000 per meeting, or offer retainers in a similar price range. Purely from a cost perspective, partnering with an agency often emerges as the more economical choice, provided they deliver the promised meetings.

Recommendations: Test Before Committing

While the numbers might suggest outsourcing as the better option, it's essential not to rely solely on a simple ROI calculation. There are intangible factors, such as loss of direct control and potential reputational risks, that need to be considered.

My recommendation is to conduct a test in a specific market. A three-month trial with an agency can provide valuable insights and is a relatively minor investment compared to hiring and building a new internal team.

Sometimes, specific market conditions or regulatory changes might necessitate quick action, making outsourcing a strategic move to capture opportunities swiftly. Conversely, if you have an established team and simply need to ramp up outreach for a limited period, an agency can provide the additional manpower without the long-term commitment.

So, outsource or not outsource?

Choosing between outsourcing your outbound sales or building an internal team depends largely on your unique situation. Evaluate your current capabilities, consider the costs and benefits, and weigh the intangible factors that could impact your business. By conducting thoughtful tests and analyses, you can determine the best path forward to drive your sales efforts effectively.

I can’t stress this enough because, after the recent shutdowns of a few RevOps startups, some people have made a Freudian slip. They’re confusing the failure of a tool with the failure of RevOps itself.

That’s like saying because Vine failed, short-term video content failed too. But we all know how that turned out. Vine was replaced, and now short-form video content is thriving more than ever.

So, What Is RevOps?

It’s time to set the record straight. RevOps is not just a shiny software solution. It’s:

• A strategic framework that integrates departments.

• A department within an organization’s structure.

• A role that exists within teams.

When I talk to people outside the RevOps bubble—developers, designers, product managers, front-line workers, and even lawyers—I explain it like this:
"We in RevOps focus on breaking down silos between departments to positively impact business performance and enhance client experiences."

Without fail, the response is always the same:
"Oh, at my job, the silos are so bad. Nobody talks to each other, and we waste so much time and energy..."

The story repeats, again and again.

Do You Need More Confirmation?

We’ve got the data to back it up. Harvard Business Review reports that 90% of sales and marketing teams are misaligned, and IDC Markets shows that 20-30% of potential revenue is lost due to that misalignment.

Folks, this is a big deal. There’s a lot of work to be done.

The Hard Truth About RevOps

Let’s be real: RevOps isn’t easy. It’s not just about implementing the latest tool and calling it a day. It’s about change management, and anyone who’s been through a significant organizational shift knows that change management takes time and effort.

In fact, if you’re thinking about investing in a RevOps tool, I’d urge you to reconsider. Spend that budget on a leadership coach instead. The ROI of developing strong leadership skills will far outweigh any tool you might adopt.

Why? Because RevOps Is More About People Than Tools

At its core, RevOps is about soft skills. It’s about fostering collaboration, communication, and alignment across teams. Things that no tool can truly fix. For lasting impact in RevOps, soft skills trump hard skills every time.

Key Takeaways

• RevOps is not a tool.

• RevOps is a strategic framework that integrates departments.

• RevOps is a department within an organization’s structure.

• RevOps is a role that exists within teams.

🕊️

P.S.
I’m not saying there’s no place for tools. If you find a tool that genuinely adds value, by all means, go for it. Just remember, RevOps isn’t about the tools—it’s about the people and the processes.

Revenue Wizards is a hands-on Revenue Operations Consultancy for growth companies focusing on efficiencies. We provide GTM & RevOps support with the goal of Revenue growth, GTM cost reduction, and Profitability. You can learn more about Revenue Wizards here.

Zhenya Bankouski is Co-Founder and Revenue Operations Partner. You can follow him on LinkedIn 🔔 where he posts regularly with practical advice on building efficient RevOps teams and truly data-driven organizations.

Haris Odobasic is Co-founder and Revenue Strategy Partner. Enjoys bringing strategy to life with RevOps.

Many RevOps teams dream of becoming AI-driven engines of efficiency and foresight, but the journey is anything but straightforward.

In this article, we'll explore the RevOps AI Maturity Model. A roadmap that can help you understand where your team is today and what it takes to reach the next level of AI adoption.

Stage 1: AI Beginner

Most companies are still in this foundational stage. At this level, the emphasis is on experimentation, setting up clean data foundations, and trying to understand where AI could make an impact.

Characteristics include manual data handling, data silos, and an overall lack of AI-specific resources or expertise. The challenges are often related to inconsistent data, lack of technical skills, and internal resistance to adopting new tools.

