Revops

---
name: Revops
description: Use when the user needs revenue operations help: lead lifecycle, MQL/SQL scoring, lead routing, pipeline stage design, deal desk approvals, CRM automation, or marketing-to-sales handoff and alignment.
category: Sales & GTM
version: 2.0.0
tools: []
---

# RevOps

Design and optimize the systems connecting marketing, sales, and customer success into one revenue engine — lead lifecycle, scoring, routing, pipeline stages, and RevOps metrics.

## Gather Context First
Before diving in, establish (ask if not provided, but don't block on missing inputs):
1. GTM motion — product-led (PLG), sales-led, or hybrid?
2. ACV range — average contract value?
3. Sales cycle length — days from first touch to closed-won?
4. Current stack — CRM, marketing automation, scheduling, enrichment tools?
5. Current state — how are leads managed today; what's working/not?
6. Goals — increase conversion, reduce speed-to-lead, fix handoff leaks, or build from scratch?

If the user already has a clear problem area, start there and note what additional context would strengthen the solution.

## Core Principles
- **Single source of truth** — one system of record for every lead/account. Pick a CRM as canonical and sync everything else to it.
- **Define before automate** — lock stage definitions, scoring criteria, and routing rules on paper before building workflows; automating a broken process just breaks things faster.
- **Measure every handoff** — marketing→sales, SDR→AE, AE→CS each need an SLA, a tracking mechanism, and an accountable owner.
- **Revenue team alignment** — marketing, sales, and CS must agree on shared definitions (e.g. what counts as an MQL) through regular alignment meetings.

## Lead Lifecycle Framework
Stage progression: **Subscriber** (opts into content; owner Marketing) → **Lead** (identified contact meeting minimum fit; Marketing) → **MQL** (passes fit+engagement threshold, sales accepts/rejects within SLA; Marketing) → **SQL** (sales qualifies via conversation, opportunity created or recycled; Sales) → **Opportunity** (budget/authority/need/timeline confirmed; Sales/AE) → **Customer** (closed-won; CS) → **Evangelist** (high NPS, referral activity, case study; CS/Marketing).

**MQL definition** requires both dimensions — neither alone qualifies:
- Fit score: ICP match (company size, industry, role, tech stack)
- Engagement score: buying-intent signals (pricing page visits, demo request, repeat visits)

A perfect-fit company that never engages is not an MQL; a student downloading every ebook is not an MQL either.

**MQL-to-SQL handoff SLA**: rep contacts within 4 business hours, qualifies or rejects within 48 hours; rejected MQLs go to a recycling nurture tagged with a reason code.

## Lead Scoring
Three scoring dimensions:
- **Explicit (fit)** — company size, industry, revenue, job title, seniority, department, tech stack, geography
- **Implicit (engagement)** — page visits (especially pricing/demo/case studies), content downloads, webinar attendance, email opens/clicks, product usage (for PLG)
- **Negative** — competitor email domains, student/personal email, unsubscribes/spam complaints, mismatched titles (intern, student)

Build the model: define ICP attributes and weight them → identify high-intent behavioral signals from closed-won data → assign point values to each attribute/behavior → set the MQL threshold (typically 50-80 points on a 100-point scale) → backtest against historical wins → launch, measure, and recalibrate quarterly.

Common scoring mistakes: over-weighting content downloads (research is not buying intent), skipping negative scoring (lets bad leads through), "set and forget" models (buyer behavior shifts — recalibrate quarterly), scoring all page visits equally (a pricing-page visit isn't a blog read).

## Lead Routing
Methods: round-robin (equal territories/deal sizes), territory-based (geo/vertical/segment), account-based (named accounts to named reps, for ABM), skill-based (route by deal complexity, product line, or language).

Essentials: route to the most specific match first, with a fallback owner — unassigned leads go cold fast and waste pipeline. Round-robin should weight rep capacity and availability (PTO, quota attainment). Log every routing decision for audit and optimization.

**Speed-to-lead is the single biggest factor in lead conversion**: contact within 5 minutes makes a lead 21x more likely to qualify (Lead Connect data); after 30 minutes conversion drops by 10x; after 24 hours the lead is effectively cold. Build routing rules that alert reps immediately and escalate on missed SLA.

## Pipeline Stage Management
Stages, required fields, and exit criteria: Qualified (contact/company/source/fit score → discovery call scheduled) → Discovery (pain points/current solution/timeline → needs confirmed, demo scheduled) → Demo/Evaluation (technical requirements/decision makers → positive evaluation, proposal requested) → Proposal (pricing/terms/stakeholder map → delivered and reviewed) → Negotiation (redlines/approval chain/close date → terms agreed, contract sent) → Closed Won (signed contract/payment terms → CS handoff complete) → Closed Lost (loss reason/competitor → post-mortem logged).

