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Customer City
Date
August 8, 2022
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How Aligning Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success Can Make Your B2B SaaS Company World-Class
Introduction
According to a recent McKinsey survey, COVID-19 spurred the digital transformation of business operations forward by three to four years. As companies of all sizes coped with a historic economic downturn, an undeniable truth quickly became apparent; organizations that embraced digital tools and processes and relied on data to make critical decisions survived and even thrived.
Another reality also became apparent—prioritizing the relationship a company had with existing buyers and optimizing the customer experience paid high dividends. As companies scrambled to secure working capital and shore up cash on hand, their relationship with their buyers determined if they were able to get paid as customers' money dwindled.
Cooperation between teams, prioritizing the customer journey, and working with Big Data have become more crucial than ever to operating an agile business that can weather tough times and excel when market conditions are good. Businesses that once dragged their feet on these concepts are now leaning in to see what they need to change to catch up with competitors and stay relevant.
As per Gartner, by 2025, 60% of B2B sales organizations will transition from experience- and intuition based selling to data-driven selling, merging their sales process, sales applications, sales data and sales analytics into a single operational practice - RevOps.
SaaS Companies Need To Modernize to Stay Competitive
A clear divide is emerging as customer-centric operations, and data-driven processes become the norm. Companies that fail to embrace modern standards of doing business risk falling behind and becoming one of the many brands that close because they didn't innovate in time.
Some SaaS companies can make the mistake of assuming they are immune to becoming obsolete because they are tech-based businesses, but given the high rate of SaaS business failures, this is clearly not enough. A B2B SaaS company can exhibit many of the same problems that plague businesses in legacy sectors:
- Data silos and lack of data sharing
- Lack of cooperation between departments
- Poor data management and poor data transparency
- Lack of a robust Customer Success Strategy
- Too much dependence on manual tasks
- Lack of clarity regarding what does and doesn't drive profit
- Prioritizing customer acquisition at the expense of customer retention
The B2B SaaS market is incredibly competitive, and with less than 10% of new SaaS companies surviving long-term, it's imperative that businesses in this industry look at all options available to run a modern, data-efficient organization. The pace of change occurring in the data-driven economy means that B2B SaaS companies can not afford to follow outdated methods of operation. They can't be lax on data, and they can't take any part of the customer journey for granted.
The 3 Core Operations Driving Revenue in B2B SaaS
A crucial step that every B2B SaaS company should take to secure its long-term survival is understanding the role of Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success and how each of these operations impacts the business.
Sales Operations or Sales Ops involves all activities, tools, and processes that enable sales teams to sell more efficiently. An optimized sales workflow is accomplished by providing sales teams with strategic direction and the appropriate technology to reduce any friction in the sales process. An effective Sales Ops team should provide a B2B SaaS Company with the following benefits:
- Higher and faster conversion rates on leads
- More effective onboarding of new sales associates
- Clear and accurate deal and sales intelligence
- Higher productivity and improved sales territory planning
Marketing Operations or Marketing Ops is all processes, technologies, and teams within an organization that collectively enable marketing strategies to be deployed effectively at scale. As with Sales Ops, this department operates as the governing backbone for all activities that fall within its purview, ensuring that teams have clear directives and are able to receive what they need to deliver their best work. The benefits a B2B SaaS company should expect from its Marketing Ops include:
- Clear data reporting that proves the ROI of all marketing activities
- A reduction in cost and increased return on performance for marketing campaigns
- Targeted marketing that funnels pre-qualified leads to Sales teams
- Creation, maintenance, and management of brand assets and company content
Customer Success Operations or CS Ops is a relatively new function in business operations developed based on the recognition that quality customer experiences lead to higher revenue. CS Ops has a cooperative relationship with both Sales and Marketing and works with an entire organization to advocate for the best interest of a company's buyers. What a B2B SaaS company should expect from CS Ops:
- Improved customer data and 360-views of the customer journey
- Reduced customer churn
- Increased customer lifetime value
- Improve customer support
RevOps Aligns Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success
In an optimal scenario, all three of these operations work cohesively to drive a SaaS company toward world-class functionality. Teams should be working as a unified front instead of running as walled-off fiefdoms. The customer and sales intelligence they generate should be fully visible, easily attainable, and accurate.
There should also be a clear indication of how each department generates consistent, predictable revenue. Revenue Operations or RevOps has emerged as a relatively new strategy geared toward aligning these fundamental operations to fulfill these objectives.
RevOps helps companies achieve operations excellence by unifying Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success toward a similar goal. It functions across an entire organization influencing tech stacks, strategies, budgets, and workflows to ensure maximum return at minimum cost for all stakeholders.
A B2B SaaS company with an eye toward growth will need scalable operations. Teams that interact seamlessly under a RevOps model aren't hindered by a protectionist culture that slows down transactions and information sharing. They work cooperatively to meet goals and to ensure they are providing quality products, services, and customer experiences. Such a company is positioned well to transition through all stages of growth and development.
Ready to See How RevOps Can Work For You?
Savvy B2B SaaS companies see the importance of embracing digital transformation and aligning operations for improved processes and revenue generation. Adopting RevOps can be the deciding factor in a data-driven economy that helps your SaaS business beat the odds.
Customer City welcomes the opportunity to assist RevOps-curious companies with making a smooth and cost-effective transition into Revenue Operations. See what we can do for your business by scheduling a call today!
