What Is a Revenue Team?

When many of us hear the term salesperson, we cringe. We immediately think of all the times we’ve been talked into something or upsold, ending up as unhappy customers with buyer’s remorse. 

But this is an outdated and stereotypical view that doesn’t bear much resemblance to the best salespeople in the game today. 

Modern sales professionals — at least the most effective — are more focused on educating and guiding than selling. They are about helping customers to make the best decisions for them, not bamboozling them into buying something they don’t need.

This modern approach to sales is much more closely aligned with marketing than it was in the past.

And so it should be. 

The sales and marketing overlap

Sales can learn from marketing — and marketing can learn from sales. Indeed, they should work together. 

This means a more consistent customer experience, better marketing materials, and sales process built on education and trust.  

When you look at the numbers, the case for fostering sales and marketing alignment in a company speaks for itself.

Outfunnel’s Revenue Marketing Report found that small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) “that struggle with disjointed marketing and sales teams are twice as likely to miss revenue goals, while those with great alignment more commonly exceed them.”

Even more striking, the same report found 58% of sales and marketing professionals don’t feel well aligned, a significant increase from 46% just last year.

Working with hundreds of organizations across the world, we’ve found that one of the best ways to align marketing and sales is to establish what we call a revenue team.

Modern sales and marketing teams are working toward the same goal

It’s estimated that 70% of the buying decision happens in the research phase, before a prospect even dreams of reaching out to someone in sales. In fact, 88% of all buyers are doing online research before they make a purchase of any kind, whether through a search engine or an AI tool.

In other words, marketing lays the foundation for sales to build upon.

Sales needs to inform marketing of what customers are looking for.  Marketing then needs to create the right content and experience around this information. Then, sales needs to close the leads marketing delivers based on this.

This interdependence is why the two departments need to work together. 

Considering the numbers above, giving revenue growth responsibility to the sales team alone doesn’t make sense. By the time prospects have gotten in touch with sales, the majority of their decision has already been made.

Similarly, marketing can’t hold the full responsibility as if they don’t know what works from the sales team, the content and experiences they create will just be educated guesses. 

With the way modern buyers make purchases, operating in silos is no longer an option for sales and marketing.

But how do you actually align sales and marketing?

The power of the ‘Revenue Team’

Tactically speaking, a revenue team is a group of key players from your sales and marketing teams that collaborate around the shared goal of increasing revenue through traffic, leads, and sales.

Yes, some people on the team will be more focused on marketing efforts (e.g. creating content) or sales efforts (e.g. closing deals). But the team acts as one, identifying and working towards their common goal.

For instance, say you’re responsible for the development, implementation, and oversight of content strategy (both written and video), as well as the management of your content team.

That won’t change when you join the revenue team. Instead, your role within the revenue team and the conversations that come out of it (more on that shortly), will strongly influence how you do your job.

The revenue team primarily focuses on getting sales and marketing on the same page. This means:

• Sales keeps marketing up to date on the questions they are being asked by buyers.
• Marketing keeps sales up to date on the content that’s being produced. 
• The revenue team determines what sales enablement content needs to come next.

Outside of the meeting:

• Sales reps make themselves available to aid in content creation.
• Sales uses content created in the sales process (or in what we call assignment selling).
• Marketing monitors content performance so they can refine the strategy.

Overall, instead of two competing teams with independent priorities, the members of this singular unit work together to achieve their mutual goal of revenue growth through true collaboration, information-sharing, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

The benefits of a revenue team

The success of a revenue team leads to a number of benefits. Let’s break them down and what they look like at an organization: 

More effective marketing content

• The sales team heavily influences the editorial calendar and content prioritization.
• Better content means better leads, more educated customers, and smoother sales.
• You can finally tie revenue to marketing efforts.

Optimized sales cycle

• The length of the sales cycle decreases, as leads become prospects and prospects become customers faster than before.
• Customers feel more trusting toward a company that educates instead of pitches.
• Many of the questions once answered face-to-face (or at least by a human in sales) can now be answered by content on your website that is easily self-discovered by visitors. 

Better alignment

• Sales and marketing teams are fully aligned, trust each other, and have mutual respect. Once per week meetings mean they have an open line of communication.
• The sales team understands and sees the value of its role in creating content that drives revenue.
• Salespeople are more fulfilled and happier in their roles.
• Marketers see more value in their work, taking pride in the direct connection between what they produce and the revenue generated for their company.

How to run a successful revenue team meeting

The revenue team meeting is the foundation of your group’s collaboration and, honestly, it’s where the magic happens.

A successful revenue team meeting depends on six things:

1. Understand the purpose
2. Ensure the right cross-section of people are involved in the revenue team
3. Decide how often the revenue team will meet
4. Set the revenue team meeting agenda
5. Have a revenue team meeting facilitator
6. Ensure there is a way to communicate outside of the revenue team meeting 

If you can check those six boxes, you’ll have the right people in the right place working on the right things. 

Ready to get started?

The revenue team is an essential antidote to the age-old scourge of modern business:  Siloed teams with competing agendas that never see eye to eye.

But we know that this article only scratches the surface. You’ll need to know more to put everything into place.

You can dive into all the details as well as sample agendas in this full article “How to Run a Revenue Meeting.”