Traits of operationally mature organizations: what you might be missing

Do you have a sneaking suspicion that your RevOps organization may be a little … operationally immature? Operational maturity refers to how efficiently an organization operates, but understanding what causes inefficiencies (immaturity) is complex.

Openprise and our partners RevOps Co-op and MarketingOps.com conducted a comprehensive study surveying marketing and RevOps professionals to identify what traits operationally mature organizations possess. Responses from professionals across various skills and seniority levels revealed a unique combination of traits and skill sets that lead to operational maturity.

But before we get into the details, let’s look at how operational maturity is defined.

RevOps Data Automation: Understanding operational maturity

In assessing an organization’s operational maturity, three foundational questions are used for measurement:

• Are teams aligned on GTM with shared KPIs, metrics, and goals?
• Is data management effective, ensuring data cleanliness and seamless data automation?
• Does the team maintain accurate real-time data across all platforms using a robust RevTech stack?

Operational maturity measures how efficiently departments, processes, technology, and people operate. It indicates how well an organization’s ability to generate revenue, adapt to the market, and use data to achieve its goals.

It starts with go-to-market alignment

Early mature organizations share one common trait with each other – misalignment. It takes many forms within organizations and presents itself in different ways. The most common characteristics that cause misalignment are:

• Miscommunication between leadership
• Inefficiencies in team handoffs
• Differing interpretations of data
• Misaligned goals

Dysfunction leads to operational immaturity. According to our survey, teams that demonstrated excellent alignment said they were satisfied with their ability to:

• Add relevant details to customer and prospect data
• Automate manual processes in RevOps Data Automation
• Rely on their tools’ accuracy
• Clean customer and prospect data

The same teams also said they have higher confidence in the following skills:

• Translating business needs to system requirements
• Building and documenting processes
• Implementing account-based marketing initiatives

Investing in the right technology, like automation, and skills is one pathway toward operational maturity in go-to-market initiatives.

Leveraging RevOps Automation for efficient data management

Manually “Fixing,” data is a recipe for disaster. Operationally mature organizations let automation tech manage data for them. Automation frees up operation specialists’ time so they can focus more on deeper issues rather than manually crunching numbers.

Our survey reported that teams with elite data management skills place high satisfaction in their ability to:

• Efficiently clean customer and prospect data
• Match, score, and route leads quickly
• Rely on their tools’ accuracy
• Automate manual processes in RevOps

They also reported high confidence in the following skills:

• Data analysis
• RevTech management and optimization
• Data reporting and governance

No two organizations operate the same. However, good technology and expanding skill sets go hand in hand with every company seeking operational maturity.

Optimizing your RevTech stack for operational maturity

In an ideal world, every organization’s RevTech Stack is smoothly integrated and accurately reflects real-time data. The reality is that’s rarely the case.

Only eight percent of our study respondents reported that their tools were fully integrated and optimized. The teams with the most mature RevTech stacks reported high satisfaction in their ability to:

• Easily attribute marketing efforts to revenue
• Trust the accuracy of the tools their teams often use
• Match, score, and route leads quickly

These same teams attributed their success to the following skills:

• RevTech management and optimization
• Data analysis
• Process building and documentation

Teams with mature RevTech stacks possess meticulous process-building traits and data analysis skills that contribute to their operational maturity.

Continuous learning is essential for RevOps professionals

Investing time in learning new skills is hard when RevOps is always changing. We sought to understand how busy ops professionals carve out time in their day to upskill. Here are the top five sources ops professionals use to learn:

1. Blogs/newsletters
2. Webinars
3. Self-paced online
4. Online forums
5. In-person training

Operations professionals often join communities like MarketingOps.com or the RevOps Co-op to learn from industry peers. It’s a great way to close knowledge gaps quickly and stay in the loop with everything RevOps. They offer upskilling opportunities through:

• On-demand certification programs
• Webinars and newsletters
• Mentorship programs
• Online forums
• Advanced systems and analytics training

Reach operational maturity in 2024 through Data Automation

Our 2024 State of RevOps survey is a peer-informed guide that examines what operations professionals value most in RevOps. It offers a holistic RevOps roadmap for ops professionals to use as a tool to advocate for more resources, training, and growth.

Curious to see how your organization’s operational maturity stacks up against the competition? Take our RevOps health check today to see where your organization stands, and learn more about what operational maturity traits your organization might be missing.

Recommended Resources