8 Common RevOps Objections and How to Overcome Them
If you follow the revenue operations (RevOps) transformation in business, you probably wonder about the concept and question if it could work for your company. RevOps is an exciting and powerful approach and its power-boosting how companies operate. Still, it can be tempting to adopt a ‘why bother’ attitude that leads to RevOps objections. But there’s more risk by not adapting as your company will compete against businesses which already transitioned.
Problem: As a business leader, you understand the benefits of revenue operations. But you’ll have members of your team who might not get it. Remember, even at a time of immense change, some people still resist it.
Opportunity: Understanding the RevOps objections is vital to transitioning your company. As more companies streamline their operations, you need to overcome resistance. Doing so will allow you to compete head-to-head on a level playing field.
Resolution: Learn about the eight common RevOps objections before speaking to your team. In doing so, you prep yourself for any push-back.
The RevOps movement is unstoppable. As a result, you risk more by not adapting as your company competes against businesses which already transitioned. So, you have a role to play in making this approach as successful as possible for your business. Even if you believe your current processes are already as effective as possible, you can still improve. Again, the more companies that get on board with RevOps, the tougher it becomes for your company to remain stationary. So, let’s explore the most common RevOps objections.
1. Not Everyone Can Be an Expert in All Areas
One of the core elements of revenue operations is multi-disciplined knowledge. For instance, you have people who bring different skills to teams. So, you have experts in sales, marketing, and operations working together—not apart. Yes, RevOps teams are indeed much more cross-functional. But RevOps is not about everyone being an expert in everything. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of revenue operations. Instead, RevOps teams draw on members’ expertise because information and decisions get made on company-wide data. The broader skill sets within teams are a key to a successful RevOps transformation.
2. It’s Too Expensive for the Business
This is a concern often raised by teams that have operated together for a long time. New tools, processes, and systems may be expensive in the short term. But the cost of not changing is even more costly. What’s more, these expenses are often one-time for transition. For instance, you may have upfront costs if you want to convert to a single integrated tech stack. However, the longer-term costs of compartmentalized data and inefficiencies are much more. Moreover, with companies shifting to revenue operations, your company could lose millions.
3. Revenue Operations is Too Risky
This concern often comes from teams that feel they don’t have the time to make the transition. While a RevOps transformation is indeed a change, it’s no riskier than any other change. In fact, done right, a RevOps transformation allows you a more significant competitive advantage. Further, it makes your business more flexible and adaptable in a changing industry. As we know, agility is the secret sauce for winning in the information era. Companies unable to change and stay ahead of the curve risk falling behind the competition. RevOps allows you to deliver business value while adapting to changing market conditions and advancements in technology.
4. There are Too Many Moving Parts to RevOps
This concern gets raised by managers who are relatively new to the concept of RevOps. They’re concerned about harming their current workflows. Or they believe that transforming to RevOps is overcomplicated. (Hint: it’s not). As a leader, you can overcome these RevOps objections. For instance, take the time to identify which parts of your current workflow. Explain how the organization will change in stages. Find constants (e.g., jobs) and demonstrate that while things will change, others won’t. This clarity helps focus efforts and eliminate unnecessary complexity.
5. It’s Too Much Change for the Business
Again, this concern gets raised by teams that don’t understand the benefits of RevOps. Therefore, it’s vital to inform people. However, successful companies have transitioned to RevOps. Moreover, they’ve experienced improved workflows, tools, and culture as their organization and context have changed. A critical difference between successful RevOps teams and less successful ones is how quickly and effectively they adapt. So, one of the essential things to do while transforming is to communicate well.
6. We Need to Show RevOps Progress to Management
Teams with a long-standing reputation for excellence may express this concern. Also, it happens with teams that have a high level of technical expertise. They worry that showing progress to management is difficult because decision-makers are used to seeing results using standard approaches. However, RevOps is about creating an ecosystem of data from every area of a business. As a result, companies that transitioned to RevOps have produced even more insightful data for management. The key is that any progress you make will be part of a more extensive transformation to RevOps, not just a process change.
7. What if We Change the Workflows?
The concern in this situation is workflow and productivity. Again, when things change, there’s a concern about adverse risks. However, changing the workflow and processes is one of the best aspects of RevOps. In short, everything merges into one informed environment. So, as you transform, you can overcome these fears. For one, identify the workflow changes that would have the biggest positive impact on the business. The chances are that those areas have been the most significant challenges. Second, support the change agents in your business as you shift.
8. We’re Too Invested in Our Current Business Tools
This concern relates to the use of current tools with the new methods. Is it more expensive to remain with a complicated tech stack for your business? Wouldn’t it be better to have technology that genuinely creates an integrated data ecosystem? How about the silos and little territories of control? Isn’t that more expensive for your business in the long run? The key to overcoming this objection is to focus on how RevOps allows for better decisions and agility. Sure, it may be possible to do this with your current tools. But it’s much easier and more strategic to do it with revenue operations.
Don’t Let Your Business Be Overpowered by Ceaseless Change
As a company, you’re not exactly strangers to change. Your team has been through it all at some point in business. As we know, change in the modern business environment is relentless. That’s just the way things go. And as a leader, it’s your job to lead people forward in an environment that’s not 100% known. Nothing’s ever an entirely known quantity.
Change can be overwhelming. Remember, change is exciting. It’s also inevitable, and it’s something that every company faces. So, how can your company prepare for continuous change? There’s just one primary rule—go with it. The second rule, make sure you have all the data for the best decisions. That’s what revenue operations give you so you can navigate change better.
Ben Stroup is Chief Growth Architect and President at Velocity Strategy Solutions where he helps leaders design, develop, and deploy smarter business growth strategies. Ben is a futurist, disruptor, and data champion. He leads a team that takes a structured learning approach to business challenges, which allows them to assist leaders in bridging the gap between ideas, innovation, and revenue—taking ideas from mind to market.
Velocity Strategy Solutions is an on-demand, next-generation business strategy and management consulting firm which provides clients with a relentless focus on data, execution, and results that positively impact the bottom line. Velocity delivers integrated people and revenue strategies combined with a disciplined approach to growth architecture that elevates the capacity of leaders, teams, and organizations to succeed and win more.