Revenue Operations vs Sales Operations: What makes them different?

What is revenue operations?

So, what exactly is revenue operations, or RevOps? Revenue operations is about increasing revenue by ensuring sales, marketing, and customer success teams are working like a well-oiled machine. It breaks down the barriers that typically keep these departments in their own little bubbles, getting everyone on the same page with shared goals, data, and tech. This means smoother handoffs between teams, resulting in a better, more cohesive customer experience throughout their journey. In a nutshell, RevOps steps back to see the big picture, aligns teams, enhances the customer experience, and clears out any roadblocks slowing things down.

What are RevOps' tasks?

If you're accustomed to a standard organizational structure, you might wonder, "Where does RevOps fit in?" and "Who's in charge of the whole customer journey?"

That’s where things can get messy. Without someone overseeing the big picture, it’s easy for each department to accidentally create a disjointed experience for customers. And this isn’t just a theory—cross-department collaboration is one of the main problems for B2B marketers, with sales and marketing alignment ranking high on the list of pain points, too.

That’s why the main job of Revenue Ops when comparing SalesOps vs Revenue Ops is to smooth out the entire customer journey and keep all departments working together. Think of it like SalesOps, but on a larger scale—RevOps isn’t just removing roadblocks for sales but for every touchpoint a customer encounters.

Another key responsibility of RevOps? Managing data, technology, and forecasts related to revenue, becoming the company’s go-to source for accurate information. It’s easy for departments to have conflicting goals—marketing wants more leads, sales is pushing for deals, and customer success is focused on satisfaction. RevOps steps in to align these goals and ensure everyone’s working from the same playbook.

With the rise of subscription-based revenue models, RevOps has become crucial. In today’s world, keeping customers happy across their entire journey is a must-have.

What is sales operations?

What is SalesOps all about? Think of it as your team's backbone, ensuring they’ve got everything they need to crush their goals. SalesOps works behind the scenes to ensure everything runs effortlessly, from delivering critical sales data to fine-tuning processes. They handle territory mapping, sales forecasting, and building the right tech stack to boost efficiency. They even pitch in with recruiting, onboarding, and training, making life easier for sales enablement. By cutting down on time-wasting admin tasks, SalesOps allows the sales staff to focus on the thing they do best: closing deals. That function of SalesOps makes the main difference between RevOps and SalesOps. In short, it’s all about building the right strategy so your team can hit those KPIs and bring in the wins!

What are SalesOps' tasks?

The SalesOps motto? "Boost the sales team's effectiveness." It is the key point of the sales operations vs revenue operations comparison.

Their primary responsibility is to assist your sales representatives and resolve any difficulties that arise. Whether it’s tidying up lead data, refining pipeline processes, or simplifying the tech tools, SalesOps is all about boosting efficiency. 

They also tackle tasks that need a bigger-picture perspective than what an individual rep might have. Take sales forecasting, for example—no single rep can predict future sales alone. That’s where SalesOps swoops in, pulling together data from across the team to craft those all-important sales projections.

What are the major distinctions between RevOps and SalesOps?

While RevOps and SalesOps share some common ground—like streamlining processes and optimizing tech stacks—there are a few key differences that set them apart. 

Who they serve

The biggest difference between revenue vs sales operations? The departments they support. SalesOps is laser-focused on helping the sales team, whereas RevOps casts a wider net, working with sales, marketing, and customer success. Since they serve different stakeholders, their goals and priorities differ. SalesOps is all about sales efficiency, while RevOps examines the overall revenue pipeline.

Impact on customers

Because of this, their impact on customers is also different. Sales operations improves the relationship between your sales representatives and customers, making sure deals close smoothly. But once that deal is done? That’s where RevOps comes in, ensuring the entire customer journey—from marketing to sales to customer success—is seamless. They’re focused on creating a great experience for customers, even after the sale.

Revenue approach  

What is the difference between sales and revenue operations when it comes to revenue approach? SalesOps is all about closing deals and helping sellers sell more, but it doesn’t focus much on finding new leads or tapping into other revenue streams. RevOps, on the other hand, works across the board—partnering with marketing to bring in fresh leads and with customer success to retain and upsell to current customers. They’re not just about closing deals but expanding and nurturing revenue opportunities long-term.

Focus areas

SalesOps hones in on internal processes, data, and improving communication within the sales team. They handle things like CRM organization and simplifying sales workflows. Their work is vital but tends to be behind the scenes. RevOps, however, has a more direct impact on customers. They’re responsible for high-level strategy, tool management, forecasting, and sales enablement, with their work often resulting in visible changes in the customer experience.

Key metrics 

The two roles track different metrics but sometimes overlap. SalesOps prioritizes efficiency indicators such as time spent selling, tool usage, and data entry. RevOps keeps an eye on those too, but they’re more concerned with broader revenue-related metrics, like win rates or average sales prices. On top of that, RevOps is accountable for other departments' data, such as churn rates, customer lifetime value, and recurring revenue. 

In short, in this revenue operations vs sales operations comparison, SalesOps focuses on making the sales team more efficient, while RevOps is all about aligning multiple departments to drive long-term growth and optimization of the complete client journey. Recognizing the major differences between revenue and sales operations is important to enhancing departmental productivity and overall revenue growth.