The next steps for AI Beginners? Establish a clear and structured data foundation, start training your team on the basics of AI, and focus on identifying simple, high-impact use use case.

Curated GTM & RevOps AI Tools

We looked at over 320 AI tools that have relevance for GTM or RevOps. We worked with some of the tools, tested some, or had demos of the tool. In a few cases the review is just based on external research.

The result is a list of 29 recommendations. You can find the list here.

One observation was that so many companies claim that have an AI. But in so many cases this AI was just a simple API call to OpenAI. Very often less than 5% of a the softwares features had something to do with AI and the rest nothing. More than 200 of SaaS tools we looked at fall in that category. We excluded all from the our list.

Lessons: Do some deep research as many company use “AI” just as a marketing term.

Stage 2: AI Explorer

The AI Explorer stage is where AI begins to make a noticeable impact. At this level, organizations have implemented AI tools for specific tasks and are actively experimenting across different RevOps functions.

The challenges? Scaling these solutions beyond isolated use cases and integrating data from different sources to ensure a consistent flow.

The next steps involve creating an AI roadmap to scale, investing in data quality, and building feedback loops to refine AI models.

Stage 3: AI Strategist

Companies that reach the AI Strategist level are truly AI-first. They use predictive and prescriptive analytics to drive decision. Making use across all GTM & RevOps processes, ensuring that AI is seamlessly integrated into core functions.

The challenges at this stage include managing AI bias, ensuring ethical practices (like compliance with the EU AI Act), and acquiring the right talent for specialized AI roles.

Next steps? Establishing an AI Center of Excellence, scaling AI to customer facing roles for a more personalized experience, and continuing to optimize AI models for ongoing improvement.

Moving Through the Maturity Model

Where does your Company stand? My guess is the following distribution for companies:

• AI Beginner = 99,9%

• AI Explorer 0,089%

• AI Strategiest = 0,001%

I assume here all companies globally. If we consider the subset of SaaS that have RevOps. Then maybe the numbers look like this:

• AI Beginner = 98%

• AI Explorer 1,9%

• AI Strategiest = 0,1%

Sounds low? Not in my experiences. Having an effective RevOps framework running in a company requires a lot of work and effort. Excellent Change Management is essential.

With AI we are adding a new technology that is changing how businesses work. This will require even more change. The thing is business need to change to stay competitive.

New lean tech companies will have it easier. To move quickly along the maturity model. Existing players will have a harder time as the required change in their business will require tough decisions—aligning teams but also reducing teams.

But moving from Stage 1 to 2 to 3 is necessity, not a luxury.

The leaders of the future will all be AI Strategists. Where does your team stand today, and how can you take the next step on your AI journey?

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WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY PROFESSION?

Why is it shrinking?

During university, my favorite subjects were research, statistics, and analyzing large data sets for my economics thesis. So, as you can imagine, this data digging is fun for me.

Now that we understand the global disruption, what about specific regions?

It turns out the decline was driven by North America, while other regions were actually seeing growth. Particularly, the EMEA region is experiencing an increase in RevOps professionals. Since I’m based in Amsterdam, I can confirm this with anecdotal evidence—more companies are hiring for RevOps, teams are growing, and the job market is positive. Jack Hargett, a RevOps recruiter from London, explained it this way:

He made a great point. People are doing RevOps but may not necessarily have "RevOps" in their title.

RevOps is both a department and a strategic framework. You can follow the principles of RevOps without having it in your title. For instance, before my role was officially called RevOps, I worked in Sales Operations. At some point, I realized that what I was doing—supporting sales, marketing, and customer success—was essentially RevOps. Convincing the leadership team to change the title took time, but it was a necessary step. Many companies are in a similar position.

However, I would strongly advocate for calling it RevOps because semantics matter. It's simply clearer to call it "Revenue Operations."

So, it's possible there are people working in RevOps under different titles. If that's the case, the numbers in EMEA should be even higher. But does this fully explain the decline in RevOps?

Before writing this blog, I shared the data on LinkedIn without much explanation to see how the RevOps community would interpret it. One recurring point was the number of GTM titles.

Mallory, that was a great point! I hadn’t considered that, so I checked for the strings “GTM Operations” and “GTM Ops.” Those two titles account for about 780 professionals. The limitation is that I didn't measure this a year ago, so I have no easy comparison. Stay tuned for next year's comparison!

Even so, that still wouldn’t fully account for the gap, assuming all of those with GTM Ops titles are from the past 12 months.

Could industry differences explain the decline?

