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    Revenue Operating System

    A revenue operating system is one connected process for planning revenue, generating demand, executing against the plan and measuring the result, so a company can forecast instead of hoping.

    You cannot forecast your way out of leaky execution or absent governance. You can only forecast the leak more precisely. (read where we wrote it)

    In Growth Strategy: Deepen the Core, Build Demand

    Mainly for

    About 2Quarters before revenue moves, on a three-month sales cycle

    Where is a revenue number won or lost?

    Revenue is the result of five things done in order. When it misses, the money usually goes into more leads, even when the deals were dying three stages further down.

    The bigger the circle, the more of the number is won or lost there.

    1. Plan

      Break the target into pipeline, conversion, deal length and trained sales capacity. If it will not break down, nobody can work to it.

      Revenue planning

    2. Demand

      Pipeline built a quarter ahead, to the size the plan needs. More leads do not fix deals that die further down.

      Demand generation

    3. Sales

      Stages set by what the buyer did, so two people would put a deal in the same place. Here the pipeline turns into revenue, or leaks.

      Revenue executionPricing

    4. Review

      A monthly review that ends in a decision: a number, a named owner, a threshold. Without it, every other fix fades.

      Revenue governanceMIS

    5. Predictability

      What comes out when the other four work: a number you can promise an investor and then deliver.

      Revenue predictability

    Which five parts make a revenue system?

    A plan, the demand that feeds it, an owner each month, the right measures, and a number you can predict.

    How we work

    Plan in months of trained salespeople, not headcount. Someone who joins in month seven gives you a fraction of a year, and less than that at full speed.

    Sriram Chidambaram, in Revenue planning: a target you can actually work with

    Where next in Revenue Operating System?

    Revenue Operating System pages

    • How we workA revenue number the whole company owns

      We build the revenue plan from sales capacity, conversion and pipeline, and tie marketing and sales to it. Each month, someone owns the gap between plan and actual.

    • InsightsInsights on revenue

      Our team writes about running revenue as one system, from the plan to the monthly review that keeps the forecast honest.