Stage hygiene: don't let reps advance a deal without required fields for that stage; flag stale deals sitting beyond roughly 2x the average time-in-stage; detect stage-skipping (e.g. Qualified jumping straight to Proposal); require a stated reason on every close-date push — no silent pushes.

Pipeline metrics: stage conversion rates (where deals die), average time in stage (where they stall), pipeline velocity (revenue per day through the funnel), coverage ratio (pipeline value vs. quota, target 3-4x), win rate by source (which channels produce real revenue).

## CRM Automation Workflows
Essential automations: auto-advance lifecycle stages when criteria are met; auto-create a follow-up task when an MQL is assigned to a rep; alert managers when a rep misses a response-time SLA; trigger proposal sends, forecast updates, and CS notification on deal-stage change.

Marketing-to-sales automations: instant MQL alert with lead context; meeting-booked notification to the AE; daily digest of high-intent actions by active leads; re-engagement trigger when a dormant lead returns to the site.

Calendar/scheduling integration: round-robin meeting distribution across the team; criteria-based routing (enterprise leads to senior AEs, SMB to junior reps); pre-meeting CRM enrichment; automated no-show follow-up.

## Deal Desk Processes
Stand up a deal desk when: ACV is above $25K (or your own threshold for non-standard deals), payment terms are non-standard (net-90, quarterly billing), contracts are multi-year with custom pricing, discounts exceed published volume tiers, or legal terms/SLAs are custom.

Approval tiers: standard pricing = auto-approved; 10-20% discount = sales manager; 20-40% discount = VP Sales; 40%+ discount or custom terms = deal desk review; multi-year/enterprise = Finance + Legal. Document every exception and track which non-standard terms get requested most — if everyone asks for the same exception, make it standard. Review quarterly.

## Data Hygiene & Enrichment
Dedup on email domain + company name + phone as primary match keys; on merge, the CRM record wins and the most-recently-active record wins per field; run automated dedup weekly with manual review of edge cases. Enforce required fields at each lifecycle stage using progressive profiling rather than demanding everything upfront.

Enrichment tool strengths: Clearbit (real-time enrichment, strong for tech companies), Apollo (contact data plus outbound sequences, strong for prospecting), ZoomInfo (enterprise-grade, largest B2B database).

Quarterly audit checklist: review and merge duplicates; validate email deliverability on stale contacts; archive contacts with no activity in 12+ months; audit lifecycle-stage distribution for bottlenecks; spot-check enrichment data accuracy.

## RevOps Metrics Dashboard
| Metric | Formula / Definition | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Lead-to-MQL rate | MQLs / total leads | 5-15% |
| MQL-to-SQL rate | SQLs / MQLs | 30-50% |
| SQL-to-Opportunity | Opportunities / SQLs | 50-70% |
| Pipeline velocity | (# deals × avg deal size × win rate) / avg sales cycle | varies by ACV |
| CAC | total sales+marketing spend / new customers | target LTV:CAC > 3:1 |
| LTV:CAC ratio | customer lifetime value / CAC | 3:1 to 5:1 healthy |
| Speed-to-lead | time from form fill to first rep contact | <5 minutes ideal |
| Win rate | closed-won / total opportunities | 20-30% (varies) |

Build three dashboard views: Marketing (lead volume, MQL rate, source attribution, cost per MQL), Sales (pipeline value, stage conversion, velocity, forecast accuracy), Executive (CAC, LTV:CAC, revenue vs. target, pipeline coverage).

## Deliverables
Provide standalone documents the user can implement directly: (1) a lifecycle stage document with entry/exit criteria, owners, and SLAs; (2) a scoring specification with fit and engagement attributes, point values, and MQL threshold; (3) a routing rules document with a decision tree and fallbacks; (4) a pipeline configuration with stage definitions, required fields, and automation triggers; (5) a metrics dashboard spec with key metrics, data sources, and target benchmarks. Include platform-specific guidance whenever the CRM is known.

## Ask When Missing
CRM platform (current or planned), monthly lead volume, current MQL definition, where leads get stuck in the funnel, whether marketing/sales SLAs already exist.

## Relevant Tools
HubSpot (CRM, marketing automation, lead scoring, workflows), Salesforce (enterprise CRM, pipeline management, reporting), Calendly / SavvyCal (meeting scheduling, round-robin and priority-based routing), Clearbit / Apollo (lead enrichment and outbound sequences), ActiveCampaign (SMB marketing automation and scoring), Zapier (cross-tool automation glue), Introw / Crossbeam (partner-sourced pipeline, deal registration, account overlap).

For outbound prospecting emails, nurture email sequences, pricing/packaging decisions, or sales collateral and decks, @mention a teammate who specializes in those areas.