This is where it gets interesting. We’ve seen a significant increase in the IT sector, which includes both software and hardware-related businesses, with smaller increases in finance and advertising.

Let’s break this down. RevOps focuses on revenue, and several parts of a business impact revenue: sales, marketing, and customer success. This is especially important for businesses with recurring revenue models, such as SaaS, finance (loans or mortgages), or advertising (where clients are often managed on a retainer model). However, RevOps principles are still applicable to other industries, like furniture sales, where aligning marketing and sales around revenue is crucial. Some companies may already be doing this but just call it "Sales Operations."

Side topic: I am working on a RevOps book. For that I want to hear from you! I am conducting a global RevOps survey. Part of results of the survey will be used in the book. Making it a community driven book for the RevOps community. Want to participate? Follow the this link.

It only takes 7-12 min and for each response we will donate to animal charity.

One practical explanation for the data shift could be that some industries previously classified under "Other" have moved into the IT category. I can’t rule that out.

Now, let’s compare company sizes.

We see no noticeable change for companies with fewer than 500 employees, a slight increase for those between 501 and 1,000 employees, a slightly larger decrease for companies with 1,001 to 5,000 employees, and a significant drop for enterprises with more than 5,000 employees.

So, what’s happening here?

We’ve heard about widespread layoffs over the past 24 months. It’s likely these layoffs have affected the data. Large enterprises, which typically have more cash and tend to solve problems by hiring more people, became inefficient. The layoffs were a correction, and now there simply aren’t enough RevOps jobs in large enterprises.

Interestingly, other company sizes haven’t been as impacted. It might be easier to find a new RevOps role in a startup compared to a large enterprise. There’s always another scaling startup around the corner that needs talented RevOps professionals.

Another factor in large enterprises is the need for specialization. A person with a RevOps title may focus more on strategy, while execution roles (like enablement specialists, solution architects, or system administrators) might not carry the RevOps title but still fall under the RevOps umbrella.

This could include roles like:

• Enablement specialists

• Solution architects

• System administrators (focused on permissions, flows, etc.)

• Project managers

• Database managers

• Pricing specialists

The organizational chart below helps illustrate this.

Could RevOps be saturated in enterprises?

Take the table below, based on LinkedIn data. There are over 24 million companies with 1-50 employees, but only 6,000 companies with more than 5,000 employees. It makes sense—it's easier to start a business than to grow one to enterprise size.

While larger enterprises have the highest share of RevOps professionals, it’s important to interpret these numbers with caution. For instance, 100 RevOps professionals in one large enterprise and 100 spread across 100 small companies would yield the same percentage.

Still, we can conclude that larger enterprises have relatively more RevOps professionals than smaller companies.

Putting it all together

To summarize:

The global RevOps population is down by 1,000 people.

GTM Ops titles only explain a fraction of the decline.

The largest drop occurred in North America.

RevOps professionals in the IT sector increased, while other industries saw declines.

Large enterprises experienced the biggest drop in RevOps professionals.

Hypothesis 1: Layoffs hit North America’s RevOps professionals the hardest.

It’s possible that layoffs had such a strong impact in North America that, despite growth in the IT sector, the overall number of RevOps professionals declined.

Hypothesis 2: RevOps in non-recurring revenue industries became more specialized (again).

RevOps is most effective in businesses with recurring revenue models. Non-recurring revenue industries may have experimented with RevOps, but during tough times, these professionals were laid off.

While both hypotheses offer potential explanations, I don’t have the data to confirm either one. If you know a PhD student looking for a research topic, share this blog—it could be an interesting area to explore.

The Future of RevOps

Is RevOps doomed? I doubt it. While the golden age of SaaS (2009-2021) might be over, we’re nearing the end of the correction (layoffs tend to have a lagging effect). Right now, there’s a spike in demand for RevOps, especially in the EMEA region, with North America catching up.

I’m optimistic about the future and look forward to revisiting this assessment in 2025.

Revenue Wizards is a hands-on Revenue Operations Consultancy for growth companies focusing on efficiencies. We provide GTM & RevOps support with the goal of Revenue growth, GTM cost reduction, and Profitability. You can learn more about Revenue Wizards here.

Zhenya Bankouski is Co-Founder and Revenue Operations Partner. You can follow him on LinkedIn 🔔 where he posts regularly with practical advice on building efficient RevOps teams and truly data-driven organizations.

Haris Odobasic is Co-founder and Revenue Strategy Partner. Enjoys bringing strategy to life with RevOps.