Where is RevOps heading next? To find out, we went straight to the experts, with over 80 RevOps professionals sharing their forward-looking insights with us.
Their predictions reveal that RevOps is fast establishing itself as an essential C-suite capability for long-term commercial success.
Read on to discover the future trends and trajectory for RevOps based on insights from our community. From growth into leadership roles to AI adoption, it’s an exciting outlook!
Let’s explore the four major ways our expert community sees revenue operations evolving over the coming years:
#1: A permanent spot at the leadership table
The most resounding prediction from our survey was around RevOps securing enduring influence in executive-level decisions:
“I expect that the sector will continue to grow, and become a much stronger voice in the strategy AND execution of commercial plans.”
Why this call? As RevOps demonstrates the ability to consistently impact revenue results, trust in their insights amplifies. This then allows leadership to lean more heavily on RevOps to connect data to key planning tradeoffs.
One leader explained further:
“You're going to have this big, concurrent vertical, with go-to-market, that’s separate so that you can ideate, and you can make recommendations without having the bias of go-to-market sales.”
This “neutral zone” allows objective data-based guidance on commercial growth planning, sans channel bias. The unique positioning unlocks impact.
Additional signs our experts see of this enduring leadership influence are:
- RevOps taking on increasing ownership of revenue strategy formulation and modeling.
- More informational and planning meetings being driven by RevOps insights.
- Leaders across sales, marketing, services and product synchronizing plans based on RevOps data patterns.
As one expert succinctly put - “Becoming a meld of strategy & sales/traditional operations.” In other words - a permanent seat at the table.
Ella Harrison
#2: Proliferation across industries
Another consistent prediction was around RevOps expanding beyond tech and SaaS companies into wider global markets.
“Being formalized across more organizations” summarized the theme best.
Why the call? As awareness grows for RevOps acceleration of results, more sectors adapt the systems and human capabilities, and we’ll see the function permeate across:
- Wider software verticals (Fintech, HealthTech, EdTech),
- Services businesses,
- Manufacturing,
- And more.
No longer just for scaling startups, RevOps will become adopted by mature global enterprises as well. For those companies playing catch up, it fast becomes obvious as a requirement to compete.
Early tech adopters served as the pioneers, but in coming years, RevOps will be formally organized across the majority of businesses laser-focused on revenue growth.
Rebecca Stewart
#3: Rising into chief & executive ranks
Another bold yet recurring prediction - RevOps leaders will be increasingly transitioning into GM, CRO, and even CEO roles.
“RevOps will become the path to CRO and executive leadership positions” summarized one of our leaders.
The comprehensive commercial capabilities clearly translate, but why is RevOps so equipped for broader leadership?
Namely the full-spectrum view of the revenue engine – leaders with both detailed metrics grasp and integrated business planning vision are rare. RevOps cultivates exactly this.
Revenue operations has already proven executive presence, and it’s growing influence demonstrates the ability to drive alignment at the leadership table already.
As one leader elaborated:
“In forward-minded companies, I see them starting to take someone that's been a revenue operations leader with the right background and moving them into that CRO role to run sales, marketing, and customer success throughout the entire organization.”
The CRO role expands beyond sales, into truly integrated ownership of the revenue engine, and RevOps provides precisely this perspective.
“I think that RevOps is uniquely placed to be the persons (along with the CEO) that think about the whole GTM business, so we are going to see more and more CEOs with a RevOps background."
The extensive commercial capabilities make RevOps a breeding ground for general management executives - potentially even more so than traditional channels.
Ella Harrison
#4: Leveraging AI to scale impact exponentially
Another predominant RevOps vision for 2024 - the harnessing of artificial intelligence and machine learning to streamline processes for improved scalability:
"Using AI to streamline the daunting and excessive manual admin tasks.”
Specifically, our experts predict the continued offloading of analytics, reporting, and forecasting responsibilities onto technology. As one explained:
“I think if you take a hierarchy of a company and you split it up into three, within the mid to lower levels revenue operations is booming. It's one of the most important roles in a company and the C-suite recognizes that."
By delegating these complex yet essential data tasks to AI, immense human capacity frees up in RevOps teams. This brain power can then be redirected towards higher-level commercial strategy planning, modeling, and decision support.
One leader elaborated on why advanced AI adoption accelerates overall RevOps impact exponentially:
"Revenue operations is going to become less a piece of the puzzle, and more of a side of the puzzle.
"That's going to be a really important development that will help not only revenue operators, but it will also give a huge surge to people who are generalists. This old-school type of role is now being reinvented in a technical sense."
The amplification of human strategic abilities combined with the scalability of machine learning delivers this future exponential growth trajectory for RevOps leaders.
Stewart Townsend
The future looks bright for RevOps!
While the future remains unpredictable, our RevOps community see a bright path ahead.
They predict increased strategic influence, greater adoption of AI, and growth into widespread formalized teams across businesses. We even see RevOps leaders rising into GM and CEO roles in some cases!
The function is still evolving quickly, but has firmly established itself as a crucial capability. It will only cement itself further as an indispensable component for scaling sustainable revenue.
Thank you to all the RevOps professionals who contributed their forward-focused insights! We look forward to seeing how accurate your predictions turn out to be.
